You're really pushing my buttons these days, Fox. Normally, you sit at the periphery of my consciousness like a mosquito buzzing a few inches from my ear. I know you're there, I know you're annoying, but I rarely give you too much of my attention. I'll just sort of half-heartedly swat you away whenever you get too loud.

Lately, though, you've been posting all kinds of crap on the internet that just makes me want to smack you full-on between my palms. You've already got the racism down pat over at Fox Nation--hey, we knew you had it in you the whole time--and now you've covered sexism while you're at it, too. This gem of an article popped up under the Men's Health section of the Fox News website. I didn't know Fox News had a Men's Health section but I'm sure it gives plenty of advice on how to avoid shooting yourself in the face with your rifles and how much light beer is too much. Useful life skills for the modern man, you know. 

To be fair, this article was originally published over a year ago on AskMen.com. But Fox seemed to endorse it enough to reblog it. It's called "5 Feminist Demands She Wants You To Ignore." Already Fox is making it seem like feminists are a subset of women that just run around demanding things all day. You don't really need to listen to them because they're not your woman. She would rather you ignore the harpies. The condescending tone doesn't stop at the headline, either. The article identifies a modern feminist as simply a woman who pays her own way and doesn't need a male mate. Last I checked you didn't need to pay all your own expenses to be under the impression that men and women were beings of equal worth, but I'm not going to rail too hard on a sloppy definition. Then we get this bite: "While the notion of the sexy feminist isn’t completely false, you need to be aware of those pesky feminist demands that even the most independent of women is expecting you to ignore. Why don't women just tell you what they want, you ask? Silly rabbit, then they wouldn't be women!"

Ha! I get it. Women are tricky, mysterious, inscrutable creatures, right? And those who actually have the gall to believe they're equal to men just keep making pesky demands that ruin the fun for those involved in the patriarchy. Some of them might be a little sexy, though. It's not completely unheard of. 

Yeesh. I know Fox isn't the most progressive of news outlets but it's a little disturbing to see "feminist" brandished as a dirty word all the same. We see a flaunting of privilege here when the struggle for equality is dismissed as a mere annoyance, a small but irritating trespass into the lives of "normal people"--you know, those who would never self-identify as feminists. 

The "demands" we're told to ignore also tend to oversimplify a lot. We can ignore requests to stop objectifying women because it's okay to tell them they're good-looking once in a while. Because apparently objectification and compliments are the same thing. Also, in case you forgot, it's okay for men to make some decisions in a relationship sometimes. Surprisingly, feminists don't demand total control over their gentleman companions. Who would have guessed? 

I'm a little over seeing the "how to deal with women" trope in all its forms across publications. Can we just accept that there is no set way to "deal" with an entire gender, start treating each other like individual human beings, and just get on with it? Or is that too pesky of a feminist demand?