What has gotten into Republican women

[marmar]

What has gotten into Republican women
GOP women freak out over losing reproductive rights, but embrace cruelty when it's someone else's rights at stake

By AMANDA MARCOTTE
Senior Writer
PUBLISHED MAY 8, 2023 6:05AM (EDT)


(Salon) Late last month, a bill that would have banned nearly all abortion (and likely would have been used to restrict hormonal birth control as well) was defeated in the South Carolina state senate, despite it being one of the most conservative legislatures in the country. The defeat drew national headines in no small part because of how it went down: The only five women in the Senate, three of whom are Republicans, filibustered the bill into oblivion. At times, the Republican women sounded downright, well, feminist.

"Once a woman became pregnant for any reason, she would now become the property of the state of South Carolina," state senator Katrina Shealy declared angrily during debate.

South Carolina is not some outlier state where the rare bird of the pro-choice Republican flourishes, to be clear. In the same speech denouncing abortion bans, Shealy insisted she is still "pro-life." It's just that these women are learning a hard lesson, as are many other Republican women, both leaders and voters. It was easy enough to be "pro-life" when Roe v. Wade was the law of the land. That meant you could sit in judgment of other women, without ever worrying that you or your loved ones would lose access. Indeed, it was easy enough to pass restrictions that made it harder for poor women or young women to get abortions, so long as Republican women could be assured their privilege would smooth the way for their abortions.

But outright bans on abortion, the kind that actually threaten the access not just of marginalized women, but well-to-do white ladies? That cannot stand! This phenomenon is joked about on social media as the "leopards eating people's faces party," due to a viral tweet by author Adrian Bott.

Link to tweet

The humor of this tweet depends heavily on the imaginary sobber being female. For better or worse, people understand why white men are Republicans: Because the GOP is built around the preservation of white male domination over everyone else. But why so many women vote Republican is a question that causes great consternation, since the party is not exactly subtle about its hostility to women's rights. Their last president and current party leader bragged, on tape, about sexual assault! Is it that these women hate themselves?

The tweet gets closer to the real answer: Republican women, like Republican men, enjoy cruelty to others. They also assume their class and race privilege will shield them from the misogyny of their party. But when that assumption gets rattled, they often panic. .........................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2023/05/08/what-has-gotten-into-women/