Stephen Fowler on Wife Swap

Be Glad You're Not Married to THIS Guy

2009-03-05T17:00:00Z

relationship advice from Dr. Sheila:

Dr. Sheila's advice: The key is how and when you tell her [ Mrs. Fowler ]. It is important here to stress to your friend your concern for her welfare and happiness. Invite your friend out for coffee, tea, or a stroll in the park. Tell her there is something very important you want to talk to her about. Let her know how much you care about her and how important she is to you. Then tell her that you have "noticed" something. Tell her that you "noticed" that her husband [ Mr. Fowler ] doesn't treat her very well and that concerns you. Ask her if she agrees with your assessment. Give examples, if possible.

Be sure to NOT husband bash. Don't call him names, etc. Just stick to your concern for her. Decide in advance what support you can provide her and then offer it. It maybe that you give her a book to read ("The Emotionally Abused Wife" by Beverly Engel is particularly good) or the phone number of a good psychologist. You might offer to go with her to the first appointment. Make sure your friend knows how serious this is and how serious you are and that you are there for her.

There is a caveat I must offer here: Sometime the truth hurts and your friend may not welcome your comments or believe them. That's okay. You were a good friend sharing your concern with her. If she can't hear it now, maybe she'll be able to hear it later.

taken from http://www.momlogic.com/2009/03/stephen_fowler_wife_swap.php

CNN: Recreate Yourself and Apologize

2009-03-03T16:16:00Z

from this report on CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/TV/03/03/reality.tv.villains/index.html

"Hopefully this guy has realized his character flaw and he's going to change," ... "Whether it's good or bad, depending on how the experience goes, I think you do learn a little about yourself and a lot of people change."

And the CNN report (after the commercial), the camera magnifies your personality

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/TV/03/03/reality.tv.villains/index.html#cnnSTCVideo

Summary

2009-02-28T17:43:00Z

this sums it up nicely, taken from http://www.blogs.com/2009/02/13/everybody-hates-stephen-fowler.html

Everybody Hates Stephen Fowler

It looks like everyone's upset with the way the Wife Swap show went for San Francisco venture capitalist and his wife Renee Stephens and his temporary TV wife Gayla Long. The reviews are in. Fowler is "the most boorish and abusive of husbands ever to host a swapped wife," says Reality Roll Call. "Phenonemally cruel," says Gawker. "Stephen Fowler is everything wrong with the elitist eurotrash transplants in this country," (Fowler is British) says Fixn' To. Anybody else have something to say? "Pompous treehugger ass," says ecorazzi. Alright then. "Supreme douchebag," says Peter Staack's Ramblings. (Video from the show that had been everywhere is being pulled down like the Berlin Wall but seems to be still online here at GlossLip). Gayla is an average, nice Midwestern American, and Videogum reports Fowler spent much of the show verbally abusing his assigned "redneck" "wife." He called her fat and stupid and said 'I make more money in a week than you do in a year,' and was "basically the biggest douchebag ever to appear on reality TV" so "now Americans have joined together to collectively hate him."

As Rabbi Philospher itemizes: "In the course of the TV show he offended military personnel, mid-westerners, people with weight problems, people without college diplomas and the vast majority of Americans in general." There's been a Missouri-sized backlash from Midwesterners. In the words of a commenter at Gold Plated Witch on Wheels: "There is this superiority complex which liberals in general seem to have in regards to the 'midwestern simple redneck' (to use assbite Fowler's terms). This particular man only verbalized it on national TV " British blog Militant Ginger backlashes the backlash: "Just like Fowler had labelled Gayla a 'redneck' and attacked her for traits like her weight or her patriotism, many of the people reacting to Fowler attacked him for his nationality."

Then came a Stephen Fowler Sucks blog. A blogger posted Fowler's home address online and he had to threaten to sue the site. His real wife Renee apologized on her own blog, Inside Out Weight Loss. And he added his own mea cupla at the same site. And he resigned from the boards of two environmental nonprofits, Gawker reports. Of course the whole premise of Wife Swap is to exploit our wonderful differences -- the differenter the better. And the whole goal for the ABC network is to get people talking about the show. So maybe not everyone's upset about how it went.

The Urban Dictionary

2009-02-27T14:07:00Z

Kudos Stephen, you made it into the urban dictionary:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Stephen Fowler

Give him a few "thumbs ups"!

And take a look at the creativity of the readers of this blog:

http://blog.stephenfowlersucks.com/2009/02/03/we-have-a-new-word-fowleristic.aspx

How to Not become a Stephen Fowler

2009-02-26T14:01:00Z

I found this on ehow.com ( http://www.ehow.com/how_4782456_not-become-stephen-fowler-american.html )

Insults, rudeness, racist remarks, generalized stereotyping. This was the downfall of Stephen Fowler in One Hour on Reality TV. Wife Swap, Jan 30th episode. I've decided we can change our attitudes by not repeating Stephen Fowler's worst day.

Instructions in three steps:

1. I understand TV Reality shows are edited with the intent to entice more views. But what brought on the downfall of Stephen Fowler? Elitist attitude? It really doesn't matter what it was. What matters is that we do as Crosby,Stills,Nash and Young advocate in the song,"Teach Your Children Well". Teach our children manners, courtesy, social compassion, embracing diversity among men by your example. You are the Reality TV of their lives. They are editing you and will judge you just as harshly. You enhance your family relationship by teaching.

2. The Iraq war. My intent is not to agree or disagree with it. I want us to stop for a moment and think of these soldiers as 'someone's' child. Most wars have divided nations, and families. Let's put aside that for a moment, and purchase cell phone cards for soldiers to phone their families here in the United States. Do you fly often? Donate frequent flyer miles to soldiers stuck in deployment areas around the world. Support Fisher House, which provides housing near Department of Defence hospitals for veterans and soldiers families.

3. Those who been able to earn their Masters, Doctorate or Bachelors' degrees need to share our education with others who aren't afforded the opportunity. This is how we differ from Stephen Fowler, we will not have an elitist idea of ourselves, belittling and stereotyping those around us. Our health, wealth, intelligence are all a gift. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. What is going to be written on your epitaph? What kind of reputation will you leave behind? Let's store our treasures and in Heaven where nothing will destroy them.

One T-Shirt for every abuse

2009-02-25T14:31:00Z

Treehugger.com ran this article on Sunday:

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/02/stephen_fowler.php

It has an interesting list with Fowler's T-Shirts and the kind of abuse he was shelling out while wearing it:

"Tree...Hugger," says his shirt as he brutally berates his temporary wife.

"Sustainability!" his shirt exclaims as he kicks Mrs. Long out of his house.

"Go Solar," his shirt cries as his swapped-out helpmate weeps.

I agree with treehugger's conclusion: Yes. There are some jerks thrown into every mix. There are jerks everywhere. You can't escape them.

And the good people of earthfirst.com have no sympathy for him either:

http://earthfirst.com/smug-self-important-san-francisco-stereotype-springs-to-life/

Fowler Fatigue

2009-02-24T15:52:00Z

Hey Y'all,

I am getting a bit of Fowler Fatigue and I thought I post this to bring a little joy to my readers after all that foul stress:

This is a South Park episode called "Smug Alert" which aired a while ago (2006). It depicts San Franciscans as people who are so smug that they all love to smell their own farts. And of course everyone drives a "Pious".

Official description:

The Broflovski's arrive in San Francisco, where the weather is cloudy, the people have too many names, and people smell their own farts.

http://www.southparkstudios.com/episodes/103216

Look for the link "Watch this full episode"

Southpark commentary, even better:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5rQM_HAcfA

One of the readers found this Cheetos commercial and he predicts that Fowler references like this one will appear more often.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgoDcCQZzIg

Enjoy!

PS: all San Franciscans who are offended by this episode should refrain from venting their anger on this blog and instead go to the south park message board, if they have one.

The Brits are not pleased with him either

2009-02-23T15:36:00Z

The Fowler story started to move across the atlantic. Here is a short list of newspapers in the UK:

US 'Wife Swap' Briton becomes hate figure after calling woman 'redneck'

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/4743304/US-Wife-Swap-Briton-becomes-hate-figure-after-calling-woman-redneck.html

TV Brit's death threats

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/02/22/tv-brit-s-death-threats-115875-21142631/

One Englishman the US doesn't like

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/guy-adams-one-englishman-the-us-doesnt-like-1632283.html

The most hated man in the US

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/the-most-hated-man-in-the-us-1628959.html

Wife Swap contestant is internet hate figure

http://www.sundaysun.co.uk/news/north-east-news/2009/02/22/wife-swap-contestant-is-internet-hate-figure-79310-22980082/

Fowler unites

2009-02-22T16:37:00Z

When Fox News, NPR and the Huffington Post agree on something then you have a real uniter:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/21/stephen-foster-san-franci_n_168787.html

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100953688

Make sure that you click on the "recommend" or "I like it"buttons.

Fowler on MSNBC and the NY Times

2009-02-21T17:41:00Z

Seems like whenever I predict that this is over someone else is publishing another article on it. This time it is MSNBC with the headline

Hatred for ‘Wife Swap’ husband still grows

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29308285/

They mentioned Renee's condemnation of Stephen's behavior:

..public condemnation by his own wife, who on her blog urged him to get professional help.

and even referred to the bacon on Renee's website:

The backlash against Fowler appears to have hit his wife as well. On Friday, her blog, on renee.personallifemedia.com, was defaced by a strip of bacon — an apparent reference to her boast on “Wife Swap” that her family only eats the finest organic, healthy food money can buy.

The same article appeared in the NY Times with the headline:

San Francisco Man Faces Fallout From 'Wife Swap'

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/02/20/us/AP-Hated-Husband.html?_r=1

aaaand the San Jose Mercury News:

http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_11751061

AP can be a wonderful thing ...

Fowler On Fox

2009-02-20T15:47:00Z

Fox News, love it or hate it but they are taking Stephen Fowler apart. Enjoy this installment of Kellys Court:

http://www.foxnews.com/video/index.html?playerId=videolandingpage&streamingFormat=FLASH&referralObject=3648591&referralPlaylistId=949437d0db05ed5f5b9954dc049d70b0c12f2749

and here

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/index.php?cl=12119417

and on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTV_XgO0y9c

Manners Maketh Man

2009-02-19T15:32:00Z

Manners Maketh Man

A quote from Fowler's fellow countryman William of Wykeham (1324 - 1404) who was a bishop, chancellor, and architect. He founded Winchester College and New College, Oxford. He also played a key role in the building of Windsor Castle. His motto is also the motto for both Winchester College and Oxford.

Stephen Fowler, are you so lost that you have forgotten? MANNERS MAKETH MAN.

this was sent to me by a midwestern attorney, an overweight midwestern attorney as she described herself.

It took the San Francisco Chronicle 18 days

2009-02-18T14:05:00Z

Only 18 days later I am delighted to report that Stephen Fowler made it into a San Francisco newspaper:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/17/DDTL15T2OH.DTL&tsp=1

The article mentions the "viewing party" at the Fowler residence and that his friends were *supportive* whatever that means. Enjoy this pro-Fowler article by the San Francisco Comical.

I love their rotating headlines on the front page: Everyone loathes 'Swap' hubby, Swap Hubby Scorned and Hated Husband

ABC's recap is a very interesting read, especially the interview with Renee: http://abc.go.com/primetime/wifeswap/index?pn=recap#t=129325

And here is the rebuttal:

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/p-j-gladnick/2009/02/21/sf-chronicle-sanitizes-stephen-fowler-hateful-elitism-wife-swap

This is what YOU can do

2009-02-17T17:43:00Z

As the Stephen Fowler debacle is nearing its end, I'd like to ask you for some help. Our friend Stephen is doing the right thing by keeping himself out of the news and he even managed not to be mentioned in the San Francisco Chronicle which is an accomplishment by itself. ABC will probably never air this show again but they sure like the press they got for this one. So it's all on us to preserve Stephen's legacy.

1. In order to keep this site in the top Google rankings it needs to be linked to. As long as you are mad at Stephen Fowler you should post links to this site ( blog.stephenfowlersucks.com ) here and there and everywhere.

2. Make sure there is always a copy of the Fowler videos on youtube. A brief description on how to do this is here: http://blog.stephenfowlersucks.com/2009/02/10/a-word-about-fowler-videos.aspx

3. Keep an eye on Stephen's business ( Terranova Bioenergy and others ) and Renee's ( Mind For Body ). They always appreciate a friendly review on one of the many review sites.

4. Sign up for Google Alerts as I mentioned yesterday. This will give you a list of mostly uninteresting and unrelated Stephen Fowler news, BUT, if he happens to slip again you will be the first to know.( www.google.com/alerts?hl=en&q=stephen+fowler&ie=UTF8&t=1 )

5. I set up an email address where can contact me directly. It's the name of this website (without the dot come) at gmail dot com.

That's it and thanks for all the fish!

The Fowler Trend

2009-02-16T14:47:00Z

Google Trends is a tool from Google Labs that shows the most popularly searched terms from the beginning of 2004 to now.

Google Trends shows how often a particular search term is entered relative the total search volume across various regions of the world, and in various languages.

Here is Stephen Fowler's trend:

http://www.google.com/trends?q=stephen+fowler&ctab=0&geo=all%am987�te=mtd&sort=0

I also recommend to sign up for Google Alerts which will send you Stephen Fowler news every day:

http://www.google.com/alerts?hl=en&q=stephen+fowler&ie=UTF8&t=1

2 weeks later people are still outraged

2009-02-15T15:18:00Z

one of the letters that were sent to me:

Dear Mr. Fowler:

I will start this letter by first stating that I rarely watch “reality” television. I much prefer to watch what I consider, at least in my opinion, more worthwhile programs. I would have never heard of you had it not been for a headline on Yahoo, claiming that you were the worst husband ever. Out of curiosity I clicked the link and then read of your behavior on ‘Wife Swap.’ As stated previously, I do not watch reality television so therefore I have never viewed a single episode of ‘Wife Swap’ but after reading about your rude and hateful behavior towards Gayla, I made it a point to watch this particular episode.

It is here that I would like to tell you that I’m a Missouri resident. I also will tell you that I’m educated. I have two Bachelors degrees, one Masters degree, and am currently working on a Ph.D. I have a BMI of 20 and I take good care of my body. I also endorse environmental awareness and I live as ‘green’ as I can. I also take an interest in other cultures and make it a point to stay current on global issues. In short, I am everything a Missouri resident, a Midwesterner, should not be according to your highly prejudiced, myopic viewpoint.

I took what I saw on ‘Wife Swap’ with an ample grain of salt as “reality” as portrayed on reality television may be a rather dubious representation of real life. With that said, I was nonetheless horrified and appalled at what I can only describe as vicious, callous, spiteful, arrogant, hateful, if not downright pathological behavior on your part. In fact, I am very confused as to why anyone with your so called intelligence and education can act, and treat others, like you did.

It is therefore my opinion that you, sir, are a fraud. It is my contention that you learned very little during your education. If you had, you would have discovered how interconnected we are with others as a species. You would have noted from your history lessons how elitists have abused the individuals they considered beneath them, as well as how kindly history now remembers those elitists. You might have gained some perspective on how utterly insignificant we are when compared to the vastness of the universe. You also might have learned humility and gratitude when you reflected on how very unlikely it is that we are even here. Finally, if you would have been paying attention at University, you would have felt a sense of responsibility to serve humankind as well as the environment.

The individuals you scorn have as much right to dignity as you, yet you completely demoralised that woman as well as the rest of the people captured by your wide brush strokes of generalisation. You apparently believe that people who do not live up to your standards are subhuman. That attitude, sir, is a very dangerous one to have as we have seen what happens when one group of people dehumanise another group.

I am further saddened to see you teach your children the same bigoted ideals. You are preparing them to carry on your legacy of arrogance and pompousness. This is doing a disservice to them as they will be handicapped in socialisation skills with their fellow humans as well as healthy emotional development. I hope that these apples will fall far, far from your tree.

I care not that you insulted my country as becoming an American was simply an accident of my birth. I care not that you insulted my entire state as becoming a resident of Missouri was again, simply an accident of birth. My skin is thick enough to dismiss your venom as the ideals of a bigot.

I do not forgive you your horrendous behavior or your equally sickening morality.

Although there is probably very little hope for you at this point, I recommend that now become a student of humanity. Perhaps then you will learn what it means to be human.

A word about Fowler videos

2009-02-14T15:16:00Z

I noticed that a couple of the fowler videos have been pulled from youtube. ABC does not oppose when people post those videos. After all it just spreads their wife swap brand, free advertising so to speak.

The videos are flagged by youtube trolls. They get a kick out it when a video gets removed because they reported it. I talked to the person who posted the original "highlights" video and it had over 180,000 views and more than 4000 comments when it got removed!!! ABC wished they had posted it themselves with advertising in it.

Much to our luck people are downloading the videos and republishing them on youtube. If you want to do it yourself just google for "download youtube" and you will find plenty of links.

I do it with the Firefox browser, the greasemokey plugin and a download script :

1. http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/

2. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/748

3. http://userscripts.org/scripts/source/25105.user.js

This gives me a little link called "Download as MP4" in the video description box on the right side of the video.

I encourage everyone to get their own copies of the fowler files. Working links to the fowler videos are always on http://blog.stephenfowlersucks.com/2009/02/02/stephen-fowler-on-youtube.aspx

In case you want to upload them to youtube do this:

Get an email account from gmail.com. Gmail is super fast to set up (you don't need to provide them with an alternate email address) and links with youtube.com. Make sure you enter those keywords (under "edit video"): stephen fowler, wife swap so that people can find it easily.

Do this every week until you get tired of it.

Enjoy!

ABC airs report about Stephen Fowler.

2009-02-13T16:21:00Z

The report is quite good, interviewing neighbors, mentioning this blog and repeating Stephen's apology. They talk about 24 hour security, people driving by his house all day long, a flyer, and someone even egged his house (which goes too far). And they show him in his garage with his Minivan and BMW. You would think that a man who works in the biofuel (which is equal to biodiesel) industry, would have at least one diesel car (BMW makes fine and clean diesel cars).

on ABC:

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/san_francisco&id=6656573

or on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhykAAg86bs

Worst Fowler day ever

2009-02-12T15:00:00Z

Yesterday, around 4 pm PST, yahoo.com posted an article on their front page titled "Husbands behaving badly" and "Wife Swap contestant's tirades shock viewers" and "Worst husband ever" (Yahoo has rotating headlines)

http://tv.yahoo.com/blog/husbands-behaving-badly--120

While the local San Francisco media (mainly the San Francisco Chronicle) still ignores this story yahoo set off a firestorm. By the end of the day the combined views of all fowler videos on youtube were more than 200k. The highlights video alone had more than 100k views within 8 hours. The comments on this site reached the 2000 mark by midnight. The comments on youtube were much more than this and the ABC message board had a huge surge of traffic just as the whole debacle was about to wind down.

As all Americans know (and Stephen should have known), nothing infuriates the nation more than bashing the military. He really should have known that. It's one thing to talk amongst his peers like that during his "viewing party" but to go on national TV and tell the nation that ".. we need folks like you [Gayla's family] to feed it [the military] " was inexcusable. That pissed a lot of people off.

Let's see who else will be picking up this story. It will be interesting to watch this unfold.

Some *fans* are posting their video blogs about Stephen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7HjjXP_ZUs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PlM3WTaYsE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO_KFDmqxwE

Maybe this sums it up why nobody in San Francisco wants to talk about him:

http://noevalleysf.blogspot.com/2009/02/fowling-noe-valley.html

For all of you who like to post comments, please refrain from posting people's contact information or any threats to anyone's health. Let's keep it civil. Thank you.

What's an international school?

2009-02-11T15:16:00Z

When I heard Renee saying that her kids attend an international school it reminded me of a bygone era when cities like Tokyo, Paris or Buenos Aires had expat communities (diplomats etc) who did not want their children to attend the local schools.

What struck me more is that Renee said "bi-lingual international school". At that particular school they teach in english and french. You might want to argue the usefulness of learning french but it is nice to learn a second language.

If you have been to San Francisco you might also know that this is a very diverse city. Not only do you have a large asian community and a large hispanic community, but you also have groups of people from every known country in this world. That is nice!

Don't feel bad if you are a parent (lower or middle class, not upper class like Stephen) and you have to send your children to a public school. I know that San Francisco's public schools are much more diverse than the international school, despite the name. Go to any public school in San Francisco and you will hear many languages spoken. In fact, I bet you, if you your kids want to, they can pick up cantonese/mandarin or spanish in no time. Not just french. And that's a lot more useful.

In conclusion, most public schools in San Francisco are tri-lingual at the least. No need to spend money on a private bi-lingual school.

One of the readers found this Cheetos commercial and he predicts that Fowler references like this one will appear more often.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgoDcCQZzI

About Education

2009-02-10T15:19:00Z

We like education. We spend a lot of money to send our kids to college. Some of us even go into debt to enable their kids to get a degree. But that's just for academic education. Some of the brightest in our nation have not even made it through grade school (Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Walt Disney) or through college (Bill Gates, Steven Spielberg, Harry Truman). Granted most of them are (were) very gifted but all of them had the strong urge not to waste time with the accumulation of book knowledge and rather acquire lesson's learned from life.

Here is an interesting list of millionaire dropouts that you should hide from your kids:

www.millionairedropouts.com

Some definitions about education:

    - encompasses both the teaching and learning of knowledge, proper conduct, and technical competency. It thus focuses on the cultivation of skills, trades or professions, as well as mental, moral & aesthetic development.

    - process or art of imparting knowledge, skill and judgment

    - facts, skills and ideas that have been learned, either formally or informally

    - teaching or refinement to be discriminative in taste or judgment

In any case, what we don't ever want to hear our children say is this: Look mom, I am a certified life coach and a certified destination coach!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uG2GwSpO7tc [around 6:25]

Best Stephen Fowler letter I have read so far

2009-02-09T15:26:00Z

I found this letter on facebook, this letter was NOT written by The Average American but by an average american:

Dear Mr. Fowler (as well as any ancillary persons reading this e-mail at your place of employment),

I recently viewed an episode of ABC's 'Wife Swap', a show with which I am none too familiar. My wife stole my attention and implored me to watch the show with her. She said that I would find you amazing, and she was entirely correct.

Let me tell you about myself rather quickly. I am an educated man myself, and my IQ has been tested in the same range as yours (if I'm being entirely honest, I've only tested around 145... not quite the impressive 158 that you boast. Kudos sir.) Professionally, I am quite successful. I am the Director of Marketing for a large real estate firm in New York. Also like you, I consider myself to be well traveled and worldly, having spent much time abroad and having had the opportunity to visit most of Europe. Living in New York I am proud to call myself a progressive liberal, and believe that my political leanings stand as a testament to the nature of my Renaissance spirit. I tell you these things about myself lest you mistake me for a "po-dunk redneck", because God forbid that you classify me among "those people."

Having recently finished a viewing of the program I must applaud you sir for your bravery. It must not have been easy for you to take such a righteous stance. You have demonstrated a high level of courage. You dispensed with any good will that could have been shown to you had you made your views known with poise and dignity. Rather, you decided to walk to road less traveled and demonstrated your views through naked aggression and ruthless verbal battery. Well done. You took someone who you found to be a lesser human being than you and methodically and cunningly destroyed her entire value system. Incredible job. It is readily apparent that you had full understanding that doing so would alienate your entire family (including your small children) and possibly put your career and reputation at risk... but you paid no mind to these meaningless detours. You walked a hard line because you believed in it. Outstanding. You recognized that this woman was part of the uneducated masses that make up the entire middle part of this horrible disgusting country that we call America. Some may say that this is an unfair and ignorant categorization of a entire geographically located and socio-economic grouping of people... perhaps even citing that over 1.4 million people from this woman's home state recently voted for Barack Obama. Some might equate this to an American who classifies most Brits as obnoxious alcoholic football hooligans with obvious traces of centuries of inbreeding and a tradition of substandard hygiene. But not me sir, no.

I also watched and applauded as you demonstrated what can only be described as a coldly scientific approach to parenting. You value education above all other things, and when you recognized that this value was not shared by this woman, you attacked her for cerebral shortcomings. You even went so far as to whisper into the ears of your children how awful and stupid this woman would be, and your daughter (being the perfect little mime) replicated these thoughts. It is apparent that she will grow to be just like her parents... extremely well educated and devoid of any compassion or modesty. You can surely be proud of this as compassion and modesty are over rated and traits that only the weak applaud... even if they are principle tenants shared by nearly every major religion in the world. I say how dare this woman not value education above all else, including familial love and childhood joy. Take your son for instance. You have obviously showed him the true meaning of education by forcing him to engage in activities that he obviously has zero interest in and at times removing any feelings of paternal love and support. It would appear that, like your daughter, he will grow to be an intelligent and successful adult... even if it comes at the cost of normal socialization skills and basic human decency. Bravo!

I worry for you sir. Not from physical harm mind you, but simply from the public relations backlash and community ostracizing that will surely be coming your way. I wonder if some of your comments, the ones in which you seemed to paint American and Americans with a broad brush, will come back to haunt you. I should surely hope not. Take for instance your obvious and unabashed dislike for America. I wonder if an injured veteran who had once assisted your British brethren in wartime in say Germany, or Iraq might take these comments. But if you think about it this injured Soldier or Sailor is most likely uneducated and likely had no other options available but military service, so what difference would their opinions be? I suppose though that there are individuals such as Academy Graduates and ROTC students who excelled in school who could have voluntarily chose to serve America... but they probably wouldn't have a problem with you, and if they did who would care again... they're "less than you" for having decided to serve such a wretched country.

You are obviously a very wealthy man, and you are not very modest about your riches, and why should you be? You come across as patently elitist and snobbish, and there is nary a moment that goes by in your life where you are not sizing up and categorizing what class a person belongs in. I say good on you for that... you've earned that right haven't you? To the victor goes the spoils as they say. You laugh in the face of a deep recession because you are smarter than everyone else. I fear though, that your wife might receive some of the backlash though. She is what again? Oh, I recall. She is a "Certified Life Coach" and "Weight Loss Counselor". In such an economy where trivial endeavors and purchases are the first thing that people dispense with, this career path will surely be steady. But wait... wouldn't that make most of her clients the obese and those who need someone to guide their lives? Yes, I suppose. And are not these the same people that she has alienated by her obvious agreement to your methods and policies? I can only hope that her client base does not fade into oblivion.

On a much smaller note, I'd like to applaud you on your smashing wardrobe. I myself am what you would call an active environmentalist. I drive a hybrid, I lobby for the use of sustainable energy sources and I work tirelessly to reduce by carbon footprint each and every day. That being said, I've never thought to tailor my entire wardrobe around pithy t-shirts that send this message out loudly and obnoxiously. I think that its great that you do though. Some would say that this is simply another way of making those around you feel less than, and advertising your superiority. But I again disagree. I think that its just fantastic that you make your policies part of your daily look. I don't care if people call you a complete and total douchebag... you're aces in my book.

Lastly, please let me clear something up. In the event that this hasn't already occurred to you and your ultra dry English sense of humor... please know that I have employed the use of sarcasm throughout this e-mail. When I said that I agreed with you, I do not. When I spoke of liking you, I should clarify that instead I find you to be the worst type of elitist scum. You sir are arrogant when you have no currency to spend in that department. How dare you. How dare you attack this woman. I will not stick up for her, because I too find fault with a great many of her choices. But what I will do is admonish you for the wrath that you vomited out of your disgusting crooked mouth. You have no right to cast aspersions on anyone when your world is fraught with failure. You sir, are a failure as a parent, as a husband, as a citizen of this world, and as human being. I am not a "flag waiving" American. I do not have a magnetic sticker on the back of my car, and I have found great fault with this country for the past decade. But I do love this country nonetheless. I care for her and her peoples with all of my heart... warts and all. I would submit that you have heard this argument before, probably formed in cursing colloquialisms, but let me say it again.............. if you have this much fault with a country that has provided you with such great riches, I would ask you that you please book the next possible flight to anywhere but here and leave it immediately. We have no place for you here, nor your wife. If you'd like to leave your children here, we'll gladly foster them and show them what a well rounded, moderate and loving life could be. If you insist on making them little clones of yourself, then by all means.... take them the fuck with you, you rude disgusting little limey prick.

Warm regards

How to deal with the commoners after you told them that they are below you

2009-02-08T15:34:00Z

Here is the dictionary definition of a commoner:

- One of the common people.

- A person without noble rank or title.

- A person who does not belong to the nobility

It's term more common in Britain, the country where Stephen Fowler was born and raised.

So what do you do when you have a maid, a "cleaning lady", and a nanny in the house, and a security guard in front of your door? Normally everything would be fine but you buffoon went on national TV telling everyone that only money, education and intelligence count in your world view. I wonder how they feel working for you after you publicly proclaimed how much you are above the rest of us.

The good news of today is that gawker.com has picked up the story and has listed it under "Jerks" on their front page. The local (San Francisco) media continues to ignore this story but gawker is certainly a step in the right direction.

The headline is Wife Swap' Star Apologizes for Having Worst Husband in World

http://valleywag.gawker.com/5148821/wife-swap-star-apologizes-for-having-worst-husband-in-world?skyline=true&s=x

And a venture capital blog has picked it up as well: vcsandangels.com

http://vcsandangels.com/blog/index.php?s=fowler

And it turns out Renee loves bacon: renee.personallifemedia.com/

What else have we learned about Stephen Fowler?

2009-02-07T17:56:00Z

Nothing positive so far. But we do know how much money he is making. Stephen Fowler stated on wife swap that he makes more money in a week than Mrs. or Mr. Long in year. His quote:

I probably earn more in one week than you do in a year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHKxqrZQKLw [around 0:28]

I do not know what Mr. or Mrs. Long makes in a year. What is the average income in America? A brief google search tells me that the median annual household income was $50,233.00 in 2007. That would put Mr. Fowler at a yearly income of about $2,500,000 (2.5 million, 50 weeks times the Long's yearly income). For someone being involved with a few companies this seems like a normal income. I think Stephen Fowler guessed very accurately.

people Stephen Fowler managed to offend

2009-02-06T16:21:00Z

Here is a list of people who Stephen Fowler managed to offend within 40 minutes:

Rednecks

People in the military

People who have someone they love in the military

Overweight people

People who enjoy Paintball

People who enjoy AT vehicles

People who enjoy GoCarts

People who live in America and call themselves Americans

People who like Fast Food

People who didn't go to college.

People who are intellectuals

People who are dietitians and nutritionists

People who are British

People who are environmentalists

People who are from San Francisco

Anyone else?

we have a new word: fowleristic

2009-02-05T17:02:00Z

fowleristic

Main Entry:: fowl·er·is·tic
Pronunciation:: \foul-er-is-tik\
Function:: adjective

fowleristic (or foul-eristic as the midwest would say) describes a person who is very narcissistic, verbal abusive with little or not empathy towards others. People who like to use more simple words would call this person snooty and pompous.

Cara G. suggested:

fowler (fow-ler) n. (pl. fow’lers)

a person showing extreme lack of couth when addressing others he considers beneath his social and/or academic status, “That mean man is a fowler.” (fow’ler) v. to speak with contemptuous rudeness, to express judgments about, “Didn’t your mother teach you not to fowler your fellow man/woman?”

(fow’ler ous) adj.

impolite, showing no respect or consideration, “Calling someone a “dumb redneck” is fowlerous.” (fow’ler ly) adv. *To fowler by association, using hate speech because of what you’ve been taught by a fowler.

from Webster:

fowlerification (noun)

The process by which a person or situation acquires, or is victimized by, fowlerous properties. "With the final insult in regards to the shotgun, Stephen declared the fowlerification complete."

Fowlerifism

an elitist ideology that tenets of which believe that only those with a certain kind of education and who live in a certain geographic area are entitled to respect and dignity. "Fowlerifism masquerades in forms of liberal ideas, but at its heart is a kind of academic apartheid."

from Mary:

Fowlerize

to intentionally berate, belittle or otherwise act in a way to make another feel of a lower class, unimportant and valueless; to intentionally act towards another in a pretentious, egocentric and condescending manner with the express purpose of shaming, humiliating and demoralizing the other

from Scumbag Soldier:

Fowlerrectalinvesion

A medical affliction where one has his head implanted in his rectum.

Fowlerectomy

a medical procedure to have your head removed from you ass

Fowlerplexiotomy

medical procedure where a window is installed in the stomach. An alternative operation to the above,so Fowler can look down on everyone but still keep his head up his ass.

from educated and overweight:

fowlerism

someone lucky enough to be born with two heads one on top on up the arse

from Briana:

Fowlery

A woman who stands by her man even though he is a dumb ass, and is hated by the American people.

from sean.from.tx:

FOWLERISTICAL

(adj)--conjunction of Fowler & Egotistical....Def=> One exhibiting many or all traits of 'Delusion of Grandeur', often in combination with a host of other inflated and self prescribed 'Grandiose' disorders.

from superdave:

Fowler

(noun) see 'bowel movement.' "Excuse me, I have to take a Fowler."

Fowleresque (foul-er-esk)

Resembling or in the manner of Fowler (Fowler, Stephen of Noe Valley/San Francisco, CA, USA), to be filled with self-disclosed contempt, disdain, an irrational hatred for others; incendiary comments; hate speech.

Fowler gained notoriety while voluntarily participating (and compensated with $50,000 USD) on "Wife Swap", circa 2009, a weekly program on ABC television.

who came to the rescue?

2009-02-04T22:07:00Z

Thousands of people vented their anger about Stephen Fowler online and offline. Did anyone come to their rescue? No?

Wait, I found two:

1. a self proclaimed psychic from San Francisco (Hollis Polk). She seems to be friends with the Fowler's as she claims to have been at the viewing party at their house. You might wonder why she as a psychic did not foresee the outcome of this? Either she was able to see the outcome and choose not to tell them (bad friend!), or she had no clue (bad psychic).

2. a blogger called "Damo Kawasaki" who described Stephens abusive comments as "injudicious comments made by Stephen under duress" and he basically calls the wife swap editors "ratings-whores". He conveniently overlooked that you have to be an "attention-whore" to participate in that show to begin with. (I exclude all the fine people who do it for the money). Damo defended Stephen for several days unsuccessfully and gave up after Renee made a announcement she is was/is appalled by her husband's behavior.

Unfortunately for them Renee issued a statement on Tuesday where she said that, and I quote her, "I too am utterly appalled by my husband's behavior during the swap" and "I have asked him to get professional help."

We don't know whether she really said it, it's all hearsay of course. However, her friend Hollis Polk has removed all of her posts about this mess on her blog. This came around a time when a self proclaimed *friend* of the Fowler's made posts that the guests at the viewing party were as shocked as everyone else after watching the show.

Friend Hollis Polk not only defended Stephen for the last few days but she also wrote on her blog that the party was a fun event. Her statement contradicts this other guest and strangely enough she has deleted all her own posts about this. I guess she was instructed by Stephen to do so, so that he can start the counter attack.

This sounds very much like damage control by the Fowlers to me. After 4 days of not a single positive post about all of this the excusers are starting to appear. It is safe to assume that all of them are associated with the Fowlers.

Dr. Phil says: “When you choose the action, you choose the consequences.”

2009-02-04T02:03:00Z

What are the consequences of Stephen and Renee Fowler's actions?

- Stephen's name has been removed from the websites of Fulcrum Funds, Pacific Environment and Forest Ethics.

We don't know whether he got fired, resigned or this is simply a temporary measure until most people have forgotten about this. He seems to be of the professional board member and business partner type.

- He had to remove his facebook profile (he is in his late forties, go figure), his linkedin profile and his current business endeavor (terranova, the website)

- He lost out to promote himself on TV. Stephen wore his T-Shirts with intelligent messages for the stupid masses in every single video shot. After all he is in America in order to *help* us.

- They lost friends who don't share their arrogant view on their fellow citizens. I wonder how uncomfortable it must have been at their viewing party on Friday. Did the Fowlers not see the show ahead? There must have been deadly silence after the show and everyone must have left really fast. Or maybe not. In fact it probably was an excellent time to see who still had common sense and a working moral compass.

- She lost out to promote herself and her weight loss business on TV, wasn't that the purpose of going on TV in the first place?

- She has to explain to all her weight loss clients why her husband makes fun of overweight people on a national TV show. You wonder for how long her "overweight" clients were fodder for clever rhymes at the Fowler dinner table every night.

- His wife's business activities gets lots of, well, not so positive reviews on many review type websites. Her podcasts on itunes are experiencing the same fate.

On the up side all the people who share the Fowler's values will congratulate them and continue to be friends with them. On top they received $20,000 (some say it's $50,000?) for appearing on TV. Not so bad after all.

Stephen Fowler T-Shirts

2009-02-02T22:52:00Z

People are selling Stephen Fowler T-Shirts on cafepress:

http://www.cafepress.com/stephenfowler/

http://t-shirts.cafepress.com/item/fitted-tshirt/357702117

http://www.cafepress.com/StephenFowler.354916114#

and stickers on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Stephen-Fowler-100-Douche-bag-Decal-Sticker_W0QQitemZ380104559588QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0

Stephen Fowler on youtube

2009-02-02T17:08:00Z

Why is the American public outraged at Stephen Fowler?

2009-02-02T06:41:00Z

Well, Mr. Stephen Fowler and his family participated in a reality TV show called "Wife Swap". No, it's not what you think, this is not a show about swingers but simply two wives who spend two weeks in the other family's house. For lots of money of course. Most participants are either narcissistic or just need the money.
So here comes Mr. Stephen Fowler with his wife Renee and they both display an astonishing amount of arrogance on national TV. Here are the worst displays of arrogance:

“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. You’re undereducated; over opinionated and you’re overweight. It’s not a good combination Gayla. (In response to Gayla criticizing Stephen and questioning how much time he actually spends with his children. Gayla was also implying that the they push their children too hard and it’s more about the parents than the kids. Gayla’s direct question was what would Stephen do if James told him he does not want to go to college.)

“Yeah, [tomorrow is] rule change. That means starting tomorrow we have the pleasure of pretending we live in some Podunk town in Missouri. That will be interesting, won’t it?” (At the dinner table in front of the kids, in response to Juliette’s question if Gayla is doing the rule change the next day)

Gayla says, “You keep degrading me in front of your kids.” Stephen laughs and says, “That’s easy.” Gayla says, “You think you’re so much better than me”? Stephen says, “I probably earn more in one week than you do in a year.” He walks upstairs and point his finger at Gayla and says “You’re not invited up to the office.”

“You read that so well. Congratulations. I didn’t know that you could read.” (At the rule change ceremony.)

“Agenda? That’s a big word for you. Clearly your two languages appear to be bad English, and redneck.” (At the rule change ceremony.)

“She’s a very rude lady, isn’t she? But that’s okay, she just doesn’t have an education.” (Stephen says this to the kids during the rules change ceremony after Gayla had told him to “shut the hell up” in response to the quote above.)

“Unlike most Americans, I chose to become a citizen and I did this because I wanted more of a voice on helping influence the direction of this country because I really care about it.” (In response to refusing to follow one of Gayla’s rules - singing the national anthem.Stephen felt that this rule was designed to humiliate.)

“Look you dumb redneck, I’ve already told you once.” (In response to Gayla asking him if he would bring the kids gokarting again. Gayla had already asked Stephen this question several times and Stephen had ignored it – at least that’s what we saw on camera.)

I’ll tell you my net take on this [paintballing] – fascistic, militaristic . . For a lower class family like yourselves that has young boys, perhaps with aspirations to join the army, if that’s the extent of your ambition as a young man in your family I can see how this is a perfect fit. We need folks like your family to feed it, so you’re a perfect fit.”

Stephen Fowler says: I’ve said that you’re underachieving, under educated, over opinionated and overweight.” “Have a nice life. Don’t send any kids after me with a shotgun. Alan asks what Stephen means by his comment and Stephen says, “That’s just a final insult.”

The fact that Mr. Stephen Fowler says words like this to a national TV audience shows me that he is truly above what he thinks is the riff-raff of America. It's the same attitude that all those bankers, investment fonds managers, CEOs, and other wallstreet types have when they first destroyed the nation's economy and then wasted our tax money in the form of bailouts. The difference between those guys and Mr. Stephen Fowler is that he is so aloof that he speaks out what many think.

It is amazing to see how much internet traffic this episode of wife swap generated. Mr. Stephen Fowler made the top 50 google search words on Saturday. Websites affiliated with him had to be shut down or altered. People are emailing and calling companies that have Mr. Stephen Fowler listed in their webpages. And his wife's business (Mind for Body in San Francisco) and one of his employers (pacific environment) is getting rave reviews on google maps from people all over the country.

For your information here are a few other websites where people are venting their anger. ABC is heavily censoring their forum.

http://www.blogs.com/2009/02/13/everybody-hates-stephen-fowler.html

http://www.theinsider.com/news/1717046_Stephen_Fowler_Most_Hated_Man_on_Wife_Swap_Ever

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29308285/

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/02/20/us/AP-Hated-Husband.html?_r=1

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/21/stephen-foster-san-franci_n_168787.html

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/18/DDTL15T2OH.DTL

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/p-j-gladnick/2009/02/21/sf-chronicle-sanitizes-stephen-fowler-hateful-elitism-wife-swap

http://tv.yahoo.com/blog/husbands-behaving-badly--120

http://loraleeslooneytunes.com/2009/01/31/stephen-fowler-from-wife-swap/

http://realityrollcall.com/index.php/2009/01/30/the-long-family-meets-the-stephens-fowler-clan-on-wife-swap/

http://sfist.com/2009/02/08/stephen_fowler_the_worst_husband_in.php

http://blogs.kansascity.com/tvbarn/2009/02/the-paintball-l.html

http://www.kansascity.com/637/story/1047068.html