FOX Hosts Think Grooming Kids Into S&M By Spanking Them At School Really Fine And Great!

Co-hosts of "The Five" discuss corporal punishment in schools. And they love it.

Earlier this month, Fox host Jesse Watters was deeply concerned about teachers "grooming" students, for the purposes of having sex with them, by telling them that LGBTQ+ people exist, using correct pronouns, and providing a safe and welcoming space for LGBTQ students to be themselves. He put on his very best "concerned" face as he showed videos of teachers talking about how they allow students to tell them which pronouns and names they would like to be known by in the classroom and also whether or not they want that revealed to their parents — you know, because kids might not be quite ready to be kicked out of their homes by their Fox News-watching parents. Given that LGBTQ+ youth are 120 percent more likely to experience homelessness than non-LGBTQ+ youth, this is quite reasonable.

"I'm not alleging that this teacher or that teacher is doing this to have sex with the child, but they're exhibiting the same types of behaviors that people do use when they do groom children to exploit them for sexual purposes," he told his guest that night. To be very clear, no, that is not what anyone does when they groom children to exploit them for sexual purposes and it is utterly ridiculous to suggest that is the case.

On Wednesday, however, Watters and his co-hosts on Fox's "The Five" were all giggles, beaming with mischievous glee over the idea of teachers spanking their students. The girls in particular.

A school district in Missouri has decided to let parents "opt in" to allowing teachers or administrators to administer "corporal punishment" to their children, an act which is decidedly more sexual than literally anything Fox News presenters have been clutching their pearls over since they started in on their "grooming" moral panic.

Transcript via Media Matters:  

JESSE WATTERS (CO-HOST): Do you agree with this form of punishment?

HAROLD FORD JR. (CO-HOST): It worked.

WATTERS: It did?

FORD JR.: It worked.

WATTERS: Look at how you turned out.

FORD JR.: It never happened again. I got spanked that day two times. Once my parents learned, they were so embarrassed, they took matters in their own hands when I got home as well. So I don't have as much of an issue with this.

[...]

DANA PERINO (CO-HOST): I can understand parents maybe saying, "Look, if I'm not there and they do something bad, maybe so." However, we're also saying we don't want teachers to deal with the sensitive topics like gender issues, for example, prefer to do that at home. I think that, in my opinion, if I had children, I would want to take care of the paddling myself.

WATTERS: Can you paddle female students?

JEANINE PIRRO (CO-HOST): Yeah. Yeah, there's no distinction.

WATTERS: You can.

BRIAN KILMEADE (CO-HOST): And on the butt, right? Not on the hands.

PIRRO: On the butt. It's on the butt.

WATTERS: And how many smacks do you get?

PIRRO: I think to three.

KILMEADE: Up to three.

PIRRO: And you cannot cause physical harm.

WATTERS: Well, what's the line?

PIRRO: Well --

KILMEADE: Tears?

PIRRO: Physical harm is physical injury where --

WATTERS: Tears don't count.

PIRRO: -- No -- where you leave a mark.

WATTERS: Where you leave a mark.

PIRRO: Yeah.

WATTERS: But how do you know?

PIRRO: The parents will tell you when the kids get home.

All five co-hosts giggled hysterically throughout the segment, appearing to find the idea of teachers spanking their students pretty darned amusing. Jesse Watters seemed particularly titillated by the idea of female students being paddled.

Co-host Dana Perino tried to connect this to the teacher shortage, claiming that the teacher shortage was partly due to the fact that teachers can't handle how kids are misbehaving in school, particularly post-COVID — ignoring the real reason for the shortage, which is that we are not paying anyone enough to be a teacher. The fact that those who are selfless enough to become teachers are now being threatened with lawsuits if they teach that racism exists, and also are constantly berated on Fox News as being "groomers" who are trying to "indoctrinate" children probably doesn't help too much either.

In order to push their "groomer" line, conservatives at Fox News and elsewhere have been trying to paint LGBTQ+ identities as paraphilias, or sexual fetishes. The line is that they're not homophobic or transphobic, they just don't want their children learning about sex so early and from their teachers. However, it is no more sexual to discuss Heather having two mommies than it is to discuss Todd having a mommy and a daddy, and being trans has no more to do with sex than being cis does.

You know what definitely is a fetish though? Spanking. And while we would never kink shame anyone, we certainly wouldn't want children exposed to BDSM, particularly when they do not consent to it. That's a joke, of course, but children actually do need to learn that they should never be touched in any way without their consent, particularly on their rear ends. There's something to be said for the fact that conservatives are okay with teachers physically hurting students, but appalled by the idea of those same teachers letting children be themselves in the classroom.

While the news that the Cassville, Missouri, school district has decided to bring back corporal punishment has shocked a lot of people, corporal punishment is not at all unusual in schools in the United States of America. It is, in fact, legal in public schools in 19 states — Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Wyoming. It is legal in private schools across the country.

Notably, in most cases in Florida, parents are not even allowed to opt their children out of this. Yes, Florida. Teachers can't mention that LGBTQ+ people exist or that racism exists, but they are more than free to beat children should they step out of line. In 2018, charges were dropped against a Lake County, Florida, school bus monitor who physically assaulted two special needs students, putting "one child in a headlock and a shoe over the mouth of another," because "defendant's behavior arguably falls under the corporal punishment privilege given his role as a bus monitor."

Corporal punishment in schools is banned in 128 countries, including pretty much every industrialized nation except the United States, the Republic of South Korea, and three states in Australia (though only in private schools), probably because they want children to feel safe at school and not have to worry that they are going to be physically assaulted by their teachers when detention would suffice.

[ Media Matters ]

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