Last night, Republicans and Democrats offered very different visions of the roles and rights of women in American society. In the State of the Union address, President Joe Biden thanked Vice President Kamala Harris “for being an incredible leader defending reproductive freedom and so much more.” Biden condemned “state laws banning the freedom to choose, criminalizing doctors, forcing survivors of rape and incest to leave their states to get the treatment they need,” and he called out Republicans “promising to pass a national ban on reproductive freedom.”
Thank you. Thank you! It should be difficult but I believe is not unsurprising that the Republicans reacted like that I am 80 years old. I lived through Brown versus Board of Education, the ERA amendment that did not pass and Roe versus wade and I'm still here and I absolutely believe we are all equal. I respect the rights of people to believe in a God who hates women and transgender and gay people but I hope there are fewer of them than there are the rest of us. I also believe you can be really smart and with it at 80. My cousin got her masters degree at 90 and went to work on her doctorate, and there's so many other incredibly intelligent all the adults being 80 doesn't mean you get stupid.
I had a hard time watching A Handmaid’s Tale because it was so dark, and preposterous. But as we creep into the Katie Britt scenes, and others with Casey Desantis and Melania Trump… and Roe is no longer the law of the land, and embryos have more constitutional rights than women in certain circumstances … it’s not much of a stretch of the imagination anymore.
I hope many more women see this regressive trope for the patriarchal scam that it is, and vote.
I cherish and exalt women like Michelle, Jill, Hillary, Ketanji, and Elizabeth, among others.
So I was one of those women who burned her bra. I also remember Schlafly a little too well. Bad taste in my mouth but Britt, boy can she deliver or what? Not! Right out of a Duggar family horror movie comes the bejeweled woman of “faith”, offering possibly the worst Academy Awards speech I have ever heard. Laughable, pathetic, and to be missed. Oh wait…I understand that she will soon be auditioning for Mrs. America! What do you suppose her swim suit will look like?
Watching just a few snippets of the response to the SOTU was appalling. Interesting choice, the hypocrisy of wearing a diamond studded cross, which is at odds with a phrase in the Bible that a camel will sooner pass through the eye of a needle than a rich person ascend to heaven. Whether the diamonds were real or faux is immaterial; they represent wealth and position.
If Katie Britt is an up and comer within the GOP, good grief! Let’s send as many packing as possible.
Britt complained about all of the aspects that make a mother’s life so difficult: expensive or even non-existent childcare costs and/or choices, and costs associated with raising children WHEN Republicans in the Senate UNANIMOUSLY VOTED DOWN THOSE SUBSIDIES IN THE BUILD BACK BETTER PLAN!
Did she think moms who vote don’t actually know that?
Senator Britt represented the Handmaid in her speech. How "dare" she run for office if the family is the most important unit. Which legislation has she passed that protects and supports the family? I think we have to be attacking the Republican claim that they support the traditional family. If they did, every person would earn enough to support a large family with one income. Child care would be free for single parent families. College would be free too. Everyone would have health care coverage. In Germany where I am currently living, at 18 every gets a 200 € pass to be spent on entertainment. This is to get them out and about. They can go skating, swimming, to movies, museums, amusement parks. There is a different pass for people younger than that. Plus parents get 292 € a month per child to help raise them. You can get this until they are 25 as long as they are in school, or doing an internship until then. How about child money. Canada has an even bigger benefit. As a tax free monthly payment, for each child under 6 you get $619.75 per month, and for children 7-18 you get $522.19 per month. Denmark, Sweden and Luxembourg have the highest child credits in the EU. In Luxembourg you get 299.85 € a month for each child. So, this is what the Republican party would be supporting if it were truly for the family. Also, there would be no forcing children raped and impregnated by family or strangers to bare these children. And IVF would be supported because family choice would be supported. Instead, we have Ms. No IVF State Representing the Republicans.
"Chattin' in the kitchen with Katie, chattin' in the kitchen with Ka-a-tie, chattin' in the kitchen with Katieeeee, and strummin' on the ole banjo!...Singin'...
GOP rebuttal was exactly what I had dreamed of...The "demure, simpering, southern holy little wife in the kitchen! Oh how stupid are y'all in the GOP...Enterprise , Alabama yet...C'mon down y'all.
Exactly the issue I think will win it for us. Although, my partner in life thinks that the Christo-Nationalist hardcase women will still vote tRump. The Mango Muffin is, after all a godly man.
Thank you Heather. Another thought-provoking LFAA with important historical context. While I think that the GOP will look for any issue to divide voters and concentrate power, gender equality is an emotional connection to their world view. That is, the frame of the hard-working man at the head of the table and Katie Britt or Laura Ingalls in the kitchen making sandwiches with a smile and catering to her husbands every need. George Lakoff talks about political language and its use to establish a visual frame and emotional connection -and the "Ozzie and Harriet" frame is a classic conservative fantasy.
The thought of a well-educated, informed, and powerful woman is earth shattering to many men that would prefer a subservient woman, dependent upon "her man" to provide for her, fix things around the house, and to discipline the children. From the male perspective a more independent woman maintains an array of alternative life choices, many of which do not involve bringing him his pipe and slippers when he's home from the office or the quarry.
I learned a great deal about feminism early in my career as a confidante to several powerful women who outperformed their male peers and were paid less. It was eye-opening to me.
Later, as a father to my daughters, I did not want to constrain them to gender roles. My oldest still tells the story of when I brought her a present -a textbook on U.S. Government when she was just old enough to read (later I gained more insight into what was considered more academically grade appropriate.) We used to play baseball in the backyard and my daughters learned to hit overhand fastballs and how to drop a shoulder to create space before taking a jump shot on the basketball court. Now, as a granddad to four amazing granddots, I want to see an America (and world) making progress toward equity. A recognition that regardless of gender (or other boundaries others use to divide), the challenges of our time demands education that fully unlocks the potential of all people.
Conservatives have plenty of examples of intelligent and courageous women -and they should be celebrated, not cast out of government for a lack of fealty to the Trump/Putin/MAGA criminal organization.
And leaders have a substantial stake in providing role models for younger generations. We need leaders that may debate policies and respectfully disagree within the framework of our system of justice and democracy. We need more Liz Cheney's (I can't believe I said that), Kamala Harris's, Cassidy Hutchinson's, Hillary Clinton's, Fiona Hill's, and Letitia James as role models as to the array of powerful leadership roles that are possible. And yes, we could use many more Heather Cox Richardson's too!
I came of age when abortion was illegal and unmarried women could not get access to birth control. The books by de Beauvoir, Friedan, Steinem, as well as “Our Bodies Ourselves” and Women’s Liberation opened my mind to a different way of life. In 1973, just post Roe, while in high school I volunteered at the People’s Free Clinic. I did pregnancy tests and counseling. That experience propelled me to get an education and to go on to medical school.
The staging, the content, and the delivery of Britt’s response was tone deaf and beyond offensive.
A couple of problems, Equality does not mean Dominance. The equal rights amendment (ERA) is not asking for females to be superior to males, just to be equal. Men like trump are so weak the only way for them to feel strong is to dominate others, Tough patooties. Weakness of mind or body has nothing to do with gender. A self satisfied man, is a strong man, he knows his value and has no need to feel superior to anyone. Biden is such a man. He knows his value, he has no need to feel jealousy or to domineer Jill or Kamala. My late husband was that kind of man. He respected me and my strengths because he was sure of his own.
The second thing is abortion. While this subject has more effect on females than males it is only an anatomical difference. Abortion, like an appendectomy, is a medical procedure. As a medical procedure, lawyers and religious zealots have NO endowed rights in deciding when, where, or if the medical procedure is performed. That should involve the physician and patient ONLY.
I was living in Salt Lake City when the Utah legislature voted down the ERA, because, as one legislator, so rationally and logically, put it, “NOBODY’s gonna tell ME I can’t take off my hat to a lady in an elevator!”
Every American needs to hear President Biden's State Of The Union address, regardless of the language they speak. The State Of The Union sounds just as good in Spanish!
OMG! I saw a clip of what I now realize is Britt's SOTU rebuttal on social media today and I thought it was a parody video! Jess Piper's article completely nails it. It's Stepford Wives meets Spinal Tap except it's a true horror movie.
Perhaps Prof Richardson will write this evening about the bond trompy just posted to cover the damages in the E. Jean Carroll case. It was written by Chubb, an insurance company with Russian connections. Seth Abramson, who is on Threads (@seth.abramson) has been sounding the alarm about this being a dire national security issue. He also publishes on Substack (Proof), but his content is only available to paid subscribers (which I'm not.) He's been updating his Stack post all night long and is promising a humdinger of a report sometime this a.m.
He says the Court must refuse to accept the bond on national security grounds, and it must order the taking of his property instead. This will become even more sharply critical when his $450+ million comes due later this month.
A reminder: trompy is to start receiving classified intelligence briefings shortly after the Repub convention this summer. This CANNOT happen, as there is no legal requirement for the US government to provide them to nominees; it's only a recent tradition.
Thank you. Thank you! It should be difficult but I believe is not unsurprising that the Republicans reacted like that I am 80 years old. I lived through Brown versus Board of Education, the ERA amendment that did not pass and Roe versus wade and I'm still here and I absolutely believe we are all equal. I respect the rights of people to believe in a God who hates women and transgender and gay people but I hope there are fewer of them than there are the rest of us. I also believe you can be really smart and with it at 80. My cousin got her masters degree at 90 and went to work on her doctorate, and there's so many other incredibly intelligent all the adults being 80 doesn't mean you get stupid.
Excellent thesis and through line.
I had a hard time watching A Handmaid’s Tale because it was so dark, and preposterous. But as we creep into the Katie Britt scenes, and others with Casey Desantis and Melania Trump… and Roe is no longer the law of the land, and embryos have more constitutional rights than women in certain circumstances … it’s not much of a stretch of the imagination anymore.
I hope many more women see this regressive trope for the patriarchal scam that it is, and vote.
I cherish and exalt women like Michelle, Jill, Hillary, Ketanji, and Elizabeth, among others.
So I was one of those women who burned her bra. I also remember Schlafly a little too well. Bad taste in my mouth but Britt, boy can she deliver or what? Not! Right out of a Duggar family horror movie comes the bejeweled woman of “faith”, offering possibly the worst Academy Awards speech I have ever heard. Laughable, pathetic, and to be missed. Oh wait…I understand that she will soon be auditioning for Mrs. America! What do you suppose her swim suit will look like?
Watching just a few snippets of the response to the SOTU was appalling. Interesting choice, the hypocrisy of wearing a diamond studded cross, which is at odds with a phrase in the Bible that a camel will sooner pass through the eye of a needle than a rich person ascend to heaven. Whether the diamonds were real or faux is immaterial; they represent wealth and position.
If Katie Britt is an up and comer within the GOP, good grief! Let’s send as many packing as possible.
☮️
Britt complained about all of the aspects that make a mother’s life so difficult: expensive or even non-existent childcare costs and/or choices, and costs associated with raising children WHEN Republicans in the Senate UNANIMOUSLY VOTED DOWN THOSE SUBSIDIES IN THE BUILD BACK BETTER PLAN!
Did she think moms who vote don’t actually know that?
Senator Britt represented the Handmaid in her speech. How "dare" she run for office if the family is the most important unit. Which legislation has she passed that protects and supports the family? I think we have to be attacking the Republican claim that they support the traditional family. If they did, every person would earn enough to support a large family with one income. Child care would be free for single parent families. College would be free too. Everyone would have health care coverage. In Germany where I am currently living, at 18 every gets a 200 € pass to be spent on entertainment. This is to get them out and about. They can go skating, swimming, to movies, museums, amusement parks. There is a different pass for people younger than that. Plus parents get 292 € a month per child to help raise them. You can get this until they are 25 as long as they are in school, or doing an internship until then. How about child money. Canada has an even bigger benefit. As a tax free monthly payment, for each child under 6 you get $619.75 per month, and for children 7-18 you get $522.19 per month. Denmark, Sweden and Luxembourg have the highest child credits in the EU. In Luxembourg you get 299.85 € a month for each child. So, this is what the Republican party would be supporting if it were truly for the family. Also, there would be no forcing children raped and impregnated by family or strangers to bare these children. And IVF would be supported because family choice would be supported. Instead, we have Ms. No IVF State Representing the Republicans.
Was Sen. Britt a character in “The Handmaid’s Tail” that I overlooked?
Let’s hope she stars in Biden campaign ads showing how Republicans want to subjugate women.
"Chattin' in the kitchen with Katie, chattin' in the kitchen with Ka-a-tie, chattin' in the kitchen with Katieeeee, and strummin' on the ole banjo!...Singin'...
GOP rebuttal was exactly what I had dreamed of...The "demure, simpering, southern holy little wife in the kitchen! Oh how stupid are y'all in the GOP...Enterprise , Alabama yet...C'mon down y'all.
Exactly the issue I think will win it for us. Although, my partner in life thinks that the Christo-Nationalist hardcase women will still vote tRump. The Mango Muffin is, after all a godly man.
Thank you Heather. Another thought-provoking LFAA with important historical context. While I think that the GOP will look for any issue to divide voters and concentrate power, gender equality is an emotional connection to their world view. That is, the frame of the hard-working man at the head of the table and Katie Britt or Laura Ingalls in the kitchen making sandwiches with a smile and catering to her husbands every need. George Lakoff talks about political language and its use to establish a visual frame and emotional connection -and the "Ozzie and Harriet" frame is a classic conservative fantasy.
The thought of a well-educated, informed, and powerful woman is earth shattering to many men that would prefer a subservient woman, dependent upon "her man" to provide for her, fix things around the house, and to discipline the children. From the male perspective a more independent woman maintains an array of alternative life choices, many of which do not involve bringing him his pipe and slippers when he's home from the office or the quarry.
I learned a great deal about feminism early in my career as a confidante to several powerful women who outperformed their male peers and were paid less. It was eye-opening to me.
Later, as a father to my daughters, I did not want to constrain them to gender roles. My oldest still tells the story of when I brought her a present -a textbook on U.S. Government when she was just old enough to read (later I gained more insight into what was considered more academically grade appropriate.) We used to play baseball in the backyard and my daughters learned to hit overhand fastballs and how to drop a shoulder to create space before taking a jump shot on the basketball court. Now, as a granddad to four amazing granddots, I want to see an America (and world) making progress toward equity. A recognition that regardless of gender (or other boundaries others use to divide), the challenges of our time demands education that fully unlocks the potential of all people.
Conservatives have plenty of examples of intelligent and courageous women -and they should be celebrated, not cast out of government for a lack of fealty to the Trump/Putin/MAGA criminal organization.
And leaders have a substantial stake in providing role models for younger generations. We need leaders that may debate policies and respectfully disagree within the framework of our system of justice and democracy. We need more Liz Cheney's (I can't believe I said that), Kamala Harris's, Cassidy Hutchinson's, Hillary Clinton's, Fiona Hill's, and Letitia James as role models as to the array of powerful leadership roles that are possible. And yes, we could use many more Heather Cox Richardson's too!
I found Katie Britt’s speech deeply offensive.
I came of age when abortion was illegal and unmarried women could not get access to birth control. The books by de Beauvoir, Friedan, Steinem, as well as “Our Bodies Ourselves” and Women’s Liberation opened my mind to a different way of life. In 1973, just post Roe, while in high school I volunteered at the People’s Free Clinic. I did pregnancy tests and counseling. That experience propelled me to get an education and to go on to medical school.
The staging, the content, and the delivery of Britt’s response was tone deaf and beyond offensive.
The Republican response from the kitchen was just so bizarre”. Who thought this was a good idea? Joe nailed it!
A couple of problems, Equality does not mean Dominance. The equal rights amendment (ERA) is not asking for females to be superior to males, just to be equal. Men like trump are so weak the only way for them to feel strong is to dominate others, Tough patooties. Weakness of mind or body has nothing to do with gender. A self satisfied man, is a strong man, he knows his value and has no need to feel superior to anyone. Biden is such a man. He knows his value, he has no need to feel jealousy or to domineer Jill or Kamala. My late husband was that kind of man. He respected me and my strengths because he was sure of his own.
The second thing is abortion. While this subject has more effect on females than males it is only an anatomical difference. Abortion, like an appendectomy, is a medical procedure. As a medical procedure, lawyers and religious zealots have NO endowed rights in deciding when, where, or if the medical procedure is performed. That should involve the physician and patient ONLY.
I was living in Salt Lake City when the Utah legislature voted down the ERA, because, as one legislator, so rationally and logically, put it, “NOBODY’s gonna tell ME I can’t take off my hat to a lady in an elevator!”
Every American needs to hear President Biden's State Of The Union address, regardless of the language they speak. The State Of The Union sounds just as good in Spanish!
https://thedemlabs.org/2024/03/08/president-bidens-state-of-the-union-in-spanish/
OMG! I saw a clip of what I now realize is Britt's SOTU rebuttal on social media today and I thought it was a parody video! Jess Piper's article completely nails it. It's Stepford Wives meets Spinal Tap except it's a true horror movie.
Perhaps Prof Richardson will write this evening about the bond trompy just posted to cover the damages in the E. Jean Carroll case. It was written by Chubb, an insurance company with Russian connections. Seth Abramson, who is on Threads (@seth.abramson) has been sounding the alarm about this being a dire national security issue. He also publishes on Substack (Proof), but his content is only available to paid subscribers (which I'm not.) He's been updating his Stack post all night long and is promising a humdinger of a report sometime this a.m.
He says the Court must refuse to accept the bond on national security grounds, and it must order the taking of his property instead. This will become even more sharply critical when his $450+ million comes due later this month.
A reminder: trompy is to start receiving classified intelligence briefings shortly after the Repub convention this summer. This CANNOT happen, as there is no legal requirement for the US government to provide them to nominees; it's only a recent tradition.