Women of the Tea Party

[Joanne98]

For OpEdNews: Amy Fried, Ph.D. - Writer

It's been hard to help noticing, that so many of the people being put forth by the Tea Party of late, are women. This has prompted numerous theories about the symbolism, political message, or policy proposal involved. Some like Max Blumenthal in Republican Gomorroah - note the value of female candidates to deliver a message antithetical to women's rights, as a way of silencing the opposition.

MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell has pointed out the irony of some of these women hurling phrases like "Man up!" - which run counter to the whole of idea of women running for office.

A series of article in The Nation Magazine addresses the paradox in a number of ways, including blaming feminists for narrowly defining progress in terms of gender alone during the 2008 Democratic primary, dismissing the Mamma Grizzly imagery as a combination of branding and sex appeal to men, blaming the Democratic Party for not supporting their own female candidates, and a kind of bait and switch, in which Democratic losses in 2010 will mean fewer women in Congress over all.

But there's another way of looking at the irony of so many women representing a party whose positions run counter to those of most American women. It has to do with the Tea Party rebellion against government regulation - recast as tyranny - while true government intrusions on issues of privacy (such as reproductive rights) are celebrated.

In "Sex and the GOP" in The Nation Magazine, Betsy Reed observes:

"Government-bashing, a favorite pastime of many ultraconservative female candidates, goes over much better with men than with women, who are more likely to support an active government role in the economy, education, healthcare and environmental protection. After all, women benefit more from government policies like childcare subsidies and family leave, and they are disproportionately reliant on Social Security to protect them from poverty in old age, so it is only logical that they look askance at politicians of either gender who make careers out of demonizing government ..."

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Women-of-the-Tea-Party-by-Amy-Fried-Ph-D-101029-592.html

[Greg K]

1. They've discovered that they can play the sexism card to deflect criticism.

[SharonAnn]

4. But they only find stupid women. Smart ones are Democrats.

That's because stupid women can't compete in any other environment, so thy find a job being the "front" for the ultra-conservatives.

[HopeHoops]

2. I have a theory as to why the teabaggers only put forth dumbfuck women...

... It is because that's all FOX Noise has on the show and they're looking for a replacement lineup.

The same applies to the dumbfuck male teabaggers, but the post was about women.

[bluerum]

3. 'Government-bashing, a favorite pastime of many ultraconservative female candidates',

and female head stomping is a favorite pastime of some ultraconservative males.