In the latest round of “I told you so,” a recent article from The New York Times recently revealed that Republican women are becoming acutely aware of the misogyny they’ve put into power. More specifically, they’re shocked that the misogynists they promoted also hate them.
This is hilarious because it’s Republican congresswomen who are complaining — mostly about Mike Johnson, who obviously doesn’t take them seriously when they say something. They genuinely thought they would be spared the same treatment they were ready to dole out to others because they’re “not like the other girls.”
So, ah, let me make something clear. Us on the left are not surprised.
If you’re born female, you’re not immune to Republican misogyny.
I want to emphasize this, because I feel like too many women seem to ignore this.
The GOP is a party of woman-hating. It’s the party that stripped funding for major, life-saving care groups. It’s the party that has given rapists parental rights and refused to ban child marriage.
If you’re female or LGBTQIA+, the GOP hates you.
No, you can’t fix that by showing that you’re “not like the other girls.”
No, you can’t sweet talk your way out of it.
No, it doesn’t matter if you are a politician, either.
No, you can’t make an exception by being the perfect housewife.
No amount of support women give for these fuckers will change that, either.
Republicans hate women. They have proven they hate women over and over again. If you’re female and vote Republican, you are hurting yourself and your kids’ futures. Tokens always get spent.
In recent weeks, two major Republican female figureheads have started to speak out about it.
The first one is obviously Marjorie Taylor-Green. Once the darling of the GOP, she ended up having Trump turn on her when she started to push for the Epstein files to be released.
After having been one of Trump’s most vocal female attack dogs, MTG started to realize that he was actually a predator. (Or at least, that’s what she claims and I oddly enough believe her.)
She resigned from her position, after getting multiple death threats from the very people who once promoted her. One of the reasons that she resigned was the poor treatment that she received from fellow politicians.
She’s far from the only politician to call out this stuff. In fact, her fellow colleague, Nancy Mace, seems to have had enough of the same treatment from her male colleagues.
Multiple GOP women have noted that Mike Johnson openly ignores any input they give, including Rep. Nancy Mace. Or, as Mace wrote:
“Speaker Mike Johnson is better than his predecessor. But the frustrations of being a rank-and-file House member are compounded as certain individuals or groups remain marginalized within the party, getting little say…Women will never be taken seriously until leadership decides to take us seriously, and I’m no longer holding my breath.
Since 2013, the Republican conference chair position has gone to a woman. It’s the token slot, the designated leadership role for the top woman in the conference, while the real power lies in other offices.” — NYT Op-Ed, Nancy Mace
In other words, they know they’re second class citizens in their own dictatorship. They just sniffle, sob thought they were gonna be special!
The right-wing constantly tries to hold up the lie of “Sexism is over.”
Did you ever notice how often women are treated as tokens by the GOP? Politicians tend to foist women who agree to remain in lockstep with conservative ideals in specific positions — almost as a way to argue that they’re not sexist.
This isn’t a new thing. Phyllis Schlafly, the original anti-feminist of the 60s, was adamant that “sexism was over,” and that there’s no reason to continue the fight for equal rights. She urged other women to go back to the homes, despite making a full career of her own by exploiting women.
Schlafly got the same kind of treatment that the Republican women of today got. One article on the topic pointed out that a woman of her qualifications should have gotten a position in Reagan’s cabinet.
However, that was never given to her despite her qualifications. Her foe, McKinnon, even pointed that out, per the article:
“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.”
Most right-wing women excuse right-wing misogyny for four reasons.
It’s true. They do it for the following reasons:
Brainwashing. I see this a lot with women like the girl from Ballerina Farms. They genuinely think there’s something wrong with them for wanting to be treated like an equal.
Personal Gain. A woman in the GOP knows she’s hurting all women. She doesn’t care because it suits her immediate, wealth-oriented needs. As long as they get what they want, they’re happy as clams.
Fear. This is not a main reason you’ll see in most politicians’ circles, but it is a common reason why women who grew up in white supremacist households or cultish households remain that way.
Perceived Immunity. They honestly do think that if they show they’re good little servants, they won’t have to deal with the hate from their own party.
What’s unusual is that most female politicians fall into category two almost exclusively. And as long as they feel like they’re the top dog in the pound of ladies, they will find every reason to excuse the misogyny that happens to others…until it hits them in the face too.
One thing you never really hear about is GOP women who want to try to enact change from the inside. Why? Because while they might want change in theory, in practice, they’re aware they’re not on the right side for that to happen.
These women generally thought they would be mostly immune to the misogyny as long as they played the right role. Well, we all know how things work out for the Serena Joys of life, right?
Why are so many GOP women starting to speak out about the misogyny after all these years?
Honestly, this kind of stuff always has a breaking point. This is not the outcome of a long-term self-exploration journey by a bunch of women. Rather, this is because the benefits no longer outweigh the penalties of misogyny.
Had these female GOP “leaders” not realized that America is sick of Trump's corruption, they would have continued to grin and bear it. However, being part of the GOP is career suicide. They need to save their own hides.
Moreover, it’s quite likely that they are also starting to get more abuse than before. Right-wing misogyny has become more vocal, more violent, and more foam-at-the-mouth crazy in recent years. I wouldn’t be shocked if some of those women were afraid of their own constituents.
The bottom line is that they hit their limit for abuse, and they’re not benefiting from it like they used to. It’s likely that at least some of these women realize they’re about to be spent tokens for men who hate them.
Now is a good time to take their revolt with a grain of salt.
Right now, a lot of these women are learning the same lesson Serena Joy did in The Handmaid’s Tale. These women also would go right back to patriarchy if they got a better pay raise or if their misogynistic colleagues would make their behavior a little less overt.
What I’m saying is that they’re probably not sorry. We should not bail them out unless they show genuine change and stop abiding with the lockstep control of the GOP. But what would I know?
I was just born female.
Over patriarchal women.
