Rudov called himself a "feminist" on Your World, ridiculed study on housework as product of a "gyno-versit[y]" on O'Reilly

On the April 18 broadcast of Fox News' Your World, while discussing a YouTube video of Tricia Walsh-Smith airing her grievances about her marriage, author Marc Rudov described himself as a "feminist" and said, "I look at women as equal peers." However, on the April 18 broadcast of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, while discussing a University of Michigan Institute of Social Research study finding that "[h]aving a husband creates an extra seven hours a week of housework for women," Rudov mocked the study as "a flawed, anti-male, un-academic study that -- the kind you would expect from one of America's leading gyno-versities." He also asserted that if "the woman is complaining that the man doesn't work enough around the house," it may be because "she said 'I do' at the altar and 'I don't' in the bedroom."

During the O'Reilly Factor segment, Fox News analyst Margaret Hoover asserted that "[w]omen's role in the household has changed since the women's movement." She added: "I don't know if women's role outside the household has changed. I mean, are more women mowing lawns and fixing shingles and doing electrical work and plumbing?" Rudov interjected, "No." Hoover later asserted, "I got my way through college" and during "summers when I grew up" by mowing lawns. O'Reilly responded, "Margaret, no one's buying this."

Hoover then asked O'Reilly: "You don't believe that I mowed lawns?" to which both O'Reilly responded "no" and Rudov shook his head. Later, O'Reilly stated: "I was going to -- I was going to say something very, very offended -- offensive, but I've decided to let Marc do it." Rudov said: "OK. So we have the situation where the woman is staying at home. Let's take the marriage where both people work outside the home, in which case they do have to share the household chores. If the woman is complaining that the man doesn't work enough around the house, it's her fault. And there are two reasons for it: Either, A, she said 'I do' at the altar and 'I don't' in the bedroom, or she married a lazy slob thinking he would become Mr. Belvedere." Rudov also used both the line "she said 'I do' at the altar and 'I don't' in the bedroom" and the term "gyno-versities" a second time later in the segment.

Rudov has made several controversial remarks about women on Fox News programs in recent months. On the April 10 edition of Fox News' Your World, Rudov asserted of Sen. Hillary Clinton, "This is a gynocracy. ... The reason that Hillary is losing is because people don't like her. That's all it is." Rudov also said of Clinton: "The woman is not called a B-word because she's assertive and aggressive; she's called a B-word because she acts like one." On the April 10 edition of The O'Reilly Factor, Rudov stated that one reason "the beauty pageant industry is failing" is because "the contestants are supposed to be good girls, and there aren't good girls," later adding: "Girls just love to expose themselves." On the March 26 edition of The O'Reilly Factor, Rudov stated: "You know, you started talking about female happiness before, would women be happier and why our men are depressed. Men are depressed, and it's their own fault, because men are allowing women to take over the world. You know, female happiness is an oxymoron." During the March 10 edition of The O'Reilly Factor, when host Bill O'Reilly asked about the "downside" of a woman president, Rudov responded: "You mean besides the PMS and the mood swings, right?" On the January 4 edition of Your World, Rudov said: "When Barack Obama speaks, men hear, 'Take off for the future.' And when Hillary Clinton speaks, men hear, 'Take out the garbage.' "

Rudov is the author of The Man's No-Nonsense Guide to Women: How to Succeed in Romance on Planet Earth (MHR Enterprises, 2004) and Under the Clitoral Hood: How to Crank Her Engine Without Cash, Booze, or Jumper Cables (MHR Enterprises, 2007). The "about the author" description that accompanies The Man's No-Nonsense Guide to Women at Amazon.com reads: "Marc Rudov is an investment banker and business consultant residing in Silicon Valley (Bay Area), California. Although formally educated in engineering and business, he possesses a vast informal education in relationships with women."

From the April 18 edition of Fox News' Your World with Neil Cavuto:

CAVUTO: By the way, speaking of something a little unusual, you could be looking at newest way people are going to try to cash in on divorces. This lady marries a millionaire who's 25 years older, then posts this YouTube rant when he wants a divorce.

[...]

CAVUTO: All right, like I said, 3 million hits on this. Is this just a dirty trick to milk her hubby? Marc Rudov of Marc Rudov Radio says, "You bet it is." Lis Wiehl says all is fair in love and war. Now, by the way, we did try to get a comment from the husband involved here, Philip Smith, but he has not yet called us back. All right, so, Marc, what do you make of this?

RUDOV: Well, Neil, like the D.C. madam, Heather Mills, and Eliot Spitzer's girls, when prostitutes get angry, they go public. You know, Alicia [sic] got a bonus. She got a no-sex, all cash-deal. Yet, like a 15-year-old girl, she went on the Internet and had a PMS tantrum. No wonder her husband didn't want to have sex with her.

CAVUTO: Lis?

LIS WIEHL (Fox News legal analyst and University of Washington associate professor of law): At least she's wanting sex here, Marc. I mean, you're always talking about women getting into marriages and then not wanting the sex. At least she wanted it here. He's not forthcoming. Look, it's unorthodox. It's unseemly. But this woman had no choice. She had no power in this relationship. She came here from Britain. She married this guy who was wealthy and very powerful. When he wanted to toss her out -- out the side like yesterday's Kleenex, what could she do? He had the lawyers. He had the power. He had the money. He was going to evict her from their home, Marc. She turned to the Internet. I mean, Internet is sort of like, you know, today's -- what we used to write on the bathroom wall. Now we can put it on the Internet. She really had no choice, Marc, but to do this, and at least now people are listening to her. And maybe if he'd done the right thing in the beginning, she never would have had to do this, Marc.

RUDOV: The right thing?

WIEHL: Yeah. Like --

RUDOV: Lis, you know, Lis, look --

WIEHL: -- not try to evict her.

RUDOV. She had Raoul Felder as her lawyer. Don't tell me -- and this powerless crap. Between you and me, Lis --

WIEHL: Yes, just between us?

RUDOV: I'm the feminist. I'm the feminist. I look at women as equal peers. [Wiehl laughs] You look at women as victims.

WIEHL: No.

RUDOV: And if you keep saying that women are victims all the time, this is proof positive that Hillary should get out of the race now.

WIEHL: Wait, we're moving from this to Hillary? I don't think that one has anything to do with the other.

RUDOV: Well, because women are victims. Women are helpless. Women are powerless.

WIEHL: No. No. No.

From the April 18 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:

O'REILLY: In the "He Said, She Said" segment tonight, a new study by the University of Michigan says when a woman gets married, she adds seven hours of housework to her life each week. But a man, when he gets married, he loses one hour of housework. Now, I don't know about the gay marriage thing; this is heterosexual marriage. So, if I'm doing the math correctly, the ladies are picking up after the men far more than vice versa.

With us to analyze is Internet czar Marc Rudov -- radio.com in San Francisco, and Fox News analyst Margaret Hoover in Washington. OK, Margaret, so it looks like the housework is falling on the shoulders -- the able shoulders of American women.

HOOVER: Well, according to the study, that may be true. But I think there's a whole generation of women who probably wouldn't sign up for marriage if they knew that was part of the contract. Listen, I mean, this is really -- what the same study said is that women generally, these days, do a lot less housework than they did in 1968, and this is the benefit of the women's movement. The women's movement and the result that I get to benefit from and my generation gets to benefit from is that we might be doing housework, but we might not be. And we get to choose, and we get to negotiate and work that out with our prospective husbands or with our husbands. Hopefully, you figure it out before you get married so you're not slapped with seven hours --

O'REILLY: Well, that's a good point, Marc. Isn't this all about a negotiation, because everybody's circumstance is different? A lot of families, both the husband and wife have to work for economic reasons, and then they have varying jobs, and they come home at varying times. So, isn't this all about negotiation? But if it is, it looks like women are doing a lot more at home than men, inside the house anyway.

RUDOV: Well, that's a good point. And this is a flawed, anti-male, un-academic study that -- the kind you would expect from one of America's leading gyno-versities. It does not take into account the kind of marriage there is. For example, if the man works and the woman stays at home, her job is to do housework --

O'REILLY: That's right.

RUDOV: -- while he's out earning money to keep her and keep the house up. She doesn't come into his job. He doesn't complain about all the reports he has to do that she's not coming in to help him with. And, you know, it doesn't -- it also doesn't incorporate all of the tasks -- this focuses kind of on dishes, vacuuming, and laundry. How about fixing the shingles on the roof? How about fixing the car? How about doing plumbing, electrical work? It doesn't incorporate all of that --

O'REILLY: All right. So the real men stuff -- that doesn't sound too fair, Margaret. I mean, if it doesn't incorporate -- they should have broken the study out to duo working couples and then stay-at-home mom couples, because if -- Marc is correct for one of the few times in his life. If you throw in all of the stay-at-home work, that's going to skew the study and make guys look like lazy oafs, right?

HOOVER: Absolutely. You should do -- you should do all the housework, and that should be inside the house and not just -- outside the house and inside the house. But here's the problem. The reason they did the study --

O'REILLY: Yeah?

HOOVER: -- is because they're re-evaluating changing of traditional gender roles in the household. Women's role in the household has changed since the women's movement. I don't know if women's role outside the household has changed. I mean, are more women mowing lawns and fixing shingles and doing electrical work and plumbing?

RUDOV: No. No.

O'REILLY: They're not.

RUDOV: No.

HOOVER: I can tell you I sure do. My dad taught me to.

O'REILLY: Well, hold it, hold it, Margaret. No, no, no. Wait, wait. Wait. Wait. When was the last time you mowed a lawn, Margaret?

RUDOV: Send me pictures, Margaret.

HOOVER: How do you think I got my way through college? Oh, I've got pictures for you, Marc.

O'REILLY: Hold it, hold it, hold it.

HOOVER: They'll be on my blog.

O'REILLY: You were mowing lawns to pay your way through college? You were out there?

HOOVER: And summers when I grew up.

RUDOV: Right.

O'REILLY: Margaret, no one's buying this.

HOOVER: You don't believe that I mowed lawns?

O'REILLY: No.

RUDOV: No.

HOOVER: Bill O'Reilly, I'm offended if you think I didn't work, work, work. I am absolutely offended --

O'REILLY: Margaret, the only way that you would be mowing a lawn --

HOOVER: -- if you think because I'm a pretty girl I can't mow a lawn, I'm offended.

O'REILLY: -- I'm not gonna say it.

HOOVER: You don't think that I mowed the lawn and did the housework?

O'REILLY: Well, I was going to -- well, I was going to say something very, very offended -- offensive, but I've decided to let Marc do it.

RUDOV: Bill -- Bill --

HOOVER: But this is "He Said, She Said" segment --

O'REILLY: All right, Marc, go.

HOOVER: -- and you're going to respect the fact that women can mow lawns.

O'REILLY: OK, Marc. We got it.

RUDOV: Bill --

O'REILLY: Go ahead.

RUDOV: OK. So we have the situation where the woman is staying at home. Let's take the marriage where both people work outside the home, in which case they do have to share the household chores. If the woman is complaining that the man doesn't work enough around the house, it's her fault. And there are two reasons for it: Either, A, she said "I do" at the altar and "I don't" in the bedroom, or she married a lazy slob thinking he would become Mr. Belvedere.

O'REILLY: Margaret, you want to have the last word?

HOOVER: The only part I -- the only part I concede to Marc is that it's up to women, absolutely, and men to figure the rules out before you sign the dotted line.

O'REILLY: Yeah, you've got to figure it out. Right.

HOOVER: Yes.

O'REILLY: But a lot of people are deceptive. You know, they give you this little thing before you get married, and then after you get --

HOOVER: Kind of like you, that you don't think I can mow a lawn?

RUDOV: These studies -- these studies from gyno-versities are just useless.

O'REILLY: Now, Marc, I've got to say, though, I know some guys who are real slugs. You know what I'm talking about?

RUDOV: Well, but again, if a guy is a slug and a woman marries him, it's her fault.

O'REILLY: No, no, but he wasn't a slug. When he got married he looked like Brad Pitt, and then afterward he looks like Professor Irwin Corey. Do you know what I'm talking about?

RUDOV: That's because --

O'REILLY: No, I know it goes the other way too.

RUDOV: -- that's because she said "I do" at the altar and "I don't" in the bedroom. She turned the bedroom into a refrigerator.

O'REILLY: As long as the bedroom is neat, I don't care. Margaret, Marc, thanks very much.