The Fox News-approved guide to being a man
Tim Burchett, a Republican congressman, would like you to know that he is not a straw man. No sir. Speaking to Fox News on Thursday, the Tennessee lawmaker explained that he is a red-blooded American male who does not “drink out of a straw” because “that’s what the women in my house do”. And no self-respecting man wants to be like the women in their house, do they? Yuck.
Why did Burchett feel the need to tell us all what he likes to put in his mouth? Because the Fox News host Jesse Watters has some very strange ideas about masculinity and, back in March, came up with “rules for men”. These include: don’t drink soup in public, don’t cross your legs, don’t drink from a straw (it makes your lips purse in an “effeminate” manner, don’t drink milkshakes and “don’t wave simultaneously with two hands”).
The Fox News host is so proud of these rules that he now has his producer running around Washington DC asking lawmakers their thoughts on Watters’ guide to masculinity. Burchett, as we’ve seen, is fully on board. So is the Missouri senator Josh Hawley, who has written a book called Manhood: The Masculine Virtues America Needs.
Meanwhile, in a stunning example of ClickHole’s “The Worst Person You Know Just Made A Great Point” meme, Ted Cruz seemed a little more dubious. “Jesse Watters has rules for men,” Watters’ producer told Cruz. “He said men should not have male best friends. What do you think?” Cruz replied: “Jesse needs a friend.” I think he needs a lot more than that.
Watters has said his rules for men are just a bit of fun. But it all starts to become a little less funny when you look at the massive impact Fox has on America, and how influential Watters himself is. More than 4 million people tune into Watters’ primetime show and the man is constantly reinforcing toxic ideas about gender. Watters, for example, has suggested that he doesn’t really think fathers are responsible for raising their daughters. “When you raise a son, you are responsible for that son,” Watters said last year. “It’s not like raising a daughter, it’s different.” He’s also denigrated fathers who leave work early to spend time with their children.
Watters, who is on his second marriage, to a much younger woman who was an associate producer on his show at Fox News, also has some very disturbing ideas about how to approach women. Want to know how he courted his second wife? He’s boasted on TV that he let the air out of her car tires. “She couldn’t go anywhere. She needed a lift, I said: ‘Hey, you need a lift?’ She hopped right in the car,” Watters laughed. (He later claimed it was a joke.) By the way, Watters was still married at the time. Fox News likes to style itself as a paragon of family values, but these are the values it promotes.
Again: Watters isn’t just some kook with a niche show. A large body of research shows that Fox News shapes American politics. There is a direct line between the misogyny and rigid gender roles amplified on Fox News and laws that treat women as nothing more than incubators and walking wombs. There’s a direct line between the sort of attitude towards women that Watters espouses and the fact that a brain dead woman in Georgia is being kept alive to carry out her pregnancy because of the state’s abortion ban. Watters may say his rules for men are just a bit of fun, but his viewers are gulping it all down. Obviously without a straw.
Pregnant news anchor stays on air during labor
It’s funny how Watters seems to think “effeminate” is a slur when you’ve got women like the local news co-anchor Olivia Jaquith calmly delivering her newscast even after her labor contractions began. “I’m happy to be here and I’ll stay on the desk for as long as I possibly can,” Jaquith said. “But if I disappear, that’s what’s going on.”
Number of US white nationalist groups falls as their views go mainstream
A new report by the Southern Poverty Law Center found a 5% drop in hate and extremist groups in 2024. The Guardian reports that this “can be attributed to the fact that many feel a lesser sense of urgency to organize, because their beliefs have infiltrated politics, education and society in general”.
‘World-first’ gonorrhoea vaccine to be rolled out in England and Wales
It’s been described as a “landmark moment for sexual health”.
Famous men’s toxic fandoms have become a tool for punishing women
Social media has given Darvo (the “deny, attack, reverse victim and offender” manipulation tactic used by abusers) a whole new dimension, writes the Guardian’s Tayo Bero. “[P]owerful people now have an army of rabid fans ready to do that work for them.”
New clinical guidance calls for pain relief during IUD insertion
TikTok may have played a role in this: over the last few years women have been recording the experience of getting an intrauterine device, sharing it online and discussing how their pain is taken seriously by doctors.
Professional boxer dies at 25 after saying doctors ignored her pain
The British boxer Georgia O’Connor has died after being diagnosed with cancer in January. In an Instagram post shared earlier this year, O’Connor said her pain and concerns about her health had been dismissed. “Not one doctor took me seriously. Not one doctor did the scans or blood tests I begged for whilst crying on the floor in agony,” O’Connor wrote. “Instead, they dismissed me. They gaslit me, told me it was nothing, made me feel like I was overreacting … They REFUSED to listen. One even told me that it’s ‘all in my head.’ And now? Now the cancer has spread.” Studies have shown that women’s pain is often underestimated by doctors.
Indigenous Amazon tribe says New York Times smeared them as porn addicts
The Marubo tribe of the Javari valley is seeking millions of dollars in damages.
Leading genocide experts are unequivocal that what is happening in Gaza is genocide
Earlier this week I published a piece asking: “What did you do during the genocide in Gaza?” I received some heartwarming responses from readers (thank you!) but also snarky comments denying that a genocide is taking place. I want to stress that I’m not just throwing a serious word around for the fun of it; multiple leading experts on genocide have said that this is the majority opinion. “Can I name someone whose work I respect who doesn’t consider it genocide?” said Raz Segal, an Israeli genocide researcher based in the US. “No.”
Protesters in Georgia targeted with gender-based reprisals
Police in Georgia (the country, not the US state) are increasingly using gender-based violence “including sexist insults, threats of sexual violence and unlawful and degrading strip searches” against peaceful protesters, Amnesty International said in a new briefing.
Read my investigation into the mysterious disappearance of Susan Walsh
In July 1996, Susan Walsh, a 36-year-old freelance writer and sex worker, left her house in New Jersey to make a phone call. She never came back. Walsh is presumed dead but neither her body or her killer have been found – in part because of institutional misogyny. I’ve been looking into Walsh’s disappearance for five years and, on behalf of her half-brother, successfully sued the Nutley, New Jersey, police to get the police records released. You can read my multi-part story about Walsh’s disappearance in Flaming Hydra, a journalist-owned cooperative. (Flaming Hydra has a paywall but there are free samples you can check out.)
The week in pawtriarchy
It is legal to own a pet kangaroo in Colorado, but it is probably not a good idea. The Guardian notes that a “roo-peat offender” called Irwin recently escaped for the second time in Durango, Colorado. Eventually the police came up with a “kanga-ruse” to catch him and he jumped into the arms of a “big farm boy” officer. Since Irwin has been sent back to somewhere, he seems to want to leave I’m not sure if this is a hoppy ending.
Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist
