I spend a big chunk of my life on Twitter and let me just say, this is not my grandma’s GOP and this hateful, angry speech towards other women is not going to help a gosh darned thing.
The resisterhood doesn’t work without sisterhood.
About one million years ago – give or take 20 years – I was assigned Susan Faludi’s “Backlash” as a textbook in a women’s studies class at the University of Utah. As a relatively privileged white girl in Utah, it was an eye opening reader to be sure. I mean, I had grown up in a violent household, had been raped as a child and a young adult, I was a part of the war on women but I didn’t know there was ACTUALLY a war on women and I certainly didn’t know how large the war was.
The policies, the intrigue, the deception.
This book changed my life and then I put it on a shelf, moved it across states and nations and marriages, referenced it here and there, and went to war in my own life.
Today, in 2018, I think a lot about that word BACKLASH.
I get online and see the anger and vitriol aimed at Republicans. I have gotten into that big soupy mess myself – and always regret tumbling head first into it. I bear witness to the backlash against the women of the GOP. I see how women in GOP leadership struggle to find their place in a party that has morphed into the party of loathing & disdain of their own gender. I have listened to some of my favorite Republican women tell me they are entertaining changing parties – leaving the GOP all together – but they don’t because they believe it can change with their help. I have read the books about the conflict that has been created for many since the Reagan era.
What a devastating place to be as a woman who loves politics, who wants to change her community.
To know at your core that what is happening is wrong, that you are standing on the tracks with your hand in front of you hoping that you have enough strength to stop the train coming straight for you. To be clear I am not talking about ALL the Republican women, but I am cautioning my “progressive” sisters to use caution when generalizing to the entirety because I think it keeps us stuck and does us no good.
As a child I was taught the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have done to you.
As a child I was taught: Love thy neighbor.
Artwork by David Arms
In politics it can be troublesome to be loving, compassionate, and kind to those we profess to hate.
Today, I implore you to reach out to your Republican sisters. Ask them what is going on in the party, ask them if they are happy, ask them why they are still a part of the GOP, ask them how we can all come together in our living rooms and the boardrooms to talk about how we can work together.
The resisterhood doesn’t work without sisterhood.
Nancy Melich says in her book, “The power of a movement can be measured in part by the force of the anger directed against it.” Let us not give the extreme right wing GOP our anger, instead let us rise up in our fierce badass leadership to ask what’s next and how we can do it together as women.
“In all things which deal with the people, be liberal be human. In all things which deal with the people’s money or their economy, or their form of government, be conservative.” -President Eisenhower
The shift in GOP politics started in the 1980’s. This means if enough Republican women shift and rise then the party can once again become a party that doesn’t loathe women and their bodies. But it won’t happen if we rage and hate. It won’t happen if we assume and attack.
I believe we can and must work together if we are going to save our experimental democracy from patriarchal annihilation. Now isn’t that a revolutionary idea?
Start some mayhem, raise some hell! Dr. Melissa Bird
If you are in Massachusetts and you want to tap into your passion to raise some hell in your own community join me for this kick ass breakfast training 1/17/18. I promise the ride will be totally worth it! Tickets just $45!