Megyn Kelly: Fox News Anchor Battles Fox News Pundits Over Sexist Comments

It is one thing for Fox News to battle out a political or social issue with liberal guests on one of its show. However, it is an entirely different situation when you have Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, arguing with Fox News pundits Erick Erickson and Lou Dobbs, when all three lean towards the right. That is exactly what happened on Friday when Kelly responded to a previous discussion held by an all-male Fox panel (including Dobbs and Erickson).

The panel of men was deeply concerned (“freaking out” is probably a better way to describe it) about the recent Pew study that found women to be the sole or primary breadwinner in 40% of households with children. Ironically, no women were on this panel discussing the issue.

Erickson stated the following: "When you look at biology, look at the natural world, the roles of a male and a female in society, and other animals, the male typically is the dominant role. The female, it's not antithesis, or it's not competing, it's a complementary role. We as people in a smart society have lost the ability to have complementary relationships in nuclear families, and it's tearing us apart."

In response to the men’s concerns, their fellow coworker on Fox News, Greta Van Susteren, said the following on her blog: “Have these men lost their minds? (and these are my colleagues??!! oh brother… maybe I need to have a little chat with them) (next thing they will have a segment to discuss eliminating women’s right to vote?)”

And then on Friday, Kelly tore apart Erickson’s “science” by quoting real studies that oppose his claims:

Kelly, a conservative news anchor for Fox News, even portrayed Barack Obama in a positive context by debunking claims that mixed-race children were more likely to be inferior. And no, Kelly is not a liberal feminist in disguise. The issue here is not a debate between liberals and conservatives. It is a debate about logic backed up by scientific facts. Having women being breadwinners and men being caretakers in a two-parent household is absolutely not deleterious to society based on the evidence at hand.

Erickson is also just making a generalization about “biology” and “the natural world,” because the truth is that across many other species, the females have more power/breadwinner capabilities (i.e. bees, penguins, praying mantis).

Historically, women have not been given the rights or freedom to work and earn as much as men. Some of those inequalities still exist today, but thanks to Kelly and others fighting against these old, patriarchal traditions, female breadwinners will be more accepted by society. No one really knows if having more female breadwinners will cause the collapse of society but as long as studies and reality show otherwise, it should not be an issue.

The Twitter-verse is definitely picking up on Kelly’s segment as well, mostly giving deserved praise:

A longer video of Kelly’s segment is also on YouTube.

For more social justice and human rights news, follow me on Twitter: @CalebPeng