November 24, 2018
Yesterday, the Trump administration ushered in the holiday season by asking the United States Supreme Court to take up its ban on transgender people serving in the military, even as three lower courts were still considering it (Source: “Trump asks Supreme Court to hear challenge on transgender military ban,” by Chris Mills Rodrigo, TheHill.com, 11/23/18). Although Adam Serwer observes that cruelty is the point, this move is clear evidence of this administration’s determination (shared by far too many Americans) to uphold patriarchy at any cost.
This effort to persecute transgender service members is of a piece with all who zealously uphold rigid, narrow definitions of gender and police those boundaries through violence, if necessary. We need to recognize that the mechanisms used by adherents of patriarchy may differ, but their goal is still the same.
How else do we explain the Ohio State legislature’s passage of a “fetal heartbeat” bill criminalizing abortion with no exceptions for rape or incest? Christina Hagan, the sponsor of that bill, said it was specifically crafted to pose a challenge to the constitutional rights of women guaranteed by Roe v. Wade. She is Exhibit A for the proposition that some of patriarchy’s staunchest proponents are white women.
The same twisted logic is behind the right wing group, For America’s criticism of the first same sex kiss during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. This group, whose mission is to “reinvigorate the public with the principles of American exceptionalism,” condemned that kiss as breaking “the innocence” of small children, rather than validating their feelings or their families (Source: “Conservative Group Rants at Same Sex Kiss at Macy’s Parade. Twitter Reacts With Love,” by Lee Moran, HuffingtonPost.com, 11/23/18).
The dispiriting fact is that this uniquely American flavor of white supremacist patriarchy has many willing enforcers among white women and even some Black men. How else do we explain the significant percentage of white women who continue to vote overwhelmingly for misogynists with retrograde ideas about women and a steely determination to enact policies that will cause us demonstrable harm? (Source: “The betrayal of white women voters: in pivotal state races they still backed the GOP,” by Treva B. Lindsey, Vox.com, 11/9/18).
How do we explain the 11% of Black men who voted for Brian Kemp in Georgia?! Ted Johnson of The Brennan Center for Justice says that Black men who vote Republican are not motivated by sexism, but by their affinity for the party’s philosophy of “rugged individualism” and “free market economics,” (Source: “What’s up with all those black men who voted for the Republican In the Georgia governor’s race?” by Vanessa Williams, The Washington Post, 11/23/18). With all due respect to Mr. Johnson, any Black man motivated by his belief that America owes its “greatness” to rugged individualism and the free market, rather than the stolen labor of thousands of his ancestors, is indulging in some ahistorical fantasy.
The ugly truth is that a small cohort of Black men want the spoils of patriarchy for themselves. Recent events have shown us that some will go to violent extremes to get it. They covet the privilege that many white men have, to treat women like possessions and deny us agency in our own lives, as the murders of Aisha Fraser, Dr. Tamara O’Neal, and Stefanie Vallery, sister of Dani Scott-Arruda, a five time Olympic athlete, tragically demonstrate.
What all of these people share is a fervent desire for a simplistic gendered hierarchy with white men on top and in absolute control, where LGBT people are erased and anyone who dares to deviate is swiftly punished. We should all want death to the patriarchy. The life you save may be your own.