Are 53% of White Women F*cking Idiots™*???
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*Well, i’ve never been one to shy away from an aggressive headline, so I’m certainly not going to stop now.
What the hell did I just read? “‘You Focus on the Good’: Women Who Voted for Trump, in Their Own Words.” After every explanation, I felt my blood pressure rise. But then I also thought about one of the greatest things to come out of the 2016 campaign, which was this video:
Chauvinist: A person displaying aggressive or exaggerated patriotism.
Sexist: A person with sexist views.
Misogynist: A person who dislikes, despises, or is strongly prejudiced against women.
With that in mind, I thought it might be a lot of fun to highlight the many ways these white women failed in explaining why they voted for Donald Trump. Call it racism. Call it sexism. Call it misogyny. Call it whatever you want, just don’t call it informed. These women were grossly uninformed, so much so that the journalism borders on trolling.
Welp, where do I even begin? Voting for Obama twice, being in favor of gay marriage AND Planned Parenthood are all great things. When you follow that by voting for the guy who’s going to undo all the things, it kind of makes you look dumb. But what’s this now? We need to “educate people on how to behave when they’re being pulled over by the police.” Really, Rebecca? I have a feeling Philando Castile would have a different opinion were he able to comment. Sadly, he can’t because he was shot dead in his car by a police officer who has since been charged with manslaughter.
Grade: Sexist, lightweight misogynist, low-key racist.
You lost me at, “he kind of reminds me of my ex-husband.” In my experience, ex-husbands and ex-wifes happen for a reason. I don’t care to figure out what happened in Sandy’s life, the story of her EX-husband or why she didn’t get offended at Donald Trump saying, “Grab ‘em by the pussy™” But I do know you don’t start out leaning toward Bernie Sanders and accidentally fall for Donald Trump, especially not when Bernie Sanders tells you, ‘Trump is the Most Dangerous Presidential Candidate in the Modern History of This Country.’ SIDENOTE: “I read all these things about people where their religious liberties are not being taken seriously.” WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT, SANDY?!?!
GRADE: sexist.
Deb, actually, Trump doesn’t know how to build shit, he knows how to break and bankrupt pretty much everything he touches. “…they’re freaked out about energy changing too quickly.” Join the club, the green-energy club that is. Coal is dead. I can’t believe how much I have to say this. Deb closed by saying, “I don’t want to go backwards in the feminist movement, either.” It’s almost as if the New York Times is trolling the Trump women at this point. Because when given the chance to choose between the most sexist candidate and the first female candidate for President — you chose Trump.
GRADE: Sexist, low-key chauvinist (don’t think we didn’t see that cab driver bit).
Taylor, daughter of engineers. I desperately hope your parents build you a tool for critical thinking because I don’t understand how you go from CAMPAIGNING for Obama to voting for Trump. They just don’t go together. Still, the “I was a die-hard Bernie supporter. When he backed Hillary Clinton, I couldn’t get behind it” line tells me all I really need to know here.
GRADE: Sexist and misogynist.
This is where things start to get…funky. Robin, was on board for Clinton in 2008, THEN something happened and she started getting her news from a machine which manufactures bullshit, I’m guessing? Hillary did a 360? Meaning she went back to the exact place she was at before? Abortion? Gay Marriage? Sorry, I just can’t — my liberal, elitist brain won’t let me break this all down. I guess we’ve just got another case of “I voted for Obama but my 8-year old son really convinced me Donald Trump was the chosen one,” what can you do?
GRADE: FUCKING IDIOT.
Katie, “from what I understand, he says he’s not going to mess with that” is no way to make informed decisions. It’s like me saying, hmm, I dunno about all this repealing Obamacare/Affordable Care Act, from what I understand it sounds like he’s not really going to mess with that, except he is. You also failed to describe the concept of racism while also somehow still failing to convince anyone you are not in fact racist. Well done.
GRADE: FUCKING IDIOT.
Victoria works in education (honestly, truly petrified for these kids) but has no time for political correctness because as she puts it, “being PC was going to kill the country.” “The whole bending over backwards. He says what everyone’s thinking and is afraid to say. That doesn’t make anyone bigoted.” Except it does because you have internalized and accepted racist ideas.
GRADE: Chauvinist and racist.
No ma’am, Miss Pam. I cannot let the irony in this statement go, “I feel like our economy has totally tanked.” Your. FEELINGS. Are. Very. Wrong. YOUR FEELINGS ARE NOT FACTS. Obama created 15.8 million new jobs since the depth of the recession and the unemployment rate fell every year of his presidency. “I feel the last eight years have been a joke. Obama was out for himself. I don’t think he really respected the office. I think it was more about him being a celebrity than a president.” Are you sure you’re not confusing Barack Obama with reality TV star, Donald Trump? Because it sure seems like you are. “He wants to bring America back to what it was before. I don’t think it’s taking us back to women have no rights or slavery days.” Well, let’s just hope so, Pam. You just can’t make this stuff up. It’s all about thinking and feeling, not about facts with almost any of these women.
GRADE: IDIOT, low-key racist.
Paula says, “All of that was bad, but it didn’t stop me.” Put another way, “BUT HER EMAILS.” She goes on to ask, “Why would you stay with him?” because ya’ know — you can’t ever have it both ways: women stand by your man no matter what or women, go your own way. Also, The I.R.S. THE I.R.S. THE I can’t get over it.
GRADE: Sexism and holy fuck wow what is happening?
Tangie, a LEARNING FACILITATOR for Blue Cross didn’t care about Trump’s very real issues BUT believed “allegations about killing people who get in her way.” Yikes. They really printed this stuff, with her full name and hometown.
GRADE: CONSPIRACY THEORIST, sexist and misogynist.
Kasia is a substitute teacher who runs her classroom like a business which means we should all be deeply concerned. “He’s not getting large amounts from donors based on what you’ll do for me later,” except he is and he has and he did.
GRADE: I GIVE UP.
Guzin really drives the whole thing home. She has always considered herself a feminist but that’s not the feeling she gets from feminists today because as she puts it, “they want extra privileges.” Oh. Okay? Well. You’re a self-proclaimed feminist who voted for an anti-woman candidate so I’ll just sit over here and wait for you to complete your mental acrobatics to rationalize that…But he has a daughter, which is nice.
GRADE: We are all doomed if 53% of white women think like this.
How depressing. The fact that this was written in 2017 and not immediately after the election makes it worse because it implies that these women haven’t been paying attention to recent events or to anything at all really. The number of times I read “I thought” or “I felt” made me question reality.
A lot of the information these women repeatedly pointed to were either lies, conspiracy theories or worse still, fake news. I guess it’s a reminder of why queer people, people of color and other marginalized groups can’t just rely on thoughts and feelings to make political decisions. We must be informed. Maya Angelou said, “When someone shows you who they are believe them; the first time” and then do a google search to be sure.
