Fox News host Jessie Watters: seemed to be channeling Warren Farrell with some particularly obtuse remarks he made recently on the Fox show “Outnumbered” on the “single ladies” vote.
Hillary Clinton needs the single ladies vote. I call them ‘The Beyoncé Voters’ — the single ladies. Obama won single ladies by 76% last time, and made up about a quarter of the electorate. They depend on government because they’re not depending on their husbands. They need contraception, health care, and they love to talk about equal pay.
If we ignore the implicit racism of his castigating “Beyonce voters” for being welfare “takers,” Watters is more or less rehashing an old, bad argument that Farrell made in The Myth of Male Power. In a section of the book called “Government as Substitute Husband,” Farrell wrote that “when divorces left women without husband-as-savior, many women looked for substitute saviors … .”
While New Age women turned to gurus and traditional women turned to God the Father or his alleged earthly representatives, Farrell wrote, feminist women either opted
to save themselves or to turn to the biggest savior of all – government as substitute husband. … Divorces led bodies of men (called legislatures) protecting women collectively as other men (called husbands) failed to protest women individually. This meant raising taxes mostly on other men to provide money mostly for women. When divorces deprive women of husbands to protect them, then, our collective unconscious still wants to protect women.
Farrell attempted to hand-wave away the inconvenient fact that the overwhelming majority of those running the government are men by suggesting that
a legislator is to the voter what a chauffeur is to the employer – both look like they’re in charge but both can be fired if they don’t go where they’re told.
So apparently the “chauffeurs” in government are completely at the mercy of women voters, since women make up a small majority of voters.
Given how laughably simplistic – and just plain wrong — this argument is, it’s kind of astounding to think that Farrell has a degree in Political Science.
Farrell’s “Big Daddy” government theory was also popular with one of this blog’s most prolific trolls, a fellow calling himself NWOSlave. Some sample comments (each paragraph is from a different comment of his; click on them for links).
There’s plenty more where that came from, but you get the idea. He went on and on and on about this. Then again, he went on and on and on about everything.
NOTE: Quotes from Farrell taken from pages 237-238 of the original hardback edition of The Myth of Male Power.
I don’t know what you mean by “borrow”, but you certainly should use it to describe black women’s experiences of misogyny.
Please don’t make this joke. Misogynoir is a real thing and shouldn’t be used for some joke, especially if you aren’t a black woman.
The reference to Beyonce is because she wrote a song called “Single Ladies”. Clearly, this is a man who is hip to what the kids are listening to these days.
It’s funny because after the 2012 elections the Republicans tried to figure out why they lost and actually came to the correct conclusions. That they’re alienating people of color (I think they’ve given up on black voters but they used to do OK with Hispanic voters), women who aren’t white + married, and young people. They decided they needed to do better at not being racist, sexist, and homophobic.
However, that would mean a complete overhaul of their policies and the way talk and it would involve pissing off the base so they’ve failed completely. They even held a summit on making the party more diverse in a former plantation. If anything they’ve doubled down on the racism.
As much as they claim there’s no war on women, I know they’re not going to be able to help themselves if Hilary Clinton becomes the Democratic nominee. The misogyny will flow like wine. And yes, the MRAs and Fox News lovefest will grow.
My apologies for the thoughtlessness. My stupid pun wasn’t intended to have any connection to ‘misogynoir’ beyond the fact that the latter word made me realise that you could make new words by replacing the last syllable of ‘misogyny’ with a word beginning with ‘n’ (in itself hardly the most startling or original comedic revelation, I know), but I can see how it may have seemed as if I was mocking that word or its use.
@kiki
The thing about black women’s discourses is that they are often mocked or ignored, and making jokes like that can contribute to said dynamic. So I’m glad you understand.
Someone on Fox News saying something bigoted an stupid sadly does not surprise me.
The fact that Fox News hasn’t been laughed off the air by now is quite alarming.
fromafar2013:
Yes, it’s also a fucking shame and embarrassment that one the wealthiest industrialized nations on earth won’t provide services and aid to its impoverished citizens.
Oy, now I have the chorus of “Single Ladies” stuck in my head!
Who are they calling “single ladies” anyhow? I’d guess the majority of ladies on birth control pills have chosen to do so because they are regularly sexually active with the same partner. But I guess that doesn’t fit the “sluts living it up on the government dime” narrative too well.
Actually maybe we should focus on more song-based voting demographics. Exes who live in Texas, Hoes in Different Area Codes, Babies Who Grow Up to be Cowboys, Scrubs, etc
@WWTH
I realize I dumped all the statistics on this thread without much explanation, but it’s because I was attempting to highlight how much the Republicans rely on white men and women voters in the red states. They haven’t written off black voters, they’ve cast them as villains in order to gin up their base. Hence “Beyoncé voters” and Obama Derangement Syndrome. Fox New’s race baiting is out of control and the Fox Nation comment boards read like Stormfront at this point. Google “Moochelle Obama” if you want to feel great sorrow and rage.
Amusingly in the Republicans post-2012 autopsy, one of their main planned outreach to women was to appeal to married women of color, simply because they have pretty much have written off single women in most of the country. Of course, when Republicans say women of color they mean Latinos and, to a lesser extent, Asians.
I don’t see how they will attract Latino voters. The thing that’s tearing the Republicans apart is immigration, because the anti-immigration tea partiers are alienating the key growing demo of the future and demanding the party block any immigration reform. Back in the Reagan years conservatives thought the majority of Latinos would be Catholic, socially and fiscally conservative, and anti-black, aka Republican. Latinos were turned off by the awful things Romney said about undocumented immigrants during the Republican primaries and are pretty alienated at this point.
So can we call Republican voters “Hunter Thompson voters” because they vote based on Fear and Loathing?
Only if they start yelling about this being bat country!
Smooth Criminals? Sk8er Bois? California Girls? Paperback Writers?
Electric Ladies!
Pff, everyone knows electric ladies can’t vote.
They can, in Electric Ladyland.
“So can we call Republican voters “Hunter Thompson voters” because they vote based on Fear and Loathing?’
I don’t know. I often feel that the urban middle class democrats does not really get what makes the rural blue collar conservatives tick. Which is in part why right wing radio talk show hosts and televangelists have more influence on them then Howard Zinn, Bill Maher and Chomsky combined. There is a clash of values that goes deeper than fear and loathing, imo. And there are few authors writing about it who know the culture from the inside. I can only think of Janisse Ray, Joe Bageant and Wendel Berry.
Well, he’s got a point – isn’t everybody sick of those so-called “Vaginal-Americans” sneaking over the borders and taking our jobs? And then going on welfare while taking our jobs after sneaking over our borders? And then trying to get abortions while going on welfare while taking our jobs after sneaking over our borders? Then working when they should be raising their kids after trying to get abortions while going on welfare while taking our jobs after sneaking over our borders?
Oh, for the good old days.
Isabelle’s got a point. My upstate NY relatives, well, one in particular, enjoy mocking my college. All how if I have (most of) a psych degree, well I oughta be able to fix myself then!
College is a stupid waste of time, don’t need no college to milk a cow! Ok, mocking my least favorite relative that I ever have to actually put up aside, education? “They’ve” all fucked it up, this “new math” (wtf is with that one?) and how academia is a bunch of people full of hot air who don’t do anything. Raising the min wage would raise prices on everything and just out more people out of work (I dared argue that one, got told I know nothing because of my age…month of my 28th birthday)
It’s not just fear, or loathing, add some resentment (not jealously, not resentment that “city folk” have it easier or something, but resentment that “city folk” don’t want their way of life…and that’s if you’re white, middle class, male, cis, straight, Christian, etc…anything else and they might just resent that you exist), then add a dash of “book learning doesn’t teach you anything you need to know”, stir in some “I don’t need your gadgets”, and then garish with some hatred seeped in “how dare you think you’re better than me?!”
And then decide that dealing with my father is better than dealing with that and stay here for the fourth. Oh well, the cat would get lonely if I went with them anyways. (Yes, the grapes must be sour)
It feels like the US is becoming more and more polarized and ungovernable. The right wing simply refuses to accept the legitimacy of the opposition. Any time Democrats attain the Presidency, the right wing embarks on witch hunts, conspiracy theories, taxpayer-$-wasting investigations, and impeachment proceedings. Even though the investigations inevitably fail to turn up anything, they still have the effect of distracting the Democrats, forcing them to expend their resources and energy defending themselves against baseless accusations and less time enacting a progressive agenda. Then, come election time, Republicans can portray Democrats as weak and ineffectual because they didn’t accomplish anything during their term in office. Rinse, repeat.
The refusal to acknowledge Democrats as legitimate also explains a lot of the birther conspiracy theories. If Obama can be exposed as a fake/alien/not born in the US, then he isn’t technically President, and America still hasn’t had a black President, and all is well in Stormfront land. It must really piss them off that Obama got elected to a second term.
The red states are built specifically on the white religious right. There are plenty of rural blue collar conservative-leaning people in New England, but that’s also the least religious region in the US. Now that the Republicans have gone nuclear right, New England, and the Mid-Atlantic states, are rock solid blue. In the North East, our stupid conservatives are less annoying or simply outnumbered. It’s not bragging if it’s true.
::off to listen to NPR and feel smug for no reason::
I agree, Isabelle. I live in one of the reddest areas of my Southern state, and since I blend in – nicely dressed middle class white lady with a wedding ring and two kids – a lot of strangers like to give me their “just between us chickens” insights on the world. I hear appalling racism, bigotry, prejudice…and a lot of confusion. Hateful things come out of their mouths, but under it all they mostly feel attacked. Older folks in particular have spent their entire lives being told that their beliefs are good and godly and patriotic, and now in the span of a few short decades things have changed completely. It’s easier and comforting to listen to people who’ll tell you that you’re still right and the change-makers are evil, so that’s what they do. And as despicable as their ideas and voting records are, I do feel for these angry, bewildered people. They can’t keep up with the changing world, and they probably never will.
I save my hatred for the pundits, politicians and plutocrats who exploit that insecurity and turn it into fear and self-righteous anger. Their profit and political gain comes at the price of real dialogue and understanding; because if we listen to each other, we might learn to agree, and there’s nothing lucrative about that. If the U.S. falls into complete in-fighting chaos, the blood will be on their hands.
Argenti: this “new math” (wtf is with that one?)
It was an attempt to make math more understandable. It suffered from a number of flaws.
1: It introduced elements of Set Theory; but failed to properly structure this, so that one was grouping dissimilar things, and using pictorial elements instead of numerical ones, ergo five oranges, plus a bundle of 10 sticks and one apple = 16.
2: Because it wasn’t presenting math in terms the childrens parents were familiar with they didn’t understand it, and so couldn’t help their parents.
3: It required teachers who really understood the material, which wasn’t the case with many of them.
The thing is, when properly taught, it was better than the extant curricula, but it wasn’t often taught properly. Improperly taught it was massively confusing.
So it has been used as a whipping boy to prove that teachers can’t be trusted to teach.
Perhaps you could initiate a facebook meltdown if you circulated this article written by someone who …
1) favours raising the minimum wage
2) is a multi-billionaire
3) Is addressing these remarks to other multi-billionaires.
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/06/the-pitchforks-are-coming-for-us-plutocrats-108014.html#.U7S7f5SSw7m
It’s long, but I love a couple of portions. This one’s from page 3. (Note when he says “you” he’s talking to the other 0.01%ers.)
@Flying Mouse
I save my hatred for the pundits, politicians and plutocrats who exploit that insecurity and turn it into fear and self-righteous anger. Their profit and political gain comes at the price of real dialogue and understanding; because if we listen to each other, we might learn to agree, and there’s nothing lucrative about that.
^that
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