Now, to all of these opinions, (except #5 which is a complete falsity) what I have to say is, well you have a point. I can see how she can be interpreted as rude, arrogant, stubborn, and opinionated. I don't agree that she is actually rude, or arrogant, I think she is taken out of context far too often, and she surprises people with her blunt reactions. More on that in a moment, but first I want to add a disclaimer. I realize that Dr. Laura is not for everyone. She rubs people the wrong way and to some she is just a complete turnoff, even if they agree with what she is saying, they disagree with how she is saying it. I can't disagree with that, and I have not started this blog to debate that fact or to convince or force anyone to love her as much as I love her. But I have started the blog because, simply stated, she has changed my life. I just want everyone to know what she has taught me and how it has made me a better person. I want her to change other lives the way she has changed mine. She may not have the ability to change your life. I can't argue or debate with that, nor do I want to. But you might also be living your life to half its potential like I was. And all you need is a good old fashioned kick in the pants and a different perspective with which to look at life, good old Dr. Laura style, just like I did. To those people, I am confident that Dr. Laura has something to offer you. That is the main reason for this blog. I am blogging for my own sake, to document life lessons I am learning from her philosophical points made by the Doc. But I am also blogging simply to open up your minds. To challenge the way you see things, the way you embrace life. So take it with a grain of salt. I am open to different ideas that challenge the way that I think and open me up to new ideas, and I hope as you read this blog, you are too.
Okay okay okay, now onto the juice. Is Dr. Laura RUDE?
Here is what she has said in her defense. Yes she can be rude; and yes she can hurt people’s feelings. BUT her main priority is to help people. People call her asking her for her opinion. Her OPINION. Sure she is opinionated, that is her job. She is a known to millions as a wise woman and people seek her advice. She has said before that her main job and priority is to HELP people. Her main priority is not to be nice; her main priority is to HELP people. If she needs to be rude to get someone's attention then she is not afraid to be rude. If she needs to nag someone or force them into compliance, then she is willing to do that in order to help people. (And by force into compliance I mean that she has a few rules on her radio program, and she makes her listeners follow those rules, such as, we don't talk about feelings, we talk about facts. She also has a very clear direction as to where the caller needs to take her and if the caller gets off course, she brings them right back). I think why most feel she is rude is because they are in denial. And probably my favorite Dr. Laura quote on that subject is "I am the one with the bat who breaks the denial bubbles." The only time she gets snippy is when people are in denial, or they get defensive. She calls them out on it, and everyone thinks she is rude. No one can argue that she doesn’t help people. She has changed my life, and I know of thousands and thousands of others whom she has helped because they say so every day on her radio show. She is making a difference. Sometimes she has to be snippy to do that, but she isn’t afraid to be snippy to help people. As a society, we put too much emphasis on saving someone from hurt feelings. The truth is that in life, we will get our feelings hurt. We shouldn’t have our mommies shielding us from getting our feelings hurt, we should learn instead how to deal with snippy feelings. As a society I agree that we put too much emphasis on hurt feelings. We avoid hurting feelings to the point that we reward the lazy even when they don't deserve it because they might feel bad if we don't. We help others, or intervene between the natural consequences to the action and the person who needs to suffer them all because it might hurt their feelings if we don't. We focus too much on saving the feelings than learning the lesson. We shouldn’t. As a society we should be learning the lessons. That is also her opinion. She is not going to protect someone's feelings when they need to learn a lesson. She is going to teach them the lesson. If their feelings get hurt, at least she got their attention. More importantly, in more cases than not, the lesson was learned by her harshness
Now, is Dr. Laura arrogant? Is she stubborn? Well, she can come off that way. I think that on her radio program she may tend to be. It is her radio program. It is her professional opinion. She obviously can't force anyone to behave in any one way. She can't control the callers’ situations. All she has to offer is her opinion. If you don't like her opinion, that is fine. You don't have to. I don't agree with everything she says (most things but not everything). If you don't want her opinion, that’s fine. If you think she is stubborn, that’s fine too. She is basically of the take it or leave it mindset. Or at least that is how I interpret her personality. Take her opinion or leave it, but it is her job to have the opinion. It is her job to be stubborn and consistent in her philosophies so as not to be biased.
Now, is she a woman hater? No of course not. She IS a woman. She is simply an anti-feminist. Not the feminist movement that got women to have equal rights not the one that had men thinking that women were second class, but the one that considers masculinity to be oppressive, destructive, evil and cruel. I will be blogging much more about this in the future, this anti-feminist point of view. I share her opinion, quite strongly in fact. Anytime someone has called her a woman hater, it is because they have heard her side with a man, when a woman calls to bitch about masculinity. She is just as tough on men who deserve it. She is also very nice to women who are good to their men. She is not a woman hater. Anyone who listened to her for a week straight could get that. The one call that gets taken out of context is the one that labels her as a woman hater. And that is all I have to say about that.
No comments:
Post a Comment