Senator Katie Britt and the GOP portray her as a fulltime housewife serving as Senator as a side job - not true [View all]

Politicians love to talk about their families, but in her Thursday night response to President Joe Biden's State of the Union speech, Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala. went even further, portraying her powerful position as little more than the hobby of a housewife. While allowing that it's an "honor" to be a senator, Britt argued, "that’s not the job that matters most." Instead, she said her real job is to be "a proud wife and mom of two school-aged kids."

Britt seemed to want viewers to imagine her in an apron, gazing lovingly upon her family and realizing she must sacrifice some measure of domesticity for "the future of children." It's all nonsense, of course. She is exactly the "permanent politician" she accused Biden of being, as any perusal of her resume will show. Britt holds a political science degree and law degree from the University of Alabama. She went straight from graduation to work on the staff of her predecessor, Sen. Richard Shelby. She worked in private practice and government, but never as a full-time stay-at-home mother.

And yet, even as her colleagues were in D.C. for the speech, Britt framed herself as a hausfrau, talking about how "my husband, Wesley, and I just watched President Biden’s State of the Union Address from our living room." Her address was filmed from her kitchen with an aesthetic that former White House communications director Jennifer Palmieri mocked as "'tradwife," which is internet slang for "traditional wife." As feminist writer Jill Filipovic wrote, Britt's was a message of who women should be: "Afraid, valued only for being mothers, and in the kitchen." Republicans didn't even bother to hide the sexist nostalgia they were angling for. As the New York Times reported, talking points circulated before the speech suggested Republicans call her "America's mom."

Link to tweet