I don’t watch “Wife Swap” because the title describes something that should be way more sexy than the reality of the show, so I missed the recent episode in which the liberal-elite Stephen Fowler of San Francisco traded his life-coach wife for Gayla Long, a well-meaning Missouri simpleton. Fowler, a British expatriate, brow-beat Long to the point of tears, calling her dumb, fat, uneducated, and so on. He also managed to insult almost every subset of American culture and come off as an ignorant, elitist prick.
The resulting fallout from Fowler being King Dickhead of North America has forced him to apologize, and his wife admitted that he needed “professional help.” Yeah, professional help caving in his skull with a claw hammer.
Wait. Did I just offer to kill him for money? So I did. That was a mistake. I’ll do it for free.
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“He also managed to insult almost every subset of American culture and come off as an ignorant, elitist prick.”
- I refuse to believe someone like that is British.
H.O.L.Y. S.H.I.T.
Nobody will ever read this comment, but if you do, please know that I want to fucking kill that fucking fuck. What a fucking fuckfaced piece of fucking shit. DIE. I honestly would weigh the consequences of kill him if I saw him on the street. ARGH! I have no outlet for my hate, internet, that’s why I talk to you…
‘killing’, not kill. And I apologize for swearing like an Italian-American. Sorry about that.
“It’s not every day she comes across someone like me.”
Fuck this guy.
ok, I am an ex-pat english guy living in texas, went to a very good school where I was taught to be civil and polite even to those I cannot stand. If this person is as he claims well eductated he would know how to act to guests in his house, i am a prick at times and i want to hurt this imbicile, well done as if us brits are not viewed badly anyway by the majority of people who live outside of NYC and SF.
I live in a redneck town, have redneck friends, and you know what those people may drink and fight but they would protect me better than this idiots friends, if he has any
As a highly educated, lifelong Midwestern American who studied at one of London’s most prestigious institutions, I feel overqualified in deeming this British dad an ignorant sack of shit. His elitism and arrogance will be a serious hardship for his poor children — one that could take them a lifetime to overcome. I weep for their futures.
“I think the worst thing that James (his son) could do is to tell me that he wants to move to Missouri. What is wrong with the United States — people in the middle of the country frankly (laughs) are just like you. It’s amazing – uneducated, simple and without a clue about what’s going on in the world.” ~ Stephen Fowler, Jan. 30th episode of “Wife Swap”
During both world wars, it was mostly the “clueless Americans” from working class families throughout the middle of the country who gave their lives and bailed out Britain and France.
After the end of WW II in 1947, the Truman Doctrine followed by the Marshall Plan pledged American financial aid for a generous program of European economic recovery. This is why Europe and Britain were able to rebuild and afford good social programs and national health care — while poor Americans continue to go without!
And international class bigots like Fowler dare to insult those same Americans? For the past 65 years, Europeans have enjoyed longer life expectancies and higher living standards on the dime of poor working class American’s tax dollars that benefited everyone else — except working class Americans from Appalachia and rural “podunk” towns across the US.
It was the tax dollars of working class Americans that funded the financial aid package to rebuild European nations after WW II. Who does that smug prick think paid for the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan, which made social benefits and socialized medicine affordable for Britain and France? The Tooth Fairy?
Every day, 122 poor uninsured Americans die for lack of access to healthcare, 1 in 5 foreclosures are due to unaffordable medical bills, 1 in 4 bankruptcies are due to unaffordable medical bills and extremely high prices on medicine in the US.
Stephen Fowler and the rest of Britain enjoy generous social programs and safety nets, made possible because of poor working class Americans whose taxes funded Europe’s economic recovery post-war. And for this, we are put down for our weight problems, our inability to afford university educations, healthy foods, and being “militaristic” and “fascist.”
If it wasn’t for our military and our poorer people who have been deprived of opportunities for advanced educations, travel, and healthcare while our taxes funded the rebuilding of Britain; Stephen Fowler would not have had the luxury of growing up with access to low-cost high quality medical and dental care so that his advanced education and opportunity to achieve economic success would have been possible. His parents would not have had a nice middle class life due to the security that comes with having access to health and dental care so that he could go to a prestigious university and achieve economic success. And it would be Stephen Fowler, not the majority of struggling Americans, living in a “podunk town” with nothing. Britain would have remained a pile of rubble and ended up as Hitler’s outhouse.
I think Stephen Fowler owes ALL Americans a hell of alot more than a self-serving apology. Repayment of his portion of benefits made possible because of the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan is a good start.
I am a ex-pat Brit living in the San Francisco Bay Area. I never post comments on these kind of things but I have to say something in response to this fool.
In the 9 years I have lived in the US, I have been privileged to travel extensively throughout the nation. Although people’s religious or political beliefs may differ, I have never found the American people to be less than the kindest, most generous individuals I could hope to meet – without exception. I feel blessed to be allowed to live here in the US and honored to be a guest until I am able to become a proud citizen.
This man obviously feels the need to belittle others to make himself feel good. It is ironic that he chose to to speak to this woman and her husband like that here in the US rather than in England. They showed great character and incredible restraint at the end there which truly speaks volumes about the integrity of those people. In all honesty I can say that if he tried to pull that crap on TV back in England he would have got his ass handed to him while the cameras rolled and would likely have to leave the country. I am quite serious about that, the national press would hound him for this.
I’m truly ashamed of the way he conducted himself. An Englishman is nothing if he cannot call himself a Gentleman and this man is an utter disgrace to us all.
@apologetic brit:
As an American that lived in Europe for years, I have to say there is no need to be apologetic for this asshole. Apart from being unreasonably enraged by his smug, elitist, and horribly unfair attitude (especially toward his children– as a father myself I am incredibly saddened), one of the things that disturbs me about this is that I fear it will reinforce existing attitudes in America toward Europeans. This guy does not in any way represent England, or Europe, and his stance as some sort of bastion of civility and education in the wilds of America only reveals a profound ignorance and delusion regarding his own country. Because, you see, the vast majority of us, worldwide, are in fact from podunk little towns, with little sense of the outside world and connected by our very nature most strongly to the immediacy of our needs, and our families’. To disregard the goodness and humanity of people that don’t live in some million-dollar walkup in San Francisco is, in his own words, “fascistic.”
Oh god do I feel horrible for those kids.
Cool shirts.
As an American, I’m going to have to go ahead and side with him. Sure, he’s a total jerk about it and being that cruel to someone’s face is a little morally reprehensible…But come on people, you can’t completely deny what he’s saying! There are way too many people in this country (especially mid-westerners)who are under-educated, obese slobs.
They eat their fast food, drive around in their gigantic SUV’s, watch way too much TV, and breed more dumb fat kids.
@realist
/agreed
I have not watched television in some 12+ years, and the concept behind Reality-TV has always seemed a misnomer to me. So to the people who immediately eat in that this guy is as much a prick as they show, please tell me you can fathom that there are things that were not shown.
Really, would it have benefited the shows ratings to have played down the middle America wife and bolster the affluent Brit?
Can you see that there exists the possibility that she’s much more of a bitch to him when the cameras were not rolling or during scenes that were cut?
The way his children are treated, especially with waking the boy to finish his homework, will benefit them greatly in the coming years. They may not end up loving dear old dad, but they’ll appreciate the ethic he instilled in them.
At the end, there is no real way to make an intelligent conclusion based off of the way all of these people treated one another during the course of what we were shown. However, I do find it interesting that the producers decided to show the “prick’s” home as sparkling clean and the middle American wife’s home as wholly disheveled.