Maybe it’s all just performative?
Women across the world are today experiencing the visceral, secondhand body horror of another Trump administration, and that is nothing compared with the all-too-real feeling of peril that many American women will be having as I write. We hold fear, tension and trauma in our bodies, and though that is the kind of idea that strongmen such as Trump and their acolytes would snigger at, it’s well documented that, to quote the psychiatrist and author Bessel van der Kolk, the body keeps the score. It is a complete tragedy that yet more American women are facing the prospect of their reproductive rights being curtailed even further.
This body horror will be felt by the many others on Trump’s hitlist of undesirables: immigrants, gay and transgender people, disabled people, protesters. Anyone capable of empathy. Yet in the context of the assault on reproductive rights, and being a woman myself, it is women I am writing about today.
What assault on reproductuive rights?
Recall, the Supreme Court said, in effect: “It ain’t in the Constitution so it’s for the States and democracy”. Which was, erm, nowt to do with Trump policies.
That also means that action at the Federal level – without a constitutional amendment – ain’t gonna work either. It’s for the States.
Now, without delving into really grubby detail there were 6 – I think – propositions about abortion on the ballot this week. Of which – I think – 4 passed.
Which, erm, ain’t an assault upon abortion.
There is good news for American women to cling to, with Missouri and Arizona voting to expand abortion rights, and Colorado, New York, Maryland, Montana and Nevada all passing measures to protect them.
See?
Guess we’ll go with performative then?
I know this is a bit of a stupid point of view but personally I’m relieved to not have a demented, feeble crook as “President” with a vengeful black man running things behind the scenes.
I know it’s a conspiracy theory but I don’t know who else could have got the American bureaucrats in the same state as Plod in Rotherham, such that a drugged up criminal died from a heart attack and a white cop was fitted up to be convicted of his murder. The judge didn’t allow the bodycam evidence to be shown to the jury, which was the clincher for me…
What a pile of….’Guardian’ opinions. I’m a woman, am I ‘experiencing the visceral, secondhand body horror of another Trump administration’?
No, of course not.
Oh abortion ( yawn ). I thought she was afraid that Trump was going to use some Presidential doit de seigneur and come and grope her.
ps Trump has been sensibly quiet on the issue. The SCOTUS ruling gave him a ‘get out of jail card ‘ on this one.
As far as I can see, nobody is the US government – federal or state – is stopping US women reproducing. How are their rights to reproduce being curtailed?
Is Miss Loosemycorsets a trifle self-absorbed, perhaps?
Don’t mock. VSBH (Visceral Secondhand Body Horror) is a serious and debilitating medical condition. It can be brought on by things like election results in a foreign country.
The two that didn’t pass (Nebraska and South Dakota) are places where the population lives close to a state border. So why get that bothered when you can just drive to Topeka?
Seriously, apart from the fact that married women and older women aren’t that bothered about abortion (so rural states are generally going to care about it less), people aren’t going to care that much if a 2 hour drive can solve the problem.
As with Murphy – I am musing whether Trump is having A cheeseburger and Diet Coke in Mar a lago this lunchtime and saying ‘You know fellas, we gotta do something about that Guardian Broad that looks like an alien’
Tim nails it. I don’t think the post birth abortion that the Democrats were looking to legalise is on the table but as far as I am aware it’s now decided at the state level. I am always hesitant to pose questions and impose on the time of someone as legendary as the near peerless Julia M but as one of the few women on these threads, would you use 39 week abortion as a standard contraception method?
WB,
Its not not surprising those initiatives failed when you look at the measures they wanted:
South Dakota
We all know that some doctors can be persuaded to agree to abortions for any reason so campaigners were effectively asking for full term abortions.
Nebraska
Its a bit confusing but from the way I read it women can still get an abortion in the first trimester and I’m sure I’ve seen some stat that says 95% or more of abortions take place in that period.
Florida
Just short of the 60% needed for this constitutional amendment:
This body horror will be felt by the many others on Trump’s hitlist of undesirables: immigrants, gay and transgender people, disabled people, protesters. Anyone capable of empathy.
“Why don’t you evil Nazi white trash garbage bastards have EMPATHY???”
Candi Miller died at home in bed with her three-year-old daughter next to her after being too afraid to seek medical care because of Georgia’s abortion ban
Retarded.
The outcome of this election is not surprising. After last time, I didn’t believe America’s hatred of women could be overestimated; why should it elect one?
Five minutes ago, Coconut Joy was going to crush Donald Trump with her plucky cool brown wine auntness (and $1.4Bn in advertising spending).
Now, America hates women. Those must have been terrible ads.
Kamala Harris announcing that she was running for president coincided with my social media algorithms bombarding me with Christian “tradwife” content about the importance of serving and obeying one’s husband, and not working outside the home.
Nature is healing, lol
And, of course, there were yet more rape and sexual assault allegations to add to the pile – which barely seemed to make a dent in the election debate, despite the alleged involvement of the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Many of us have been left wondering what exactly Trump would have to do to a woman that would be deemed sufficiently beyond the pale to prevent his return to power.
Something that actually happened?
Labour must urgently decriminalise abortion here in the UK after the legislation fell by the wayside earlier this year
Mental illness.
I know I am not alone in saying that I had never experienced such profound physical revulsion as I did during the Trump years, whenever that man tweeted or went on television
This is why it was cruel to give them the vote.
Van_Patten: ’…would you use 39 week abortion as a standard contraception method?’
I can’t imagine anyone would. I mean, normal birth control is available to prevent the consequences of getting preg, and at 39 weeks you’ve had all the bodily drawbacks of it (varicose veins, morning sickness, piles) so might as well go ahead and give birth!
Steve
Your level of genius is indeed peerless (as I often say but it bears repeating)
What a pile of steaming horse manure the article is:
If Donald Trump’s previous administration taught us anything, it’s that women’s bodies do not matter. The autonomy of those bodies, the frequent injustices and abuses inflicted on them, are of little consequence to a far-right misogynist administration that is – unbelievably to some – back in power after an all too brief period of reprieve, if not change. Women’s bodies are also of little consequence to the people who voted for Donald Trump.
Those ‘Far Right’ Black and Latino voters? I didn’t think Black people could be racist?? What injustices are you babbling on about? Women have priority in hiring across both the private and public sectors. Any accusation of rape, however outlandish can lead to a man being ruined. Total priority in the family courts and custody battles in many states? If it’s ‘institutionalized misogyny’ they’re making a pretty pisspoor job of it.
This body horror will be felt by the many others on Trump’s hitlist of undesirables: immigrants, gay and transgender people, disabled people, protesters. Anyone capable of empathy. Yet in the context of the assault on reproductive rights, and being a woman myself, it is women I am writing about today.
Of course calling people a ‘basket of deplorables’ is the ultimate in empathy. Albeit it’s probably topped by directly referring to people as ‘Garbage’ – The notion that the likes of the ‘Bigmouth Strikes again’ blog are the Sultan of Sentiment is one that would be amusing if they weren’t so profoundly offensive to what used to be considered common decency. As far as I am concerned anyone pushing something like ‘Drag Queen Story time’ is a paedophile and deserves that level of respect.
Kamala Harris announcing that she was running for president coincided with my social media algorithms bombarding me with Christian “tradwife” content about the importance of serving and obeying one’s husband, and not working outside the home. This alternative reality isn’t a side of America that many Europeans had seen. You might be dimly aware that historically the country was founded by religious fundamentalists deemed too extreme for European sensibilities, but there’s something about seeing quite how unhinged and retrograde the content is that really brings the ideological disconnect home. Naturally, many people living in the US are just as horrified by the rise of these sorts of ideas, not to mention how they intersect with online misogyny and white supremacy, but their prevalence is less of a surprise because they have been exposed to them to some degree their entire lives.
Oddly I have been exposed to them more recently, by the many members of the ‘Religion of Peace’ coming over here on the boats – They aren’t white of course so my guess is their blatant misogyny doesn’t bother you at all while you go around on demonstrations backing Hamas you alien-resembling hypocrite.
It’s easy to laugh at the ridiculous notion that women who have not given birth are bitter, rageful harpies without a stake in the country they live in, and even easier to spin it into a clever “Cat Ladies for Kamala” campaign, but this fear of childless women is an old, old form of misogyny. That it was being deployed, especially in the context of global panic about the birthrate, did not bode well.
Why would I find it ridiculous in a climate where the myths of ‘toxic masculinity’, ‘institutionalised misogyny’ and other canards which are staples of the educational curriculum are treated as shibboleths?
You don’t need to have been assaulted, or raped, to feel that revulsion, just as you didn’t need to have had an IUD fitted to empathise with all the women who were suddenly rushing to get theirs. You don’t need to have had an abortion, to have been pregnant or given birth to understand the trauma of being forced to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term.
The body keeps the score, and that feeling of horror is back.
To quote the great Kevin ‘Bloody’ Wilson – ‘Well you’d better f%^&ing brace yourself coz they’re bringin’ him around’
Btw
We hold fear, tension and trauma in our bodies, and though that is the kind of idea that strongmen such as Trump and their acolytes would snigger at, it’s well documented that, to quote the psychiatrist and author Bessel van der Kolk, the body keeps the score.
Using the language of serious mental illness to describe how you’re unhappy about an election result is, well, sick. If you spent any time with NHS psychiatric patients you wouldn’t do this. There’s millions of people out there who have actual trauma not caused by seeing a Bad Orange Man on tv.
Or this guy in the news yesterday:
Farmer took own life in fear of inheritance tax raid, says son
Prospect of the family losing £2m estate, which had been in their hands since 1950s, had ‘eaten away’ at their 78-year-old grandfather
VP – thank you.
Oddly I have been exposed to them more recently, by the many members of the ‘Religion of Peace’ coming over here on the boats – They aren’t white of course so my guess is their blatant misogyny doesn’t bother you at all while you go around on demonstrations backing Hamas you alien-resembling hypocrite.
My wife is, I suppose, a “trad” wife. But we don’t use funny internet words in my house and it’s not a LARP. She has many complaints, but she’d have more if she had to work in an office or something.
So I agree with the Muslims, it’s better if the wife doesn’t need to work outside the home, because there’s enough work to do bringing up the kiddos.
Why would I find it ridiculous in a climate where the myths of ‘toxic masculinity’, ‘institutionalised misogyny’ and other canards which are staples of the educational curriculum are treated as shibboleths?
Yarp, if anybody is shat on by society, it’s men. Men kill themselves at a frightening rate, or work themselves into an early grave trying to support the family. Even multi billion dollar companies feel entitled to hector, lecture and mock men in their advertising. Hahaha, you’re such an idiot, Daaaaaad.
The problem women like Rhiannon have is not that they’re oppressed, it’s that they’ve been overindulged. They aren’t traumatised, they’re throwing a tantrum.
Steve
Kudos to you and your wife for that arrangement – Sadly even when I was married that arrangement was beyond our financial means and I am not sure many ‘career” women would be up for it. Which of course is a complex topic but goes a long way to explaining why demographically we are fucked.
I have no quarrel with those kind of arrangements and was merely pointing out that the likes of Rhiannon would be very unlikely to condemn Muslims for practices like Forced marriage to a cousin or honour killings because as they aren’t (usually) White they are by definition incapable of doing anything wrong. (Of course I know you know this!!)
The problem women like Rhiannon have is not that they’re oppressed, it’s that they’ve been overindulged. They aren’t traumatised, they’re throwing a tantrum.
This times a million – I remember seeing a Podcast/ Youtube video interviewing a Yazidi survivor of the ISIS attacks. Quite humbling and led to me to think that forcibly airlifting the likes of Rhiannon into Eastern Syria at the time might lead her to an understanding of what Real misogyny looked like – not the fact you can’t have an abortion at 39 weeks.
This nonsense about how ‘the body keeps the score ‘ – a perfect justification for absolutely any degree of pearl-clutching hysteria about absolutely anything anyone (male or female) doesn’t like, needs to be knocked on the head. It’s the purest form of psychobabble, unsupported by any sort of empirical evidence, and invented to underpin a culture and an industry of ‘therapy’, imaginary trauma, self-absorbtion and mental fragility. No wonder large proportions of young people are suffering with significant mental-health issues and being prescribed significantly-psychoactive medications to help them ‘cope’ with the banalities of everyday life and an ever-increasing parade of manufactured and imagined assaults on their psyches. It’s the ‘traumatic neurasthenia’ of our age. Abigail Schrier has two very-good books on this, one on the ‘trans’ hysteria and the other on the rapidly-becoming-dominant ‘therapy culture’. Recommend.
Regarding abortion rights in the US, since the Dobbs decision reverted the issue back to the states, the consensus is settling on a European-style policy of abortion-on-demand up to about 12-16 weeks, with ever-increasing restrictions after that. A couple more election cycles will wash it all out, restoring the issue to what it should be – a democratically-mandated policy and not a judicially-created fiat. If people care to lobby for an amendment to the constitution of their state that establishes abortion as a right, then no court can take it away. Separation of powers, ladies, that’s how it works – but you have to put in the work, not take a procedural shortcut fabricated out of nothing for electoral reasons (which is what Roe v. Wade was) that could be undone at any time – as, indeed, it was.
llater,
llamas
I am reminded of the scene from the film Dogma when Jay and Silent Bob are asked why they hang around outside an abortion clinic.
“Because that’s where all the loose women are”.
I’m glad Trump won against Hasbeen Hellbitch, the Vegetable, and Kamala – though he wouldn’t have won the last had not his defeat of the second been fraudulently reversed.
But I must say I do find him camp. Camp in an amusing, manly way but with that air of self-satisfied showbiz posing.
It’s unlike the example of camp afforded us by 2TK – adenoidal, brylcreemed, lawyerly camp. I prefer Trump’s version.
llamas
I agree with your, and the Supreme Courts’, view of the abortion fuss.
The matter is now being settled as it should be, by legislation. One imagines that it’ll all eventually be regarded as a tempest in a tea cup. Except by the woke, of course.
Dearieme – While Kamala was hanging out with celebrities, Trump was working the drive thru at McDonald’s and then driving a bin lorry with his name on it.
It’s exactly what a 10 year old boy would do if he was running for president, and I love it.
Conflating immigrants and ILLEGAL immigrants is exactly what lost Kameltoe the election. And yet, they KEEP doing it.
Steve/ Dearieme
There’s a very good article on Spiked by Brendan O’Neill around the ‘shock’ displayed by Rory Stewart/ Real Man – apparently he had been to Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan and Trump ‘was nowhere’ to be seen. Guess it’s hard to see much with your head in a pillow.
The stunt in the Drive thru was genuinely hilarious. What was even more hilarious was the response of various Twitterati calling for a boycott of the Chain. Completely deranged lunatics and their schadenfreude is delightful to behold.
What I think needs to happen now is that the people opposed to be Trump need to be held up as the genuine ‘deplorables’ – the people who are in favour of:
– Alphabet soup inspired child molestation a.k.a ‘Trans Rights’
– The replacement of the indigenous population – a.k.a ‘mass immigration’
– Mass murder on environmental Grounds a.k.a ‘Net Zero’
– Systematic discrimination against people on racial grounds (in this case Whites) – a.k.a ‘DEI’
– Systematic discrimination against people on gender grounds (in this case Men) – a.k.a ‘Radical Feminism’
We need to change the body politic so these positions, which a massive shift in the Overton window by the mainstream media has persuaded people through intimidation are ‘centrist’ and ‘moderate’ are in fact batshit crazy and should lead their holders to be excluded largely from public life. It’s a monumental task but at least the US has made a start.
“Anyone capable of empathy.”
Yeah. Kill the babies and to hell with the indigenous working class. That’s well empathetic, that is.
They still can’t see that it’s their utter, barren, absence of the tiniest sliver of empathy for the “deplorable” “garbage” “clinging to their guns and Bibles” that’s dropped the Democrats into this mess. And if this hasn’t shocked them into pulling their heads out of their backsides, they’re screwed for the next twelve years. They’ll just try the same tired old shit against Vance when the time comes.
You don’t need to have been assaulted, or raped, to feel that revulsion, just as you didn’t need to have had an IUD fitted to empathise with all the women who were suddenly rushing to get theirs. You don’t need to have had an abortion, to have been pregnant or given birth to understand the trauma of being forced to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term.
Maybe if we weren’t importing so many rapey illegals, this wouldn’t be such a problem. Nah, that could never be the problem.
Sam Duncan
I like the cut of your jib Sir. To quote from Allegedly Trump’s Favourite Film, The Martial Arts Classic ‘Bloodsport’ – ‘YOU GOT IT!!!!!’
One of my relatives (who knows Murphy ironically) was launching into a lengthy screed around the election on Wednesday. He posited that Harris’ decision to use the term ‘Fascist’ would be a vote winner. He hasn’t posted since then. He also accused the Netanyahu government of ‘fascism’, blissfully unaware of Hamas and Hizbollah’s real fascism. Sadly there’s no reasoning with such a being.
On Mark (Longrider’s) superb blog one commentator posited that the Dems are playing a long game and that they wanted Trump to win as the US economy is going to fall over in 2025 and Trump will take the blame. That’s the only cloud on the horizon at the minute….
“Dunno, is Rhiannon an idiot, ignorant, or a cretin?”
Giver her track record, on record at the Guardian…., one can safely say : All of the Above.
A very nerdy female friend of mine typified what our dear Rhiannon “feels” , and many of the hardcore Progressives are going through, judging by the wailing and gnashing of teeth on the social plains of Megiddo as “SDS-6”.
Socialist Disappointment Syndrome, level 6. ( out of 5…)
It’s a really deep Nerd joke originating in the late 80’s, involving hyped expectations being dashed by Reality™, and the REEEE!!-ing it even then created amongst the Faithful.
And it fits to a tee….
The Great Grikath
I was going to say the answer to Tim’s question is ‘All or any’ but you beat me to it…
After last time, I didn’t believe America’s hatred of women could be overestimated; why should it elect one?
This from the same bunch that can’t define what a woman is? The same bunch that says women with penises are real women? The same bunch that lards up medical texts with trans nonsense?
Something tells me that were Trump to Identify as a Woman tomorrow, this Rhiannon person would not be falling all over herself in support of the First Woman President nor would she be using his new pronouns…
@Lab Rat: what a brilliant suggestion – text him immediately.
“America’s hatred of women”
Could be me, but from oldfashioned paper to the modern-day digital era…
“America” loves women.
From erotica to outright fetish porn, the US has dominated the market, like many others, for over a century.
It’s only in the past 5 years or so that the Adversaries cottoned on to a billions, if not trillions-dollar business.
Until then even the Euro scene was limited to…. specialist desires…. The US could, and did, flood anything that threatened to make a buck by becoming popular… Within a couple of months, depending on distribution channels.
I don’t know about the wimmins but many a foetus is rejoicing today.
TDR derangement in action:
Heavily featured in today’s cloggie news: Biden promises “peaceful transfer of power” to Trump… With speechily vidjoo even…
The guy won the election. The whole point is that the transfer of power happens without a minor civil war…
That’s actually in the law….
If Trump really wanted to take the US by force he has had about 3-4 opportunities to do so, riding the wave…
It may be of note he passed up on that particular option every single time….
VP – I’m probably Rory Stewart’s biggest fan. Ever since the gurning wrinkled war goblin appeared, in his father’s ill-fitting suit, I have noticed it’s generally best to listen to his odd, piping, pipsqueak manboy counsel, and then believe or do the complete opposite. He’s as reliable a bellendwether as our dearly beloved Professor Ritchie.
The stunt in the Drive thru was genuinely hilarious. What was even more hilarious was the response of various Twitterati calling for a boycott of the Chain. Completely deranged lunatics and their schadenfreude is delightful to behold.
You know you’re over the target when you’re getting the most flak. Yarp, Trump’s theatrical genius is underrated, but people should remember he’s a WWF Hall of Fame wrestler. Wrestling is opera, with beat-downs, brother! Trump is a genius marketer. Probably the best that has ever lived, in the galaxy.
What I think needs to happen now is that the people opposed to be Trump need to be held up as the genuine ‘deplorables’
Those who defy the will of Trump shall be crushed by Trump, for he is the Kwisatz Haderach (and also owns many excellent golf courses).
Grikath – the collective media tried hard for months to pretend Kamala was popular, before the election she was pulling ahead of Trump on a wave of hos mad, and then the mad lad Trump just went and won the popular vote by millions. Something the Dems smugly assumed was now nigh on impossible for an R to pull off due to changed demographics and mass college indoctrination of the youth. Lols!
The Republican Party is now the Hispanic Party, and the Asian Party, and even the Muslim Party in Michigan. All MAGA now. What a time to be alive.
– Alphabet soup inspired child molestation a.k.a ‘Trans Rights’
– The replacement of the indigenous population – a.k.a ‘mass immigration’
– Mass murder on environmental Grounds a.k.a ‘Net Zero’
– Systematic discrimination against people on racial grounds (in this case Whites) – a.k.a ‘DEI’
– Systematic discrimination against people on gender grounds (in this case Men) – a.k.a ‘Radical Feminism’
Excellent, VP, truly excellent.
Yah’right? It’s me, Kamala, Vice President of these United States. Hahaha! Yer. Know that bloke oo I told you was Literally Hitler, right? And an existential threat to democracy, yeah? And a right dodgy tiny handed orange racist to boot? That Trump fella right?
Yer, so, we’re gonna… peacefully transfer power to him.
Ooh me minge!
Trump’s hitlist of undesirables: immigrants, gay and transgender people, disabled people, protesters.
To the best of my knowledge Trump has had nothing to say about gay or disabled people in or out of office. And, as far as I am concerned, he was far too lenient with the BLM/Antifa protestors.
I see Trump hates women so much his first major appointment is a woman as his Chief of Staff, probably the most important position in his administration.
Presumably for the left she is the wrong sort of woman because she doesn’t have a penis or other reasons.
Wimmins should be allowed to do what they want with their own body – except when the feminazis say no.
From https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyv7d12w1lo:
In the UK, commercial surrogacy is illegal, so a third party cannot profit from matching people, though it is not illegal for a surrogate to be paid expenses.
High-profile feminists such as Gloria Steinem and Julie Bindel argue that surrogacy commodifies a woman’s body, leaving surrogates, who are often from poorer backgrounds, open to exploitation.
But poor wimmins killing babies is fine!