Nancy the ripper
| | | | | | In Praise Of 'Difficult' Women |
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| | Last night, after Donald Trump finished giving his State of the Union address, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) ripped up his speech. An instant meme was born.
The speech itself was a subdued version of what you'd expect from Trump, filled with exaggerations, fearmongering and falsehoods. (Plus, a Medal of Freedom for a reviled misogynist racist in the mix.)
Things were tense between him and Pelosi going into the evening. Trump started off the night by appearing to refuse to shake Pelosi's outstretched hand. Pelosi then introduced Trump in an abbreviated way without the usual pomp. She simply said, "Members of Congress, the president of the United States," instead of, "I have the high privilege and distinct honor of presenting to you the president of the United States."
But Trump's defenders were more fixated on Pelosi ripping up those pages: #PelosiMeltdown and #PettyPelosi started trending on Twitter (so did praise for #NancytheRipper and #MadameSpeaker and simply "Queen"). Newt Gingrich tweeted that Pelosi should be "censured."
This is the same guy who was reprimanded by the House for lying to the Ethics Committee when he was speaker, the first time that had ever happened.
It's worth, just for a moment, considering why the MAGA crowd is clutching its pearls over Pelosi. It's actually simple. This is how a white male dominated society keeps women and minorities in check, by holding them to a "standard" of respectability well beyond what that would ever adhere to -- not that they ever have.
No one in his party is holding Trump to a standard of respectability. Is there any politician more childish than our president? Pelosi's small act of defiance is nothing in comparison.
P.S. I wrote a piece this week about sexism at The Washington Post that's worth a read. Not every workplace is toxic in obvious ways. Sometimes the discrimination is more subtle. "Secretly pernicious," said one staffer. |
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