She's antimale. Simple enough. And a ton of her advice I'd expect to bring her listeners into even more trouble than it is solving. Issues reguarding paying of the bills comes to mind. Specifically, she makes her callers feel like idiots, not her listeners. And remember, she's not calling people and belittling them, they're calling her and asking for it. And good grief, if you hate her so much, just don't listen. I used to listen to her, but I started realizing it was the same thing day-in and day-out.
Got quite dull. She's a baptist Jerry Springer. I'd like her to choke on battery acid. And they admit when they're wrong, and also when they're just making shit up. Does she have a daughter? If so, I think I went to high school with her the daughter, not Dr.
Laura MLO. To be honest with you anyone who thinks homosexuals are "deviants" and "biological errors" deserves a place in Semi's death camps imo. I've really got to question the intelligence of the callers, too. I'm bored. Maybe I'll call in and get berated on national radio! I hate Dr. Uh, ok. But, um Ars Praefectus et Subscriptor. Ars Tribunus Angusticlavius et Subscriptor.
Ars Legatus Legionis et Subscriptor. She's not even a "Doctor". Who the fuck is Dr. Saint, please cite your proof. Frasier "I'm listening" Crane. Nora, ran screeching out of town when Frasier tracked down the mother she hadn't seen in decades. One of the most prominent protesters against Schlessinger's TV show for Paramount which produces Frasier is Frasier writer David Lee, who has actually led a rally against her at the studio.
But you're not reading about the others, only Schlessinger, because she attacked homosexuals in such a calculated, public way. If she hadn't done that, Elton John would not be saying about her: "I hope all her kids turn out gay. Her strategy to be more extreme -- as dreamed up by her staff and new PR advisers in the runup to the TV show -- has worked. However much the media are filled with talk about grief counselling, "feeling your pain" and exploring issues of healing and reconciliation, the fact is that mean is in style.
Proof that mean works? Schlessinger's Ten Stupid Things points out obvious things that women shouldn't do, e. It isn't feminist advice as much as sane advice that is helpful to women. That was six years ago. The Schlessinger in that book is much more restrained that the one on the air now. Righteous indignation is Schlessinger's stock-in-trade. Widow, she said. They come over and cook for you. What she was saying on air was that she wished her husband was dead.
She was always on the attack. It's just a question of degree. To a woman who called in about a friend who has one-night stands: "Your friend is a drunken slut. To a woman caller whose boyfriend wants her to have an abortion: "You got knocked up by a guy who wants to kill your child sucking it in the sink? Get a backbone transplant here!
To a male caller worried that his wife and children will find out he's gay: "You made a decision to hide, to deny, to get married and have children. You made a covenant -- now be man enough to live up to it. It isn't just the flippancy of the answers that is astonishing, it's the fact that, by all accounts, Schlessinger herself has in the past been precisely the type of woman she now excoriates.
Follow us on Twitter: globearts Opens in a new window. Report an error. Editorial code of conduct. Skip to main content. If you're a teenage mother and go to work, don't let Schlesinger know that you leave your child at a daycare center or, as Schlesinger calls them, "day orphanage centers.
If your kids do drugs, cut them off; if you do drugs, just stop. If your husband beats you, it's probably your fault. If your parents abused you, get over it. If you're unemployed, get a job. A mother of a year-old boy once called in to ask what to do about the fact that her son had impregnated a year-old girl who then insisted on having the baby. In the middle of this very sad story, filled with pain on all sides, Pretend-Dr.
Laura interrupted and said something like, "Your son blew it. His life--as you know it--is over. He can't go away to college, he can't realize any of his dreams, because he has to stay and support this child. He should have thought about that before he acted so irresponsibly! No one gets sympathy. No one deserves help. For Schlesinger, personal responsibility is always suffused with blame and harsh judgment.
Milder versions of Schlesinger's simplistic moral rigidity can be found in some of the "tough love" advice given to parents of limit-testing adolescents, as well as in the subtext of some of Dr.
Phil's shows. Audiences like it when lax or overwhelmed parents are given a good harsh scolding, and are told to buck-up and get tough with their kids.
Although meant well, and often helpful, this approach appeals to audiences in a special way. It's not a far cry from there to right-wingers like James Dobson, who advocates corporal punishment and to Dr. Laura who never met a troubled child who wasn't created by an indulgent, weak, or self-centered parent. Toughen up. Take responsibility. Quit complaining. Get off your soapbox. The drum beat of blame pounds on and on.
Don't get me wrong--even a stopped clock is right twice a day, and sometimes a confrontation with parents who are unable to control children or with people wrapping themselves in feelings of victimization and entitlement is just what the doctor--a real doctor--would order. But Schlesinger, Dobson, and others from the fire-and-brimstone school of family values have a deeper agenda.
In their hearts, they have a passionate contempt for victims, the weak, the helpless, and the unprotected--either real or imagined. I say real or imagined because, of course, even the strict moralists like Schlesinger and Dobson would favor sympathy for the most obviously feeble and helpless groups in our society, e.
It's everyone else that they blame and condemn. And millions of people seem to share this attitude. What motivates the gluttons for punishment who actually call the pretend doctor? And why is her mean-spirited "advice" something that millions of people apparently want to hear? Based on my work over the last thirty years with many people who share this sensibility, I believe I understand the core psychological dynamic here.
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