Smug Self-Important San Francisco Stereotype Springs to Life

by Stephanie Rogers · View Comments

There’s a certain stereotype that San Franciscans just can’t seem to get away from. Smug, Prius-driving, Whole Foods-patronizing with a my-shit-don’t-stink attitude that is unleashed upon anyone who isn’t flawlessly green 24 hours a day. That stereotype doesn’t actually fit most residents of this beautiful California city, but it came to life in a maddening episode of ABC’s reality show Wife Swap in the form of Brit transplant Stephen Fowler. The episode aired weeks ago, but the fallout continues.

Fowler, wearing t-shirts with slogans like ‘Treehugger’, ‘Go Solar’ and ‘Sustainability’, made a complete and total jackass of himself by treating Gayle Long, the woman who was forced to live with him for a week, embarrasingly badly.

From The Huffington Post:

At one point, as Long read a list of rules for the Fowler family, Fowler told her, “I didn’t know you could read.” When Long challenged Fowler for acting like he was better than her, he responded: “I probably make more in a week than you make in a year.”

At the end of the visit, he said, “God, that woman is the most stupid woman I’ve ever met in my life.”

Friends quoted anonymously in the San Francisco Chronicle said Fowler told them he was instructed to ham it up by “Wife Swap’s” producers. His performance evoked a stereotype of the San Francisco elitist liberal — the tree-hugging do-gooder who acts morally superior while putting down others.

Watch the video clips to get a real sense of just how much of an asshat this guy really is:

Shea Gunther said it best over at MNN.com:

Fowler does not represent the vast overwhelming majority of environmentalists (and San Franciscans) who are very nice people who just want to pass on a nice world to their grandkids. Sure, a few are snobby jerks like Fowler, but most of us are really nice folks.

I’m happy that Fowler seems to be paying mightily for his terrible behavior. His wife has publicly said he needs to “get professional help” and the Internet has responded in full force, spawning StephenFowlerSucks.com and a Facebook group called “I Can not Stand Stephen Fowler from `Wife Swap’ “. I hope he takes a lot of lessons away from this and comes out a less douchey person on the other side.

On behalf of all greenies – especially San Francisco greenies – you suck, Stephen Fowler!

Link [The Huffington Post] + [MNN.com]

Tagged as: Haters, Jerkass, San Francisco, Smug Alert, Television

Melissa Ingle

Even if Fowler was told to "Ham it up" in order to make the show more interesting... I can see where he ahh... did it just a bit too well? I'm from Missouri, but Kansas City actually and we're anything but "podunk". However, I LIKE small towns, and I like the values that small towns can instill in children. I would never ever move to California, or New York. Me? I think you can be just as intelligent and worldly sipping lemonaide on your porch in a town of fifty-five, as you can being caught up in teh hustle and bustle of San Fran. In closing, Fowler was overly cruel to the woman, and I feel sorry for his wife as you can tell she was ashamed of his actions.

rin

Scripted? Really? Then why are these rude , self absorbed "better than you" jerks apologizing on the Mrs' web blog? Why is he putting up security and threating to sue blogs over addresses than can be found easily? Most reality TV shows yes do script everything, this one too, but come on, then why are they all apologizing and getting upset that people hate them so much? And by-the-way, they are just trying to make themselves look better because now everyone knows how they really are and they are just trying to save much face.

hakkai999

Well GRob for the first person to comment on this you sure have the worst comment of all. Do you share the same attitude as Stephen Fowler? Cause it seems you do agree on all the things he just did to the nice midwestern woman. Nobody and nobody has the right to do these things to a another human being. There is just no excuse to his actions that he displayed openly. I mean the whole "It-was-edited-&-we-were-told-to-do-stuff" excuse doesnt even make sense since when do people teach kids just cause producers told them to? Well anyway i hope this man changes for the better or if not let him rot in hell.

commonsense

apoligies for hurt feelings but, IMHO:

When I was a kid (dob 1959) there was this thing called conservation of natural resources that was the hot topic of that era. We shut off lights when leaving a room, conserved H2O, reused plastic containers, made good use of the Paper shopping bags that were brought home from the market. For example Text book covers - no they didn't have a pop diva on the front but they didn't cost $5.00 each either. Plant a tree efforts to replace those lost during building phases. No the technology wasn't as sophisticated as it is today the principles are the same.

It seems to me all the "Go Green", "Sustainability" "Go Solar" stuff is just marketing jargon so people can make money from what is simple common sense and effete elites, of the Stephen Fowler variety, can continue to feel superior for using their expensive vocabulary to "elevate" the discussion and sell the lesser people on the idea of biofuels that have been proven, so far, to be more expensive, less efficient and in some cases dirtier to run, than the currently available fuels.

I suspect most 'average' people will reuse and recycle and conserve resources more so than those who have the blackberries and cell phones and laptops and alarm systems and Game systems etc ... all of which use more electricity than those poor uneducated po'dunk town communities. Let's not even include the city waste of electronic surveillance and traffic cams and the taxpayer paid for gas guzzliers the 'city officials' drive

Hey someone ought to do a study .. I bet there's some stimulus money to be had there.

And before you elitists tell me I have no clue: I have dual bachelor degrees (English and Physics) and a MSM in Information Technology Security. I'm smart but proudly not an intellectual elite.

grobiswrong

hey grob, your answers shows no sensitivity for your fellow man. say these things to your wife and see how she responds. no harm done? retarded answer. this isn't 2nd grade where 2+2 equals five. Anyway, she wasn't retarded, she had a of of kindness and was genuine, and was a great supporter of her kids. These are necessary to the blooming of every child.

Rene

I would like to congratulate Mrs. Long for showing great strength of characater. She managed to endure the worst week of her life constantly under attack from that pompous ass, and never once lowered herself to his level. You have all of my respect.

TGO

The man is an absolute tosser and supreme wanker. Not to mention a plonker! That being said, he should sell his home and move back to England, where he can walk around with his head above the clouds.

Gerry

I am from the midwest and live there now. Stephen Fowler is so over the top abusive and arrogant that nobody can reasonably attribute or associate his behavior and attitudes to the enviromental movement. He is what he is: an arrogant jerk. I do feel sorry for his wife and kids. His wife said she "couldn't comprehend" his actions, but I don't believe it. Someone that will act that way towards a stranger most certainly will act that way towards his wife. She is covering for him.

ashamed liberal

I saw this show and was amazed by what a cruel jerk this guy is. He prohibited his children from even saying goodbye at the end, while the wife had done nothing but try to find common ground throughout the whole experience. I actually share some of his political views, but hateful people like this should not have the privilege of having children. Shephan tried to make the wife seem dumb, but she seemed plenty smart to me. She just had different experiences. Watching this show almost turned me Republican . . . almost. This non-American guy insulting people because they have a different lifestyle and views and making prejudiced comments about the Midwest. I hope this guy realizes what a pathetic jerk he is. I hope he's apologized.

Che Stalin

Environmentalists have a right to be self-absorbed, self-centered, egotistical, holier than thou, self-righteous pricks. After all, they know so much more than the rest of the country. We, the unwashed masses, must heed the call of the San Francisco elite and goose step to the beat of their drummer. We must all realize that they know what is good for us. How dare we contradict their views??? Stephen Fowler is just a tip of their iceberg, and we are the Titanic. They will take this country down if we don't steer away from their views.

Greenman

I agree with Steven who posted above that self-righteousness is something to be avoided -- it really hurts whatever movements the self-righteous person is associated with -- No Harm done? Stephen Fowler's life is probably in ruins right now, with 24 hour security on his house due to fear of angered people vandalizing it or hurting his family. He had to resign from a couple non-profit organizations since his presence on the board is likely to hurt the organization. His kids are probably confused, or more likely, have adopted the same arrogant attitudes of their father, and will carry that into adult hood -- I've seen how people react to arrogant people behind their backs -- these kids may find they don't have many deep relationships with others as they alienate everyone as Stephen Fowler has alienated a huge part of America, except perhaps a few like-minded elitist environmentalists in San Francisco. For all his intelligence, he seems to have managed to damage the reputation of everything he deems important in this life....

Steven

Thank you GRob...you make the point I see every day...you're so sure of your own self-righeousness that you can't even see the interpersonal and P.R. problem that you and Stephen Fowler are....

I've never met an evangelical who was as self-righteous as all of you envrionmentalists. I mean it in all seriousness when I say that for the most part, environmentalists are the most mean-spirited, self-satisfied and bigoted group of people in this country today. Take this from someone who lives in the Northern California Bay Area and used to live in "Christian country" Colorado Springs (...home of Focus on the Family, Ted Haggard, etc...).

You ought to be ashamed, but you'll probably take this assessment as meaning that you're all on the right track.

ellen

I like living in a "podunk" town ... aren't podunk towns more "green" than big cities anyway?

Greenman

Whether such arrogance is part of Stephen's character or not, I think he demonstrated tendencies in that direction by his lightening ability to come up with statements, ON NATIONAL TELEVISION, that portray such attitudes.

The fact that he didn't see the impact such comments would have on America, shows how little he understand how others might react to such comments.

I'm a teacher, and I used Stephen Flower as an example of how an educated person does NOT react, and how one should always be careful about how they talk about their "assets" in like, such as their education, their wealth, or their capacity to earn income. When in you're in a room full of people who don't have money, don't refer to something that happened while you "made your first million" etcetera. it sounds pompous and arrogant.

Thanks Stephen Fowler for giving me a real life example of how not to behave as an educated person.

GRob

Ok, really? What was so bad about what he said? Granted the second part of the highlights was unnecessarily brutal, but if this show ISN'T scripted, I don't understand what was so terrible about it. She was from a po-dunk town. He was pompous. No harm no foul.