Rebecca Traister’s New York magazine piece “Are Republican Women Okay? The baffling, contradictory demands of being female in the party of Donald Trump” is exactly what one would expect from an author who frequently and glowingly writes about angry women. Except in this article, Traister is quick to express that she only appreciates irritated women who reside on the left side of the political aisle.
In a piece that clocks in at over 6,000 words, Traister says nothing new. It’s the same tired drivel we hear all the time from liberals. Chief among the author’s complaints: the audacity of Republican women to push back against abortion culture and an encroaching transgender movement seeking to co-opt the female experience.
There’s nothing quite like a love of abortion to motivate leftists. In their minds, it’s the ultimate form of female freedom. This is why any attempt to regulate it is seen as the height of betrayal. It is from this vein that Traister’s rage flows. How could Republican women exist in a party that says abortion is wrong?
It’s easy, actually. Republican women don’t believe the taking of unborn life liberates us in any way. In fact, the availability of and encouragement toward abortion is a big, blinking sign directed at women that says, “You can’t do it!” Rejecting pro-abortion ideology is more feminine and freeing than anything Traister praises.
Throughout the article, the author lists GOP politicians she believes either speak for or resemble the whole. Has she spent any time with conservative women who aren’t in the spotlight and who don’t seem to be auditioning for a post-D.C. gig? Doubtful.
The women she lists include Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD), Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL), Sarah Palin, and even the unserious candidate Valentina Gomez. To conclude these women represent Republican women across the country is laughable at best. Republican women are diverse, and we’re not confused, as the article seems to suggest.
Speaking of confusion, it’s a wonder Traister is able to define “woman” at all, given her side’s penchant for rejecting biology. But the definition is easily found, especially when one is writing a sexist article masquerading as concern for those poor GOP girls who’ve gone astray. She is eager to lambaste Republican women merely for existing and embracing conservatism. Notably absent is any criticism of leftist birthing persons who spew Hamas talking points and harass Jewish people.
Here’s the thing: The first wave of feminism that ended with the 19th Amendment is not the problem. The original definition of feminism is something Republicans can and should get behind.
What is the problem? Feminism decades past the original movement that prizes abortion, despises traditionalism, ridicules the nuclear family, scoffs at stay-at-home mothers, demands special privilege, and then, worst of all, asks women to accept men who believe they’re women.
Embracing that poison is a real problem. The Republican women I know reject that in its entirety, and they are right to do so.
It’s one thing to question former President Donald Trump’s grip on the GOP. In fact, his troublesome words and actions, sometimes aimed at women, should be criticized. But that doesn’t mean Republican women in the Trump era must embrace leftist ideology that goes counter to their principles. GOP women are neither robots nor a monolith. The loudest ones in the party do not define us.
Near the end of her diatribe, Traister writes: “In their fevered performances of hyperfemininity and hypermasculinity, so many of the GOP’s most visible women are themselves engaging in a form of drag.”
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In her delusion, she not only concludes there is only one way to be a woman but dismisses the millions of us whose names she doesn’t know. She does this while referencing the transgender movement and drag more than once. This combination of misogyny and exaggeration is a hallmark of liberals as it relates to their view of Republican women. It is demeaning and wrong.
Republican women aren’t perfect, but we’ve seen the alternative. It neither represents nor even attempts to include us. If anything, Traister’s long-winded screed is a perfect example of why Republican women aren’t about to make a move.
Kimberly Ross (@SouthernKeeks) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog and a columnist at Arc Digital.