Why the hell does the New York Times continue to pretend women don’t have political opinions on the OPINION page? Out of the 12 columnists on the Opinion page, 2 are women. White, middle aged women who don’t even come close to representing the disparate experiences and opinions of most women who vote and are engaged in political action and discourse. Shockingly, it took the dudebros who greatly influence our nation’s opinions two whole days to completely shit on the Women’s march with a Brooks column that will likely please many on the Left and the Right who like to wag their finger at women for being too feminist-y (aka “playing” identity politics) and “turning off” those might-have-been-ours-since-the-1980s voters. I can’t even...this pompous asshole mansplained the Women’s March and trotted out the same exact identity politics bad/nationalist populism good thesis that male pundits publish across the web each day as if it is some hot fucking take:
Instead, the marches offered the pink hats, an anti-Trump movement built, oddly, around Planned Parenthood, and lots of signs with the word “pussy” in them. The definition of America is up for grabs. Our fundamental institutions have been exposed as shockingly hollow. But the marches couldn’t escape the language and tropes of identity politics.
If the anti-Trump forces are to have a chance, they have to offer a better nationalism, with diversity cohering around a central mission, building a nation that balances the dynamism of capitalism with biblical morality.
The march didn’t come close.
I thank Blow, Krugman and Kristof for always countering and complicating the narratives (like this one) that most of the male-dominated political media churns out but honestly, I’m fucking over it. We just watched a more-than qualified woman lose the presidency while a bunch of male producers, pundits and journalists put her emails on page one and in block one of every program for 15 months. They fed into every stereotype of the evil ambitious woman while barely grazing the surface of Russia’s attempts to take her out via Trump.
Women showed this weekend they are the soul of this country and they are the leaders of the Left as we Resist this shit. Traditionally male revolution politics aren’t going to change this country from the Left or the Right. If you’d like some real analysis of what the march means I recommend Rebecca Traister: The Future of the Left is Female.