Handmaids of the Patriarchy

https://prospect.org/politics/2024-03-29-handmaids-of-the-patriarchy/



Because I’m cursed with having a capacity for empathy, I sometimes spare a thought for how much it must suck to be a woman in the Republican Party. Sure, many Republican women have it good: They tend to be wealthier and their homes are big enough to never have to see their spouses, who think of them as trophies rather than humans. But they’re also trapped in a party that relishes misogyny. It’s not golden handcuffs so much as a gilded obstacle course that gives an illusion of freedom but disciplines them swiftly if they wander off-track.

Two events that led to my latest bout of sympathy? Nikki Haley’s exit from the Republican primary, and Sen. Katie Britt’s overacted rebuttal to the State of the Union address, which was torched even by her own party. “All a woman’s good for in my book is having babies and taking care of the house,” a male Republican voter in North Carolina told NBC when asked if he would vote for Haley. An older female Republican voter in Texas told Fox News she wouldn’t vote for Haley either, because “she’s probably menopausal.” That was the level of respect Haley garnered from the GOP base. Now, as a progressive, I’d like to toss Haley’s hawkish neoconservative corporatism into the dustbin of history. But you can’t help but appreciate her for staying in the primary as long as she did, and having a bigger pair than any of her male counterparts when critiquing Trump. But rather than knock her on the merits, she’s reduced to her gender.

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Then there’s Britt, whose monologue was called “creepy” and “cringe” by Republicans. And I mean, sure. Except she gave Republicans what they claim to want out of women: a beautiful tradwife in her rightful place, the kitchen, railing against Joe Biden. She even served up a harrowing anecdote about a woman who was supposedly raped by a drug cartel in the U.S., only to be caught lying about nearly every part of the story, all in service of re-electing Donald Trump, a guy found legally liable for sexual abuse and a serial liar.

Republicans are arguably more desperate for women to represent their cause than ever, as they simultaneously seek the female vote while explicitly taking away those voters’ rights to abortion, and in some cases, even IVF. So you’d think they’d be a tad more forgiving of the women still trying to participate in GOP politics, which for them has become a beauty pageant where the interview question is “How would you make yourself a second-class citizen?” And yes, there is a swimsuit portion.

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