Tucker Carlson Has Made Some Really Offensive Remarks About Women

On an MSNBC segment in 2006, Carlson actually accused Democrats of creating the concept of sexual harassment to villify the Republican Party.

This is a group that made up the concept of sexual harassment. "You look great today." "Boom! I'm charging you with a crime!"

This tone-deaf statement suggests that women over-exaggerate claims of harassment, and should simply learn to take a compliment. This type of thinking can lead to victim blaming, and doesn't hold men accountable for making sexually explicit remarks to female colleagues.

When challenging Teen Vogue writer Lauren Duca about her op-ed "Donald Trump Is Gaslighting America," Carlson condescendingly mansplained Duca's own article to her, repeatedly claiming that she didn't know the meaning of the word "sovereignty" and that she shouldn't be taken seriously since she has previously written articles about One Direction and Ariana Grande's thigh-high boots.

You should stick to the thigh-high boots. You're better at that.

Carlson seemed to think that because Duca writes for a female-oriented teen magazine and is interested in pop culture, she couldn't possibly have a single intelligent thing to say about politics, which contributes to the horrible idea that women should stay out of the political arena and focus instead on celebrity gossip.

While an editor at the Daily Caller, Carlson received an email request from Amy Spitalnick, a spokesperson for New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, to make a correction to a previously published article. After numerous email exchanges between Spitalnick and a writer for the website, Carlson jumped in to explain to Spitalnick why her requests were not being taken seriously. He wrote in an email:

What [editor Christopher] Bedford complained about was your tone, which, I have to agree, was whiny and annoying, and I say that in the spirit of helpful correction rather than as a criticism. Outside of New York City, adults generally write polite, cheerful emails to one another, even when asking for corrections. Something to keep in mind the next time you communicate with people who don't live on your island.

Aside from the extremely condescending tone that treats Spitalnick as a child who needs to be taught proper etiquette, Carlson perpetuates the stereotype that female professionals, when making requests of male colleagues, are being bossy and whiny. This makes it much harder for women to be taken seriously or respected in the workplace.

On a Fox News panel about the gender pay gap in 2014, Carlson claimed "the losers in the Obama economy have been men," and that women actually make more money than men "if you adjust for the time they take off voluntarily."

He went on to say that Democrats and Republicans need to stop "pandering to women," despite the fact that even three years later in 2017, women still make only approximately 83 cents per every dollar that men earn for equal work.

Carlson criticized the Obama administration in 2013 for endorsing an initiative that would allow women to serve in combat while also reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, a bill that protects women from domestic abuse. Carlson confusingly attempts to create a corollary between the two, when clearly there is none. Women have as much of a right to serve their countries as men do, just as they have a human right to be protected from violence and abuse.

"Feminism's latest victory: the right to get your limbs blown off in war," Carlson tweeted. "Congratulations."

As editor for the Daily Caller, Carlson was frequently criticized for featuring sexually explicit photos of women on his website. Headlines like "Hot Women Eating Cereal [SLIDESHOW]" were a daily occurrence. When a woman confronted Carlson about this on his talk show in 2014, calling the practice objectifying, Carlson responded.

As a man that has been married 23 years and has three daughters, I like women better than men. But I also believe that beauty is important, and we’re not embarrassed to put things that are beautiful.

He went on to say that "there's nothing serious or creepy about it at all."

When three female members of the cast of Hamilton took the stage at Superbowl LI in February to sing a rendition of "America the Beautiful," they added a line to the patriotic song, singing "And crown thy good with brotherhood — and sisterhood — from sea to shining sea." It was a simple change that lightheartedly expressed the power and significance of female friendships; but for Carlson, it was too "political."

I'm as pro-sisterhood as anybody, more than most women, probably, actually. But what’s the point? The point is to make the person who says it feel virtuous, and I guess maybe it's comforting to them, but what does it add up to? Not a lot. And the rest of us just like to be entertained and hear the songs I grew up with without political statements in them, but we don’t get to do that anymore.

As the new prime-time talk show host of Fox News, Carlson's words matter. He now has the potential to reach almost 4 million viewers on a nightly basis, and his messages have the ability to influence the views of the many Americans who turn exclusively to Fox for their news. So far, Carlson's comments seem to prove that he has a lot of work to do in understanding feminism.