Ever since the current presidential administration came into office with a group of racist, misogynistic and generally bigoted individuals at its forefront, it seems as though society has begun to reflect their hatred. It’s becoming more common to see those who aren’t heterosexual and cisgender white males being put down at every turn. Misogyny in particular has become more glaring with every passing day. Men can express their lack of respect for women with what seems like zero consequences.
On Nov. 6, The New York Times released an opinion piece entitled “Did Women Ruin the Workplace?” When the news organization began to experience pushback on the outwardly sexist article, they believed slightly changing the headline to “Did Liberal Feminism Ruin the Workplace?” would somehow make it better.
Under the headline is the dumbfounding and oxymoronic subtext “And if so, can conservative feminism fix it?” Conservative feminism isn’t a thing — what they’re arguing is for women to be submissive and express no opinions of their own.
What’s even more disturbing is that the article, which was released in the form of an interview and transcript, features two women who are backing this heinous insertion. One of them was Helen Andrews, a conservative writer and editor who is most notorious for a magazine article entitled “The Great Feminization,” where once again, she puts down women: “Wokeness is not a new ideology, an outgrowth of Marxism, or a result of post-Obama disillusionment. It is simply feminine patterns of behavior applied to institutions where women were few in number until recently.” Her argument rests on the fact that fields are becoming too “feminized” and women aren’t as properly equipped for jobs in medicine and law like men are.
Lindsey Underwood, a writer at Vanity Fair, expertly summarized the overarching problem with the interview, stating, “But it speaks to a misunderstanding of what feminism is to begin with, and perhaps what being a woman is.” She goes on to say, “Those with power are afraid to lose it, and look to shift blame onto those who are encroaching on their space—earned or not—and blame those folks for any friction that arrives in the process.”
Beyond the workplace, women’s voices in general are continuing to be attacked. In the past year or so, more calls have been made for the 19th Amendment — which gave women the right to vote — to be repealed. In the past week, this rhetoric has been rampant, noticeably spiking after Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor of New York. Many younger women voted for Mamdani, but that’s not an earthshattering problem; they simply voted for the change they wanted to see, which is no different than when young men voted for President Donald Trump.
Joel Webbon, a Christian nationalist pastor and president of Right Response Ministries, took to X to repost statistics that showed 84% of women aged 18-29 voted for Mamdani. Accompanying this was his message, “It’s time. Repeal the 19th.” In the same vein, he posted, “The lesson is not to APPEAL to liberal women. The lesson is to REPEAL women’s right to vote. You don’t argue with insanity. You mitigate it.”
He also expressed similar sentiments in a podcast, saying, “God has not designed women for warfare, and that’s part of what politics is. It’s really all that politics is; it’s war without the blood.”
Webbon is not the only one to publicly state that women should not vote. In August, CNN interviewed other Christian nationalists, including Douglas Wilson, Josh Prince, Jared Longshore and Toby Sumpter. The main topic they discussed was their desire to become an entirely Christian nation, one in which there is a patriarchal society where women submit to their husbands and fulfill their role as homemakers.
Among these beliefs is the assertion that women as individuals should not be able to vote. Sumpter was quoted as saying, “In my ideal society, we would vote as households, and I would ordinarily be the one that would cast the vote.” When the interviewer directly verbalized that some believe the 19th Amendment should be repealed, Longshore immediately chimed in and said, “I would support that, and I’d support it on the basis that the atomization that comes with our current system is not good for humans.”
The very idea of voting as a household means that men “discuss” candidates with their wives but, ultimately, are the ones making the decisions. It completely isolates the autonomy of a group that makes up half of the population. Not to mention that it only works under the scope of a “traditional” and heterosexual relationship, not at all accounting for single women or women in queer relationships. Pretending that husbands are doing their wives a favor by taking on the burden of voting is absolutely atrocious.
Outside of the sphere of politics, misogyny is palpable in everyday society, specifically in heteronormative relationships. Last month, the actress Kristen Bell came under fire for an exceedingly tone deaf post she made for her and her husband Dax Shepard’s anniversary. In the post, she wrote, “Happy 12th anniversary to the man who once said to me: ‘I would never kill you. A lot of men have killed their wives at a certain point. Even though I’m heavily incentivized to kill you, I would never.’”
There are multiple blatant problems with this statement. While Bell perceived this as a funny joke to share with millions on social media about the nature of her marriage, the very fact that Shepard would even think to say that to his wife is alarming and, unfortunately, reflective of the nature of relationships today. It was also deeply unfortunate that she thought to share this during Domestic Violence Awareness month.
What Bell neglected to think about before posting this is the very real reality for many women who are subjected to violence, or even death, by their partners. By stating that he wouldn’t kill Bell, Shepard illuminates the power imbalance that sits between them, insinuating that her life can be easily ended by his hands should he feel like it. As someone who is raising two daughters, Bell desperately needs to do better.
This power imbalance is everywhere, including among college students and young adults. The very individuals who are supposed to be more enlightened on power structures and healthy relationship dynamics continue to play into misogyny directly. An example of this is the awful trend of couples dressing up for Halloween as a deer and a hunter.
While some see this as a cute costume to do with their partners and not that serious, it actually is. When women dress up as a deer to their boyfriend or husband’s hunter, it conveys the message that they are prey. It puts them in a place where they are pretending that their boyfriend wants to shoot and kill them. Just like Bell’s controversy, it perpetuates an acceptance of domestic violence and turns it into a joke.
In the social climate, the goal should be about moving forward, not backward. But people are in fact regressing, and that’s devastating. First, they began by attacking women’s healthcare with the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, and now, women’s values in jobs and politics are being questioned.
Politicians who make access to birth control and abortion a political issue — and then don’t want women to have a voice and vote — are heinous, uneducated and soulless. Nobody would be in this world if it weren’t for women. Journalists and public figures alike should be uplifting not just women but everyone who is marginalized and silenced under our administration.
