Republican Women Suddenly Realize They’re Surrounded by Misogynists
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
In 1982, Phyllis Schlafly, perhaps the most important anti-feminist in American history, debated the radical feminist law professor Catharine MacKinnon. Schlafly believed that sexism was a thing of the past; to her, if women had different roles in society than men, it was due to their distinct talents and inclinations. She herself, she said, had never experienced discrimination.
MacKinnon pointed out that Schlafly, who’d written extensively about defense policy, had wanted a position in Ronald Reagan’s Pentagon. Any man with Schlafly’s considerable accomplishments, MacKinnon argued, would have been given a job. Schlafly had to concede that her feminist foe had a point.
An ambitious woman who is willing to absolve the right of misogyny can go far, but rarely can she achieve the same status as a man. That’s especially true today, in a Republican Party that’s increasingly giving itself over to the most retrograde forms of sexism.
Recently several Republican congresswomen have been complaining, on and off the record, that their party’s leaders, especially Mike Johnson, the House speaker, don’t take them seriously. It started with Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a onetime MAGA icon who is resigning next month. “They want women just to go along with whatever they’re doing and basically to stand there, smile and clap with approval, whereas they just have their good old boys club,” she said in September. It turns out she’s not alone in her frustration.
Last week, The Times reported on Republican women in Congress who say that Johnson “failed to listen to them or engage in direct conversations on major political and policy issues,” which they seemed to attribute to his highly patriarchal evangelical Christianity. (He recently said that women, unlike men, are unable to “compartmentalize” their thoughts.)
Recently, rumors have swirled that Nancy Mace, who is running for governor of South Carolina, could soon follow Greene in quitting the House before the end of her term. Mace has denied this, but her disgruntlement is no secret. On Monday, she wrote in The Times , “Women will never be taken seriously until leadership decides to take us seriously, and I’m no longer holding my breath.”
It’s tempting to roll one’s eyes at women who are shocked, shocked to discover sexism in a political party led by Donald Trump. But it’s a sign of progress that these women are not responding as Schlafly did, demurely accepting their subordinate position within conservatism. They may not all call themselves feminists — though at times Mace has — but they’ve internalized basic feminist assumptions about their entitlement to equal treatment. What they’ve failed to understand, however, is that those aren’t assumptions their party shares.
Much has been made about the rebirth of gutter antisemitism and racism within the conservative movement. There’s been less public alarm about the resurgence of unapologetic misogyny. Last month, there was an uproar over the support that the Heritage Foundation’s president, Kevin Roberts, offered to Tucker Carson after his softball interview with Nick Fuentes, the influential antisemite. We’ve seen far less backlash to Heritage’s hiring of Scott Yenor, who believes that workplace discrimination against women should be legal, as head of its B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies. Among the sort of young men who revel in transgressive antisemitism — which is to say, among much of the conservative movement’s rising generation — calls to repeal women’s right to vote have become commonplace.
Not long ago, most Republicans at least pretended to accept liberal premises about human equality, sometimes even gloating about one-upping Democrats on diversity. In 2008, Republicans tried to capitalize on the disappointment some women felt about Hillary Clinton’s primary loss by putting Sarah Palin on their ticket. There was a moment in 2011 when Michele Bachmann was a leading candidate in the Republican presidential primary race. For years it was almost a truism that the first woman president would probably be a Republican, some steely American version of Margaret Thatcher in high heels and pearls. Republicans didn’t want to raise up women as a group, but they valorized a certain kind of powerful woman, one who disdained feminism and proved through her success that the strong didn’t need it.
Today, however, Republicans are much less defensive about being the party of chest-beating patriarchy. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has purged women from the highest ranks of the military. Johnson has attributed school shootings to the “amoral society” wrought by “radical feminism” and the sexual revolution and has said Americans should strive to live by “18th-century values.” Vice President JD Vance is famously contemptuous of women without children.
And the lower levels of the administration are littered with defiant chauvinists. Paul Ingrassia, who Trump recently made deputy general counsel at the General Services Administration, is probably best known for a leaked email where he referred to his “Nazi streak.” But he also reportedly intervened during a federal investigation on behalf of the misogynist influencer Andrew Tate — who is his former client and has been accused of sex trafficking — after electronic devices belonging to Tate and his brother were seized at the border, and he called opposition to women’s suffrage “very based,” a term of high praise on the right.
There are still plenty of opportunities in the MAGA movement for women who embody Trump’s preferred style of hyper-femininity, espouse traditional gender roles, or both. Indeed, the president’s obsession with aesthetics can open doors for women who might otherwise never have careers in politics. Many Republicans like having beautiful women around, and they appreciate being able to put a feminine face on their culture war crusades. But as some women in the party are realizing, there’s a big difference between being useful and being respected.
Tags
Who is online
90 visitors
"For years it was almost a truism that the first woman president would probably be a Republican, some steely American version of Margaret Thatcher."
That got blown out of the neo-swamp with the ostracization of Liz Cheney by a muddle of morons.
and leading collector of male arms that had been gnawed off at the shoulder by their previous owners in her bed ...
Many times I've posted that I admire Liz Cheney for puting principle and integrity above party loyalty even risking and being ostracized by the Republican Party and her electorate that lack those qualities. IMO she should be the first woman PotUS.
I agree, she basically dumped the party over her principle. She did what so many politicians cannot do as they are beholden to the party. There's just too much money and power in the two parties so it's difficult to go against them. But I don't think she would ever win a presidential election as she would never win the Republican nomination and I have a hard time seeing her win the Democrat nomination. Without one of those two parties backing her, I doubt she would ever stand a chance to win.
Seems to me to be so many people disenchanted with both major parties, now may be the time for a new one, more so than those that fell by the wayside previously. However, in America, a political party needs a lot of money to get started, so you're probably right about the present entrenchment of the two present ones.
I've been saying this for many, many years.
Just what are 18th century values? Women being raped with impunity because there are no laws to protect them? Dying before the age of 40 because of having too many children? Slavery?????
Mike Johnson can kiss my big, fat, feminist ass
Straight, white, male landowners, that defer to the church and run all things.
eh....
I've cussed enough today
I look forward to tomorrow's edition.
Tomorrow is here!
maga bitches be confused that they only really call the shots when their clothes are off ...
well, there were negatives to this chronillogical increment asz well, cause Johnson seems too tense, sorta like a recent former VP named Pence, a religious zealot who at least could differentiate B tween the grabber of pussies and asz wholes taint nut thin butt a phat asz Orange clown who wood have hung him upside down just to pull his and our legs, cuz who can't relate to women having to beg men for any and all irregardless of how big or small these dix e crat clowns were, asz the (R's)shore a pier to have known how to keep a Fe male down, asz he continue to tri and bend, and until our country wakes the fck up, the fck up in our White Power House of pains, will cun tinue the cursive trend that grabbed US and our attention, as he has done since the (Rs) allowed the dis grace to becum the face that Bubba made Trump, make America White sailors happy and gay while they bare it till the mesage be a send, asz they swim for the exact reason Trumps' treason will fckn fck him in the rear, and in ,the end
They want women to return to being financially and socially dependent on men. Because then more men can have a cook, maid, nanny, gardener, and baby factory at home. Men who can't convince a woman to do that now, because we can support ourselves. But they'd like every man to be able to have a wife under his thumb.
Not for free, of course. He'd have to feed her now and then, buy clothes or fabric, etc., to make clothes. But if she didn't perform her duties to his satisfaction, he'd be free to apply a little "domestic correction" with his hands or his belt. Nothing thicker than his thumb, right? That would be going too far.
I'm too old to go back to those ways
I'm in favor of maga females losing their right to vote ...
I'm not. I'm gonna give them the benefit of the doubt and hope they turn their lives around
yeah, that's worked out well the last 60 years ...
you could probably kick start that idea by neutering all maga first ...
LOL, he doesn't like women ...
He doesn't have to like women to kiss my ass.
he's got a thumper app on his phone that keeps him from sucking maga prong and humping kids, so you're probably safe ...
... oops
The fascists have been completely open about attacking non-Whites. Black and Latino support for Trump has collapsed.
The fascists have been equally open about attacking women, but not so vocal. Perhaps women are capable of seeing what's happening...
Most of us are not as dumb as they think we are
that's the main weakness of those that aren't as smart as they think they are ...
... wouldn't touch that with a ten-foot pole....
Go ahead, Bob. Just don't call me stupid. Or Sandy. Or Perrie. Or Raven Wing
no one can touch me with a ten foot pole, as an 11'
pole be required. Possibly due to all of the ten foot poles sticking out of me from previous persons showing me how dumb I didn't think I wasn't, asz phat, drunk, and stupid iz the only way to get my self uneducated asz on a diet, cause that's the only one I see myself able to control, so they and I, eat it up, till my wait came down, and I just squezzed tinto the call wait waiting room where I try and keep myself busy, waiting to get call waiting, in the call waiting waiting room, where I keep myself busy waiting to get call waiting, till it dawned on me that evening at dusk, and though corny, it was A Maze in, or so eye saw and herd from sew many ears knot listening to the volume of husk e kernels out inn the fields of play wear they work and stay a way asz they Wade into the Roes of domiknows the bus boy schedules in and on, while on trains watching training film debuts while waitin four all the finale finalists who waited longer at the self check out known asz a mirror that reflected the image i'd imagine i couldn't picture of me as a waiter in a call waiting waiting room waiting to get call waiting till I got a call from the call waiting weight room, due to me not being a waiter, cause i;m the mate errrh D spiesed buy so and woe men e waitresses, who are not waiters either, just others looking to keep busy, a tempting to find themselves, at the lost and found myself at the lost and found, too busy, in the call waiting waiting room to locate the lost and found in the call waiting weight room sifting and lifting waits, that made me a waiter when i was too busy, to manage, to find a manager as i felt i had been a waiter long enough to know how to better manage my time than reading and writing this bull ship, asz i set sale to find a bargain, the best I ever had...not waited fore B 4....
Oh! Are you all women?? Gosh!
You all sound smart!
How is that possible?
It's in our DNA
funny how thumpers always seem to forget that according to their book of fairytales, females are human 2.0 ...
Corrections to Beta Boy were needed ... and still are.
maga is anxious to designate those that they determine to be genetically incorrect as sub-human, as a counter balance to their expanding lack of self esteem. I recommend screening them for neanderthal DNA, after acceptable no greater than levels have been standardized, by using samples from control groups of non-maga participants, in order to officially name maga as the 2nd class citizens they so desperately require, and quite frankly need to function within america's social and cultural fabric. they claim it's a heritage thing, but it's probably their defective and neanderthal tainted DNA ...