During a recent interview with Business Insider, Kellyanne Conway says that her gender has allowed her to help influence Donald Trump, but only if she is “resepectful.” Conway represents the kind of feminism that the GOP can get behind – A woman who refuses to question a man’s decision and is only there to act as the “pretty face”. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins discusses this.
Transcript of the above video:
Kellyanne Conway, the Counselor to the President, recently gave an interview to Business Insider where she explained how her, according to her, femininity actually helps her when it comes to dealing with Donald Trump. She says that it is because of her gender that she is able to very respectfully and very deferentially give her opinions and help to influence Donald Trump. Now during the interview, she explained that Donald Trump’s Cabinet, yes, while it is mostly made of white men, that doesn’t necessarily represent the priorities and the views of everyone in that cabinet. In fact, women like Kellyanne Conway are certainly allowed to, again respectfully give their opinions on policy, on executive orders, and things like that. Women are absolutely allowed, at that all male table, as long as they’re respectful and deferential.
See that’s the difference, when Kellyanne Conway’s talking about her femininity, she’s referring to the Republican ideal of what a woman is supposed to be, respectful and subordinate to her male superiors. Conway even admits in this interview that she understands that Trump is her boss, and her superior, and her elder, and she treats him as such. That’s fine when you’re in a position of authority, but that’s not exactly what’s happening here. Kellyanne Conway is treated as a subordinate, not just because of her position, but because of her gender. I guarantee you, there’s no one in that Trump Cabinet who respects her opinion as a woman. If you don’t believe me, why don’t we take a look at what this administration has tried to do. Or better yet, why don’t we take a look at all of the anti-women comments that Donald Trump himself has made over the years?
At one point, Donald Trump even insisted that women get it better in life than men. This is a man who boasted openly about sexually assaulting women. No, Kellyanne, I don’t think that your femininity is allowing you to influence Donald Trump in any way. You’re there because apparently Donald Trump likes to look at you. He doesn’t see you as an equal. He doesn’t see you as a good team player, he sees you as a woman that he finds attractive and who is willing to go out and say some of the most insane things on national television, or in interviews, that other people don’t have the scruples to go out there and say. For you to come in and say that oh it’s okay as long as woman are respectful to men, and deferential, and we let them finish talking before we jump in, you are setting feminism back decades. You’re taking women back to the 30’s and 40’s. That’s what you’re doing here and that’s what the GOP wants to do to women.
Don’t come out and act like you found this new form of feminism where women can be just as successful as men as long as they keep their mouths shut when they’re supposed to. That’s not how this works. Nobody is better than anybody else because of what they have in their pants but the people that you work for certainly think that they are.
