As y’all may know, Overton’s window refers to the boundaries of acceptable discussion. What’s inside Overton’s window represents mainstream, normal political discourse; what’s outside it isn’t. Overton’s window allows Republicans to talk about how they want to end gay marriage and criminalize gay sex again; while some of them occasionally joke about executing gays, it’s too far outside the window for most of them to support (for the record, I don’t think they’re joking).
Conversely, one of the problems feminism has long faced is that “women should have full equality” is treated as almost outside the Overton window, the polar opposite to “men should have all the power.” Obviously as the truth lies closer to the center, that means women should have some rights but maybe not 100 percent equality, right? Wrong: equality (as opposed to reverse-patriarchy with women running the show) is the centrist position.
All of which ties in to what I was talking about last week, not letting Republicans normalize their policies. Sure, a large part of the forced-birth movement has always opposed exceptions for rape victims or tonallowing abortion if the fetus will be born dead. In the past decade though, they’ve been more blatant about saying so. Whether it’s Trump giving them the delusion they’re getting “their” country back again or Dobbs making them feel more confident, I don’t know. But the more they say it, the more openly other people will say it. The window shifts.
Let’s be clear. An ex-president who attempts a coup is not normal, nor acceptable. A presidential candidate who vows he’ll only be a dictator on Day One and who brags openly about grabbing women by the you-know-what is not normal (nor acceptable), no matter what Justice Sam Alito thinks. Having the White House blow off rape accusations against a Supreme Court nominee is not acceptable nor normal. Claims that Trump’s attempted coup was perfectly legal aren’t normal or acceptable. Republican calls to prosecute their political enemies are neither — and despite their lies, no, Trump’s trials are nothing of the sort.
Siding with Putin’s war of conquest isn’t acceptable or normal. I could go on, but you get the point. We mustn’t let them redraw the Overton boundaries. When they say everything’s perfectly normal and not a big deal, we have to speak out. Which is what I try to do here.
The Code Switch newsletter discusses a related topic, the way bigots and racists — and, I’d argue, misogynists — keep raising the same questions over and over. Do black people really have it harder? Didn’t slavery have some positive aspects? Don’t rape victims bear some responsibility for their actions (spoiler: no!)? Alternatively they just flat-out deny the truth, like Holocaust deniers insisting there’s no evidence Jews were massacred (yes, they were). Or right-wing misogynist William Wolfe insisting there’s no systemic rape issues or cover-up in the Southern Baptist Conference (he’s lying).
In the words of Code Switch: “the great Toni Morrison once said that “the very serious function of racism is distraction.” Lots of brilliant, capable people wind up wasting their time trying to prove that racism is real instead of, you know, solving the climate crisis.
So, some humble advice from someone who’s spent the last 15 years studying the dynamics of racism: Don’t get thrown off by the smoke and mirrors. Instead, when someone says they’re “just asking questions,” think long and hard about whether those questions ever needed answering to begin with.”
Ditto misogyny and rape apology. And homophobia. And … well, you get the picture.
You can find more about misogynist lies in Undead Sexist Cliches, available in ebook or paperback. Cover by Kemp Ward, all rights remain with me.
