“You don’t ask the guy with the boot on your neck to wear a softer shoe. You rip his fucking foot off.” — Jessica Valenti making the point there’s no middle ground to find with forced birthers.
For years the movement has insisted they don’t want to hurt the mothers getting abortions, just the doctors. Many of the people who say this are lying. Now, though, they’re coming right out and saying no abortion even to save the mother’s life, any woman who gets an abortion should be charged with murder (more here). And letting their misogynist freak flag fly, even hating women on their own side. Which isn’t surprising: a big part of misogynists wanting to destroy women’s rights is the desire to control the women in their own orbit — their daughters, their wives, the women in their church.
Montana wants to charge women who leave the state to get abortions with trafficking the fetus. I don’t have the slightest doubt some people will use this to restrict pregnant women’s travel period — sure, she says she’s visiting her mom, but why take the chance? And President Snowflake’s DOJ looks like it might be open to reviving lawsuits against mifepristone.
The Felon is happy to help accused human trafficker and accused rapist Andrew Tate escape Romania. For all his professed concern about other countries sending Bad People here, he’s fine with someone like this. But then, look at his cabinet.
Meanwhile, collaborators terrified they’ll be accused of DEI are firing non-white men right and left. Which is not only bad in itself, it kills the next generation of potential mentors. A story I read in Harvard Business Review some years ago (I wrote about it in Undead Sexist Cliches) told how a woman and man joined an investment firm at the same time, with similar backgrounds — but after a few months the man’s career took off like a rocket. It turned out he’d been invited to play racketball with the partners (all male). They’d tipped him off to a non-profit that needed a financial adviser, and would put him in touch with many potential clients. And it did. The woman never got the chance.
This shit matters. It’s why the Pence Rule makes things worse. I’m sure the white woman suing for reverse discrimination will open the floodgates for more lawsuits that will also make things worse. Ditto Stephen Miller. Ditto the US Attorney’s office refusing to sign an arrest warrant for accused assault against Republican Cory Mills.
Speaking of which, despite all the rants from the Felon’s administration, the military has not lowered standards to recruit women.
Despite the train wreck the Felon’s second term has become, many young men still think he’s awesome. Some older men are thrilled at the thought of male dominance returning (as if it ever went away), for example aging comic Joe Piscopo declaring “there’s masculinity back in America and we’re not afraid to be alpha males anymore. This is fantastic.” Because nobody screams “alpha male” like Piscopo.
Underlying a lot of what’s going wrong — the fragility of men’s egos and the stress of constantly proving yourself a Real Man. “The men running the internet aren’t just controlling the narrative, they’re starring in their own all-male drag show, desperately performing masculinity for each other.“
“Zuckerberg, Mr. Bro-seph himself—despite his testosterone-pumping, UFC-frat-boy makeover—isn’t even living up to his own bro-code definition of masculinity. If hyper masculinity is all about protection, namely the protection of women, Zuckerberg has failed spectacularly.” No surprise: protecting women is never as important as protecting your bros and keeping women in their place.
Unsurprisingly, plenty of centrist Democrats and consultants think the solution to our current crisis is to stop worrying about women’s rights and identity politics and move right, becoming Republican Lite. They’ve been saying this since McGovern lost in 1972 and it’s a bad idea (the suggestions, like going and talking to Real Americans, are cliches by now). As Jamelle Bouie says, “take popular positions” ignores that popularity is shaped in part by what people stick up for and what politicians champion. The Felon’s pushing us one way — we need to push back. As Hilzoy says, we can fight for a better economy and a better deal for working-class workers and still champion women’s rights, gay rights, POC rights, etc.
For more dissection of misogyny, check out my Undead Sexist Cliches, in paperback or ebook. You can also order it straight from me from the Behold the Book page.
