In a new column rife with his usual brand of audacious conjecture, Keith Ablow of Fox News’ Medical A-Team takes aim at Hilary Rosen and all working moms (and arguably all feminists), suggesting they are “anti-gender” and “despise the parts of themselves” drawn to motherhood:

These “anti-gender” women have it in for anyone who embraces her femininity, maternal instincts and capacity to nurture as their highest priority — postponing or passing up other laudable opportunities to work at, say, a law firm or as a marketing executive.  They despise the notion that some women may indeed be drawn — instinctively and happily — toward creating special and loving environments in which to raise their children, while spending all their available time sustaining and enriching those environments and those children.

They despise the parts of themselves that may be drawn to such roles, as well.  That’s why women like Hilary Rosen make such outlandish statements, to begin with.  They’re essentially talking to themselves — albeit, with the rest of the world forced to listen — trying to reassure themselves that their own choices in life weren’t only equally as good as those of other women, but better. Far, far better. They feel like their choices are better because they have thrown off the shackles of roles that were once “expected” of them, leaving them not only freer than, but superior to, those women who don’t feel enslaved at home, but feel fulfilled at home.

Unsurprisingly, Ablow assumes that gender norms are good and haven’t been used to discriminate against women for almost all of humanity. Perhaps he’d like to roll back all of the freedoms women have fought for over the past century so they can fully embrace their “maternal instincts” with nothing to distract them from what he seems to see as their true calling. Ablow, of course, includes a jab at Rosen for being a lesbian, suggesting she’s only capable of supporting “alternative lifestyles.”

As Carlos Maza points out at Equality Matters, Ablow’s column includes all his usual pop-psychology tropes:

• Violating professional ethics standards by diagnosing a public figure without permission or a formal examination
• Peddling unscientific and sexist stereotypes about how men and women are supposed to behave
• Using any excuse to take an unprovoked potshot at the Obama administration

But all of that aside, Ablow accidentally concedes that the intention of Rosen’s comments was exactly right, suggesting that many of his clients “wouldn’t be going to work for very long if their spouses made millions as investors (as Mitt Romney has done).” If Ann Romney really didn’t go to work, choosing instead to “allow her husband to go out and make the money to support all of them,” why doesn’t Ablow simply agree with Rosen?

Assuming Marianne Gingrich’s allegations are true, Newt Gingrich reacted to news of his own wrongdoing by attempting to justify his deplorable behavior (asking for an “open marriage” after he’s already cheating) and then proceeding to continue down that path anyway (dumping Marianne for Callista). While most would be repelled by such actions, Dr. Keith Ablow of Fox News’ “Medical A-Team” believes Gingrich’s personal choices would not negatively impact his performance as president. In fact, Ablow argues’ that Gingrich’ ability to attract so many women is a sign that the rest of the country will fall for him too:

You can take any moral position you like about men and women who cheat while married, but there simply is no correlation, whatsoever—from a psychological perspective—between whether they can remain true to their wedding vows and whether they can remain true to the Oath of Office. [...]

Conclusion: When three women want to sign on for life with a man who is now running for president, I worry more about whether we’ll be clamoring for a third Gingrich term, not whether we’ll want to let him go after one.

Ablow’s words speak for themselves, and should not be surprising. Here’s a look back at how Fox News’ resident psychiatrist regularly insists on letting men off the hook for failed marriages:

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Tammy Lobel

Fox News continued its efforts to demonize transgender people yesterday with a segment about 11-year-old Tammy Lobel, whose parents are allowing her to use hormone blockers to delay the onset of puberty under the care of a doctor. This will give her time to mature and reach a decision about her gender identity before male puberty makes irreversible changes to her body. The segment featured Fox News Medical A-Team “expert” Dr. Keith Ablow, who refuses to affirm transgender identities, calling them “psychotic delusions,“ “toxic” and “disordered,” and comparable to anorexia and heroin addiction. Everyone in the segment referred to Tammy as a boy and host Martha MacCallum described the parents (who happen to be a lesbian couple) as “irresponsible.” Ablow tried to couch his comments as not being stigmatizing, but then proceeded to call for a psych evaluation for both parents and child:

ABLOW: Here’s what I think. First of all, I think we should remind ourselves from the outset: we’re not looking to bully anyone. I’m reminded of the words of Abraham Lincoln, “With malice toward none.” But now is the time, Martha, when we have to understand this issue, what’s happening here. We have two women raising a child — he’s adopted — and he’s come to believe that he, too, is female. That argues for a complete psychological evaluation, not just of the boy, but of his parents as well, to see whether psychological forces are at play here to make him say such things.

Watch it (via Raw Story):

The complete disregard for Tammy’s identity is offensive enough, but the constant implications that her same-sex parents are somehow to blame for her gender identity is dangerous misinformation. Children understand gender by the age of 2, including their own, and Tammy was indicating she was a girl by age 3 and threatening to mutilate her own genitals at age 7. When parents Pauline Moreno and Debra Lobel let Tammy be Tammy, there was an instant transformation, and the once depressed boy became a giggly and gregarious girl. For Ablow to imply that the whole family is disordered demonstrates just how little he knows about gender, sexuality, and parenting.

The segment’s other guest, physician Dr. Marty Makary, played up the possible side effects of what he described as “safe medication,” but offered no insights to the possible psychological implications of not honoring Tammy’s gender identity, including depression, suicide, and additional complications if she transitions after undergoing male puberty. By allowing her time to continue growing as a girl, Tammy, her parents, and her doctors can make an informed decision about her future gender identity that ensures she is happy and healthy for a complete lifetime. If Fox News cared about minimizing the stigma against people who are transgender, they would highlight how Moreno and Lobel are allowing Tammy to live an authentic life, as CNN recently did. Instead, the network is spreading lies and stoking fears that being transgender is harmful and unnatural.

When ABC announced that Chaz Bono, son of Cher and Sonny Bono, would compete on “Dancing With the Stars,” Fox News’ “Medical A-Team” psychiatrist Keith Ablow launched into a hateful and ignorant crusade against the transgender activist, calling him a “very disordered person” and saying his presence on the popular show would poison young people’s gender identities. To her credit, Fox host Megyn Kelly thoroughly admonished and debunked Ablow on her show and during a segment with Fox headliner Bill O’Reilly. But this morning, the conservative network got mired in transphobia again when the crew of Fox & Friends appeared pained at the mere mention of Bono’s name. Bono had a disappointing performance in last night’s episode due to a knee injury, and the Fox morning crew couldn’t even bring themselves to discuss it, transcript via Gawker:

BRIAN KILMEADE: Steve, can you tell us more?

STEVE DOOCY: Uh, no, I can’t. [Laughs] Thank you very for that update.
GRETCHEN CARLSON: [Rubbing temples] Let’s talk about the Senate instead! That might take too long to explain to Steve, Brian, and the rest of the world.

KILMEADE: The one part of Chaz that hasn’t been operated on!

DOOCY: So far! [Laughter]

Watch it:

During an appearance on Fox News’ O’Reilly Factor, Fox News’ Dr. Keith Ablow doubled down on his argument that Chaz Bono’s appearance on ABC’s Dancing With The Stars will encourage children to change their gender. “You have someone who is not a man, asserting that he is a man and the bottom line is that this can kindle people who are having trouble with their identities: adolescents, tom-boys, boys who are effeminate into thinking, ‘you know what, maybe I’m not just those things, maybe I should go the whole way,” he said.

Ablow, who yesterday resigned from the American Psychiatric Association because they disagree with him, also compared being transgender to anorexia and heroin addiction:

ABLOW: We wouldn’t invite people with anorexia to go on fashion shows and talk about how wonderful they feel now that they’re thinner…this is an exact parallel. [...] Take the heroin dependent people, put them on TV with their drug paraphernalia and have them speak about how happy they are.

Watch it:

Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly stepped up her criticism of Dr. Keith Ablow’s attacks against Chaz Bono, Cher’s transgender son who will compete on the 13th season of ABC’s Dancing With The Stars. During an appearance on Bill O’Reilly yesterday, Kelly characterized Ablow’s claims that children will develop gender confusion after watching him on national television as “irresponsible and dangerous and could result in some real problems.” Kelly had challenged Ablow on her daytime show on Wednesday.

“There is no scientific evidence to back that up and in fact…the experts in this field say Ablow is way off base,” Kelly claimed and suggested that Ablow’s words will lead to the persecution of transgender people:

KELLY: Listen, this group of people already undergoes enough discrimination and isolation…

O’REILLY: We have this this slippery slope argument…

KELLY: No, don’t talk over it Bill.

O’REILLY: I’m not talking over it, I got to get to another…

KELLY: This group of people is persecuted already and now you have Dr. Ablow telling people that if your kid sees one in a manner that is something akin to a celebration, your kid may wind up being one of them. Now there are people int his country that will react to a transgender person when they see one at the McDonald’s or at some event and that’s irresponsible.

O’REILLY: You don’t know that they’re transgendered people. Alright.

Watch:

O’Reilly, meanwhile, seemed more concerned about questioning Ablow’s character than the safety of transgender people. After all, in 2010 he compared transgender people to Ewoks, saying, “If you’re a man, you can’t dress like a woman, and vice versa. You can’t scare the customers. If your name is Fred, you can’t look like Dolly Parton.”