Conservative Women Need to Care About Trump’s Attacks Against Women

We all love it when we see someone we dislike get what’s coming to them. As much as we don’t want to admit it, as much as our faith or morals might tell us we shouldn’t feel that way, we all enjoy a little schadenfreude from time to time.

If you’re not a big Nancy Pelosi, Kamala Harris, or AOC fan, you might have felt a little bit of that when you heard Trump go off on the three women during his interview with Fox Business News.

In the course of one interview, he called Kamala Harris a “mad woman,” accused AOC of “not even being a smart person,” referred to Nancy Pelosi as “stone cold crazy,” and even threw a jab at Mika Brzezinski after the interview on Twitter, referring to her as Joe Scarborough’s “ditzy airhead wife.”

Not surprisingly, I haven’t see too many conservative women on social media or elsewhere, complaining about Trump’s tirade.

But they should be.

First off, these comments are blatantly sexist. Trump, to my knowledge, doesn’t refer to men as “nasty.” He doesn’t call them crazy, dumb, or “ditzy airheads.”

It’s clear that the language being used against these women is being used not just because they are liberal or giving him a hard time, but because they’re women.

I’m sure lots of conservative women fail to see how this is sexist, or try to pretend that it isn’t. But I think many others, and perhaps most conservative women, see the sexism, and think it isn’t a problem because it’s directed at “those women.” Other women. Women who are dumb, crazy, and mad. Not my kind of women. Not me.

Unfortunately, that’s not how sexism works.

A key thing to understand about sexism, racism, and all the other “isms,” is that the definition of who fits into the inferior group is shaped by the oppressor.

Whoever racists deem black, Asian, Latinx, or whichever race they’re against, is part of that race. It doesn’t matter if someone “looks black” but isn’t or “looks white” but is really Hispanic. The person who looks black is going to be oppressed. The person who looks white isn’t. That’s al that matters.

The same goes for sexism. The patriarchy doesn’t see liberal women or conservative women. It just sees women.

That means that we as women can’t segment ourselves into groups, accepting sexism against those women who are different than us, because in the eyes of the patriarchy, we are all the same.

If a liberal woman can be called a “ditzy airhead” or a “f***ing b****” or any other manner of slur by men, what’s to say all women can’t be treated the same way? What makes some think that because they’re conservative, they’re safe?

This is why we as women, regardless of political leanings, need to stand together as a united front against sexism, particularly the damaging sexism of Trump. Because when one of us is disparaged, the door is left open for all of us to receive the same.

I’m reminded of the famous quote by Martin Niemöller:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out — because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me.

Let’s speak for each other, so that no one is left alone without a voice.