55 Percent of White Women Voted for Trump…
…..That’s a 2 point increase over the figure for the 2016 election….
During the Women’s Suffrage Convention in 1851, white women were expected to choose between support and participation in the Abolitionist Movement and the Women’s Rights and Suffrage Movement.
Leaders of the Women’s Suffrage Movement, such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, thought and feared that the presence and participation of outspoken black women, like Sojourner Truth, would do harm to the effectiveness of the case for women’s suffrage.
That’s when Truth rose to give her momentous speech “And Ain’t I A Woman”…
After all that has transpired historically.
And, after all that has been revealed about who and what Trump is, the majority of white women apparently seem to have succumbed to the impulses of racism and bigotry that are the pillars of Trumpism…
It appears that most of the White women in this country don’t see or get the relationship between the struggles against racism and the struggles against sexism.
They don’t see anti-racism and anti-sexism as naturally aligned…
There are some who believe that it is possible to be both a Feminist and a Racist simultaneously…
Racism and sexism and misogyny were on the ballot in 2020, but the majority of white women chose Trump anyway:
Yes, we’ve come a long way…
However, this is evidence of the fact that we have a much further way to go…
11/15/2020 @ 10:38 am
They’re right that the feminist movement isn’t free from racism. They’re right that Democrats have a problem. But what is it?
I was sent this this morning, it’s Bill Maher, and I think he has a point:
What he sees may be inaccurate but I think he’s right that that’s what Republicans see. I’ve written in a different way about this before. Actually, I write a lot with this in mind.
I’m not sure Maher has the only point, but he has one. Democrats have a history of knowing what’s important to us but not what’s important to the opposition. We don’t understand what kind of bullshit motivates the opposition. We don’t understand how easy big electoral mistakes are to avoid.
We don’t understand, for example, that telling people that the police – by their own assessment – are being used far too much in functions they don’t specialize in like domestic conflict resolution and so we want to move some of those functions – and the funding that goes with it – to people who do specialize in that sort of thing is fine but that expressing this thought by saying Defund The Police makes White people believe that we’re getting rid of protection for White people in order to protect Black people and, further, that there is a sector of the population that will now not face legal consequences for violence. You know what Defund The Police means and I know what it means but that’s not what it sounds like to millions of voters who would sooner keep Trump than give up what they view as their safety and millions more who are fed up with Trump but split their tickets for the same reason. This is a fearful population.
It doesn’t matter if their fear is justified. All that matters is that their fear drives their votes.
Before you think I’m telling you that Black people need to cool it with their demands, that’s not what I’m telling you. What I’m telling you is that what you say is important but how you say it is at least as important. And what I’m also telling you is that fears have to be addressed, including unreasonable fears.
It doesn’t matter whether they should have to be addressed. That’s irrelevant. What matters is whether they do have to be addressed in order to get votes. Whatever the successful formula is will have to be based on function.
11/15/2020 @ 12:37 pm
@Koshersalaami;
Watched the Maher video…
I would tend to agree with his premise in the main…
As I have previously asserted, that Democrats win the debates while Republicans win the elections…
I believe that this is a function of the Democratic Party being held captive to Ivy League academic elitists and the latte and limousine liberals of the I-95 Northeast Corridor between Boston and Washington DC…
Democrats have lost the FDR art of articulating esoteric and complex concepts in common sense terms….
While Republicans have discovered and weaponized the art of the rhetorical/political con…Which, at its core, is predicated on an exploitive appeal to the common sense of lowest common denominators of common people….
11/15/2020 @ 1:19 pm
Ron, you know how much I dislike that lead picture. Yes, it is disgusting that so many white women are Trump voters, but that image shows a sad heavy woman who hasn’t experienced male desire in a long time, and she’s sexualizing herself for attention. The picture reeks of misogyny. She was selected as a subject by a male photographer (of that I am 100% certain) because she disgusts men. You continue to post it for the same reason. It disappoints me that you don’t see that. I invite you to delete it from your hard drive.
Let’s put female physical appearance aside. From a feminist point of view, to include that in a discussion about women renders the discussion irrelevant. Be an ally 🙂
Something that I’m pretty sure is a major factor in voting: it’s women who get pregnant. If they aren’t college educated, husband or no husband, they probably don’t generate enough income to support their children. White women and women of color both worry about being laid off. WaPo recently ran an article about how many more women than men are being laid off as a result of the pandemic.
Yet the virus proportionately kills many more women of color. Working white women can be more concerned about losing their jobs than contracting covid. Trump’s election platform minimized the pandemic, instead emphasized bringing back the economy/jobs. Full disclosure: I only know three Trump-supporting white women. This was exactly the case with all of them. I’m not saying that racism isn’t also a factor, but that it would fall below their jobs on the hierarchy of reasons to support Trump.
My firm belief is that when all women are employed as equals with men, paid the same wages, hired in the same proportion, given opportunities for flex and no rez higher education, given accommodation for child care and parental leave, given good health insurance, you would see many fewer Trump-supporting women.
Trump and the GOP paint these things as socialism. They label AOC, who demands these things, as a radical. Trump voters don’t recognize that the ACA, which 70% of the population supports, is socialism by the GOP definition. Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, all ‘socialism’. We need to better educate people re: critical thinking.
11/15/2020 @ 2:32 pm
@Greenheron;
Do you. remember the incident at a Wendy’s where the police received a call from an employee about a man asleep in his car at the drive-thru window? I was 100% convinced that the caller was a white woman….
Turns out the woman caller was black…Bitey got the info from a detailed back story…
I was wrong about who called the cops and apologized for the erroneous assumption.
However, my mistake didn’t change the facts. What ensued in the incident was just as horrendous as it was if the matter had been initiated by a hysterical white woman…
Re the photo:
It’s offensive because the woman being photographed intends to be offensive…
The identity of photographer doesn’t make it any more or less so….
It’s the words on the T-shirt juxtaposed with Trump’s words in the video that matter here as in other instances where I try to point to the hypocrisy of women who would feign indignation re unsolicited and unwanted sexual advances while advocating and acknowledging their support of a sexual predator…
She’s the kind of woman who would have caused the lynching of a black man simply by pointing an accusatory finger…
She’s symbolic and iconic for reasons that go deeper than seeking sexual attention…Listen again to the woman who talks about the role women have played re white supremacy in the video posted here…
“I only know three Trump-supporting white women.”
You probably know a number of women who support and voted for Trump but won’t openly admit or acknowledge it…
That’s why so many polls are so often out of line with the actual numbers…
Nobody eats pork but the spare ribs are the first food item to go at the happy hour or party.
We’re on the same team but at different positions…
Re being an ally:
I find the notion that Feminism and Racism aren’t mutually exclusive to be of interest and concern…
Ruth Bader Ginsburg was 35 years on the federal bench including her tenure as a Supreme Court Justice. Yet in all that time the much celebrated and bally-hooed champion of women’s rights and feminism found it in her heart to hire but ONE black law clerk.
What does that make her?
11/15/2020 @ 7:26 pm
See this is something that ticks me off. I know more about what that woman was thinking when she created that shirt and posed for that shot than you do Ron. Yet you’re the expert. So you say.
You’ve told me you appreciate that I won’t argue with a black person about their experience. I can’t possibly know it, so there’s only learning. Yet this is exactly what you’re doing with a woman. It is the heart of sexism, men telling women how to think and behave. Would it diminish you as a man not to argue, not to tell me I’m wrong, to listen?
Please don’t make the mistake of thinking I support this woman’s political views, or even that I’d enjoy a cup of coffee with her, but there is nothing in that photo that suggests that she is a racist, and everything to suggest that she equates her sexuality with her self worth.
I’m not sure men understand how vile Trump’s claim to grab women by their pu**y is. It’s sexual abuse and it’s a crime. This woman is showing not a teaspoon of self worth, is putting it aside to say, abuse me, and by the way, isn’t that abuse funny. Men make women believe they have a shelf life, and this woman is aware that hers is almost up. She feels insecure about her body, but if it can still attract the male gaze, even if it means humiliating herself, then she must be okay.
It says a lot about you that you throw that picture up on multiple posts. It obviously disgusts you. You might take a look at your attitude towards women independent of racism.
And I would make a bet with you that the photographer is a man. He selected her, why? Because he found her unattractive and the shirt message ironic. Her womanly fears, confirmed. And you obviously agree.
Your post is about racism, so back to the regularly scheduled program.
11/15/2020 @ 8:00 pm
“It’s the words on the T-shirt juxtaposed withe Trump’s words in the video that matter here…”
To me, It wouldn’t be any different if the words were on a placard nailed to a stick…
I’m not trying to argue what the woman is/was thinking. If she’s been sexually offended my thought is that she’s being offensive as a response…
You know more about visual arts than I do so I can accept your assessment re the intentions and motivation of the photographer….
Re my attitude towards women:
“Listen again to the woman who talks about the role women have played re white supremacy in the video posted here…”
“You might take a look at your attitude towards women independent of racism.”
I have no attitude towards white women independent of racism…..
That includes the one I was married to for 25 years….
11/15/2020 @ 8:12 pm
this was bugging me enough that I did a reverse image search of the photo and the photographer was Ben Jacobs for The Guardian
11/15/2020 @ 9:14 pm
Kudos!
11/15/2020 @ 4:07 pm
I reserve the right not to believe nor accept the statistic.
Wish Safe Bet Amy would surface.
See:
Rorschach tests can be subliminal.
Viral as pandemic.
*OWL* emoji implied.
Signs on sticks, the ladies got their kicks.
Will the fashion police please get on the ball.
Code: bowling pin
sound effect: thundering buffalo
Really? Please exercise other than caution.
1500 hrs. of fame.
Who will answer. Who now hobbled with blame.
O that’s right. We’re selling suntan lotion.
Freshly shampooed. Sparklers, dayglo hula-hoops.
Climate change-home on the range.
VrooooooooooooooooooooooooooM
11/15/2020 @ 6:14 pm
Ron,
You want us to defer to you as to what gets defined as racist because, among other things, you have more exposure to the subtleties of dog whistles than we do.
You now have a feminist woman telling you that picture is sexist.
11/15/2020 @ 6:27 pm
I don’t know how to edit a comment easily, so I’ll add another. One thing that makes that picture awful is that everyone knows there’s no way in Hell Trump would ever touch her. Her hero would reject her, and not nicely. I guarantee you that if that picture is on the wall of any Republican or White House operative, I wouldn’t want to hear the comments it generates.
11/15/2020 @ 7:32 pm
Bingo.
And thank you.
11/15/2020 @ 8:11 pm
@Koshersalaami;
Of course it’s sexlst and the woman is a victim of sexism.
The question is how does a victim of sexism, as this woman is, end up supporting and voting for Trump…
Contrary to what GreenHeron believes and what you’re mistakenly reinforcing, this post is not specifically or solely about racism…
Please, don’t make the mistake of thinking that my understanding and appreciation of the human condition is limited to the black experience.
11/16/2020 @ 12:27 am
The post is mainly about racism within the feminist movement.
The woman in the photo is clearly no feminist, but I very much doubt that when that picture of her in her “humorous” T shirt was snapped that it would result in her being ridiculed internationally for years, and for exactly the wrong reason. I don’t respect her choice but I’m not about to pile on.
11/16/2020 @ 9:30 am
I noticed I left some words out of the previous comment which makes it make no sense. I very much doubt That she had a clue that when that picture of her in her “numerous” T shirt was snapped that it would result in her being ridiculed internationally for years, and for exactly the wrong reason. I don’t respect her choice but I’m not about to pile on.
That makes my intention clearer.
11/16/2020 @ 10:19 am
Ron’s lead photo is a cropped version of the original which shows the subject’s face, clearly delighted at being photographed at being photographed for media publication.
Worth mentioning is that when someone is photographed for publication in a journalistic venue, they are required to sign a release form or else it is illegal to use their picture. However, public figures are exempt and fair game, which is why there are celebrity paparazzi, and also so many gruesome close-ups of Trump’s face which focus on his neck wattles. This seems to be a way that photographers and journalists stick it to him. I admit to being there for it.
11/16/2020 @ 10:21 am
oooops, sorry for typos…is there no window to edit comments once posted?
11/16/2020 @ 1:06 pm
@Greenheron;
Here, we can edit all comments on our own posts, but we can not do so on someone else’s post…
Given the fact that some of the best writing is in the comment stream the inability to edit one’s own comments wherever published is unfortunate…
11/16/2020 @ 1:10 pm
The question is how does a victim of sexism, as this woman is, end up supporting and voting for Trump?
55% is a daunting figure.
The number of women who are, or have been, victims of sexism that must be included in this figure is not insignificant and should not be overlooked…
How or why they can bring themselves to support and vote for a sexual predator is disturbing…
Again:
Ruth Bader Ginsburg was 35 years on the federal bench including her tenure as a Supreme Court Justice. Yet in all that time the much celebrated and bally-hooed champion of women’s rights and feminism found it in her heart to hire but ONE black law clerk.
What does that make her?
If this post is about racism within the Feminist movement, as Koshersalaami surmises, perhaps I should have used a photo of her instead…
11/16/2020 @ 4:38 pm
Ron, I don’t know why people vote against their best interests. Any reason I could come up with would be pure speculation.
My only bit of insight as a child of Republican parents, my dad a businessman, my mother a stay at home mom. Both parents felt it was important for me to go to college for two reasons. One was so that I’d meet an educated breadwinning husband. The second was so that in case he ever left me, my college degree would help me to find a decent job so I could support myself and our kids. Both of my parents believed that a woman needed a man to survive. Literally, to survive, as in, not die.
Maybe this white suburban fifties/sixties mentality is still be true to varying degrees with Trump’s women voters. They might realize he’s gross and vile, but then again, so are most of the men they know. When they are under-educated and under-employed with dependent children, a rich and powerful man must seem to have knowledge and answers they don’t. Many of Trump’s women voters are undoubtedly smarter and more competent than he is, but because they’ve sublimated themselves for so long, they’ve lost the awareness of their own capability.
That’s about as close as I can get to it without signing up for a psych course!
Re: RBG. I really don’t know what was inside her head. I watched a documentary on her and early on, she was a trailblazer and a force, working within a patriarchal system where she was the only woman. She doubtless had to pick her battles. But yeah, once settled at the top, you’d think she’d spread the opportunities around. She was good buddies with Antonin Scalia, there’s that famous picture of them riding an elephant together, so who knows.
11/16/2020 @ 7:38 pm
The reason so many White women voted for Trump was probably in spite of sexism rather than because of it. They were afraid of other things more. They were afraid the Fringe Left would come after them with the Thought Police. They were afraid we’d let anyone and everyone into the country who wanted in and that they’d be physically dangerous, take away their jobs, and be protected from accountability because they were expected to vote Democratic. They were afraid we’d remove police protection from the country. They were afraid we’d tax the crap out of them and give it all to poor people. They were afraid we’d persecute Christians. They were afraid of being treated like a minority once they became a minority. They were afraid that the Black population will be vengeful of their mistreatment and take it out on them with the help of the Democrats.
11/16/2020 @ 11:30 pm
Kosh,
“The reason so many White women voted for Trump was probably in spite of sexism rather than because of it.”
You’ll have to do better than that.
I can’t imagine any scenario in which 55% of voting black people would vote for Trump in spite of his bigotry and racism…
In my view, 55% of white women voted for Trump because they believe that they have somehow benefited from his presidency, and would continue to do so in Trump’s second term …
As a result they were willing to inflict the rest of us with four more years of his divisive and destructive bigotry, racism, and the abject lunacy that is now referred to as ‘Trumpism’…
11/17/2020 @ 10:01 am
Ron,
The alternative would be that all these women voted for Trump because of his sexism. That makes less sense than voting for him in spite of it. I don’t even think the woman in the picture over whom the argument has taken place supported Trump because “Gee, I want a sexist President!”
I’d say Trump’s racism has been more costly to Black people than his sexism has been to women. I’d defer to Greenheron on this, but I don’t know how much Trump’s sexism has influenced sexism in America overall. On the other hand, Trump’s racism and especially his support of racism has endangered lives around the country, and not just Black lives. Hate crimes also skyrocketed on Jews, though there has been no evidence I’ve heard about that influenced police attitudes toward Jews like toward Black people. Aside from insular ultra orthodox communities, I think in general the police treat Jews (White Jews, which most of us are) as White people.
11/17/2020 @ 12:31 pm
Attempting to weigh Trump’s isms out into parcels isn’t worth doing. Racism, sexism, islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, it’s all a big bag of awfulness. If you live in a big blue city, most of your neighbors fall into one or more of Trump’s isms. My city voted 75% for Biden and had a 77% turnout. We’re among those who danced and partied in the streets when the race was called for Biden.
I think racism gets the center stage and should, because police are murdering black people. They always have, but now the country gets to see them do it on cell phone videos. It makes it real. So we’re triaging the isms: take the chest wounds first, then after those folks are cared for, take the broken limbs. Trumpists need to watch their back though. While they’re decking out their trucks with signs and shopping at Walmart while slinging guns, the isms are the ones who are ‘rising up’. Look at what Stacy Abrams did in Georgia. There will only be more of that to come.
I have to say that I’m getting sick and tired of being an American. This semester I’m on my last sabbatical. My artist residency, which I set up over a year and half ago, was cancelled because the program is closed until 2021. My other sabbatical project was to get behind the scenes at a museum of natural history and draw bat specimens. They’ve closed too. So I’ve watched the covid crisis spin out of control due to Trump’s neglect while hunkered down in my studio. That’s been great for my level of production, but awful for my spirit. No surprise, my work has grown quite dark thematically.
When I return to teaching this spring (remotely, again, arrrrggh) my contract requires me to teach two semesters before I can retire. I’m gonna do it, and I’m looking into retiring to Montreal. I know it’s hard to do, but I have friends there, and America has done nothing except break my heart on a daily basis since Obama left office. I cry nearly every time he pops up in the news, or during the Biden campaign, and I just purchased the audio version of his book because it’s 29 hours of him reading it my ear. I suspect that America will never be that good again, or at least not in the rest of my lifetime it won’t. Biden’s okay, but he’ll be stymied by Mitch, and that will be hard to watch.
That’s my rant 🙂
11/16/2020 @ 4:20 pm
I’m going to enter this strong current of this disparity in viewpoint. I read the post, of course. The issue that Ron highlights is concerning. A two point rise among white women is disturbing. Also, with regard to the photo, I think Ron’s use is absolutely valid.
Take a deep breath. That is not to say that I don’t value feminism. I do. Here is how I weigh it. The woman photo’d presumably made the shirt, wore the shirt to a rally, and was referring to a controversy that Trump was involved with. She’s of age, and within her right to express that view, no matter how degrading.
Now, is she mentally of diminished capacity or something? Are we as news consumers taking advantage of her message? We don’t know…and no. There was no indication that the woman was being exploited. It did happen within the context of which we are all familiar. The degradation that we perceive is our inference. It may not be hers. Also, degradation is legal. We are not transgressing there. We are also not crafting that message for her. She did it, and it does apply in the context of this post with the implied question…’why would women be increasingly approving of a man who inspires this?’ It is a valid question.
It also probably points to an answer. The use of that photo is actually very instructive. Here is my view on that. Feminism is a social justice context. That is how and why the photo is degrading. The actin of that woman is evidence that white women can have a departure from social justice/feminism for something else. What else is being communicated? What is that woman choosing over dignity? She is choosing to align herself with power at the cost of her dignity.
We all disapprove of her choice for her, and for what it does for all women, but it has happened. Better to understand it than to ignore it. Some white women will degrade themselves to be closer to power. The data seems to indicate that that number rose by two percent re: Trump. Yeah, it is a shame that it happened, but it is also a point well made by Ron.
11/16/2020 @ 8:01 pm
@Bitey;
An excellent summation…
Thanks….
11/16/2020 @ 5:07 pm
Racism and sexism are not two parallel forces regarding social justice. Sexism itself is complex with the inclusion of white women. And the further up the economic scale, the more complex it is.
Upper middle class white women have an escape chute from the oppression that most others suffer from. They can form closer relationships to upper middle class husbands, fathers and sons. Those stake holders in white male patriarchy will grant certain privileges to white women in their family and social circles that is not available to others.
Is that the women’s fault? No. Is voting to support the patriarchy their fault? If it is for anyone, it is for them also. None of that is to say that a woman’s position in proximity to white male power is ideal or even desirable. Certainly not by me. But, obviously it is for some. They are choosing it.
Bill Burr, a comedian, hosted SNL about a months ago. In his opening monologue, he made mention of social justice and white women. At the 3:12 mark (if you want to skip ahead), he says, “plowing ahead, let’s talk white women.” Then later…”you guys stood by us through centuries of our toxic masculinity. You rolled around in the blood money…”
Breathe.
Yeah, Burr was offensive. He scared the crowd shitless. He was also hilarious, and makes a good point. No, the degree to which he implicates white women is not the point. The point is, white women have different access regarding social justice. From 2016 to 2020, two percent moved in the direction of “the blood money”. That escape chute is not available to anyone else. {https://youtu.be/O1xgXJ5_Q34}. There is the link.