Warning: Listening to Dr. Laura triggers road rage

She may be her kid's mom, but Dr. Laura's also an intolerant bigot who has it in for gays and working mothers, says noted sex therapist Sue Johanson

By: Sue Johanson

  June 5/00 - You have probably heard Dr. Laura Schlesinger rant on the radio. Known simply as Dr. Laura, she's the one with the catchphrase "I am my kid's Mom."
  When I am in my car driving from point A to point B, I will listen to her show and it triggers more "road rage" than all the bad drivers on the highway. Usually I can only tolerate about 40 minutes of her tirade, then I am incoherent, literally blithering at the radio.
 

I have heard her obvious bigotry against homosexuality: it is against nature, it is against God and it is against motherhood, she says, and same-sex behavior is gross and indecent. I have even heard her imply that AIDS was a punishment for their "perversion" - her words, not mine.

  You have heard the expression, "She is too much." Well, Dr. Laura meets that criterion in spades.
  I have heard her obvious bigotry against homosexuality: it is against nature, it is against God and it is against motherhood, she says, and same-sex behavior is gross and indecent. I have even heard her imply that AIDS was a punishment for their "perversion" - her words, not mine.
  Tolerance and acceptance get lost in her religiosity. It is scary.
  But her bias against working moms is equally scary. Apparently, they are the root cause of all juvenile delinquency and teenage violence in the United States today.
 

And if a caller admits to premarital sex, you know she is going to get dumped on. The poor caller will be treated to a ten-minute tirade on having sex before you are legally married. Women get the full blast more than men. Men get scolded but, you know... "boys will be boys."

  And if you're a single mom, you're really in for it. Single moms get particularly dumped on, as the good doctor insists that children need the influence of a father. The qualifying word there should be a good father - but Dr. Laura seems to think bad fathers, abusive fathers and alcoholic fathers must be tolerated too.
  It gets really exciting when a caller admits to premarital sex: then you know she is going to get verbally abused. The poor caller will be treated to a ten-minute tirade on the evils of having sex before you are legally married. Women get the full blast more than men. Men get scolded but, you know how it is... "boys will be boys" and the female led him on, the slut. The woman has no morals... you would not want her to be the mother of your children, would you?
  And listen to her reaction to the topic of abortion, scary stuff.
  Just for the hell of it, I researched her biography. Did you know that she calls herself Dr. Laura because she has a PhD in physiology (the study of the body), not, as you might have believed, in psychology, or social work, or counselling. She is, however, a certified "Marriage and Family Therapist" in California, though I suspect she flunked the course called "non-directive counselling". The emphasis in non-directive counselling is on non-critical and non judgmental therapy; the counselors are never to give advice but rather to offer alternative solutions to a problem and allow the client to decide what is right for them. Not our Dr. Laura, she fires salvos from both barrels. Tell me about applying guilt and shame.
  She moralizes and lectures, she preaches and she dictates. As if that wasn't enough, she also uses generous quotas of "Jewish Guilt" to shame callers so she can control and manipulate them into doing what she thinks is right. Now, as any good therapist knows, you never tell anybody what to do. You listen to them, you offer suggestions and outline alternatives and help them explore the possible outcomes of their choices, then they decide on their own which alternative would be best for them.
 

Graphic from www.stopdrlaura.com

  My experience on a phone-in sex talk show, the Sunday Night Sex Show on the Women's Television Network, has taught me that most people, when faced with a dilemma, know exactly what they want to do. When they phone, they just want to sound it out with me, to reaffirm what they already know is best but may have difficulty accepting.
  Contrast Dr. Laura with Dr. Joy Browne, another radio therapist who is an excellent counsellor, who really listens and, as a nice bonus, always provides some insight into why the other person may be behaving the way they do. Then she offers the caller words or phrases to use, to help break down barriers to open communication.
  Now some callers are simply not aware of the options or resources that are available, so they want basic information, not advice. Actually, think about it… when was the last time you asked somebody for advice and then you actually took it?
  Dr. Joy Browne now has a regular daily television show on TV. Not to be outdone, our Dr. Laura submitted a proposal to host her own TV show for Paramount, and they agreed to sponsor it. That is, until the staff and crew became aware of her bigotry, then there was trouble in paradise. Many crew members are homosexual and they simply refused to work on her show. Are we surprised? The last I heard, Paramount is still hoping to do a show, but a lot of the main advertisers have dropped out because of Dr. Laura's bigotry.
  Lest you think her influence is limited to broadcast media, rest assured that all you have to do is head to the nearest bookstore to find some more of her shame-inducing advice. I was on a flight to Vancouver and I was reviewing one of her books, Ten Stupid Things Women Do to Mess UP Their Lives. Ironically, the passenger next to me was reading Ten Stupid Things Men Do. We both agreed that one of the stupidest things we had ever done was to read the book.
  As Dr. Laura always ends her show (if you have managed to hang in that long): "Now go and do the right thing."

Get More/Do More
Check out the Coalition Against Hate's "Stop Dr. Laura" site at stopdrlaura.com.

Find "Ten Things You Can Do To Mess With Stupid Dr. Laura" at www.coffee-a-gogo.com/coffee-a-gogo/drlaura.html.

Enjoy the Dr. Laura Parody Pages at extra.newsguy.com/~satire/laura.htm.

Hear what Dr. Laura has to say at www.drlaura.com/main.

Find out more about Dr. Joy Browne, go to www.drjoy.com.

[ Front Page ]