I'm sure you guys have all seen this already—but I'm so curious to hear what everyone has to say about this considering the time we spent reading about the fight for women's suffrage.
So Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight Twitter has been posting some excellent maps and projections, especially after the most recent debates.
Here's the first map:
So after Nate Silver posted these, this started trending on Facebook and Twitter: #Repealthe19th. Here's one hilarious tweet that particularly stood out to me...
But then, when I went on Twitter to look at more of these tweets just for kicks, I found way more tweets that were denouncing the use of #Repealthe19th.
One tie-in to class (although I'm sure we can find many, many more!) is that we discussed the idea that women's suffrage seems so obvious for now and many people take it for granted, not understanding that it was uncertain in the decades before its passage, and required a difficult struggle. What other connections do you guys see?
Here's another article and hashtag that I found to be interesting—#WomenWhoVoteTrump. This brings up the idea that women act inherently different as voters than men, and the whole notion of a politician "courting the women's vote" by playing up "women's issues." I've seen a lot of people (women especially, actually) say that women should be particularly offended by Trump's recent comments about sexual harassment. In my opinion, and I'm guessing most of you would agree with me, these are vile comments on the whole, and every single person should be offended and outraged by them, regardless of gender.... http://www.complex.com/life/2016/10/womenwhovotetrump-explain-why-exactly-theyre-voting-donald-trump
ReplyDeleteI was really intrigued by this and thought that these women's responses reminded me a lot of the Women Against Feminism tumblr that went viral a while ago. These women's tweets as well as the photos on that tumblr page use the idea of female intelligence and fortitude against Democrats and feminists, whom these women consider to be too emotionally weak and sensitive because they have let both Hillary and society manipulate them into thinking that they are victimized by society and that they cannot help themselves. I was just looking through this hashtag as I'm writing this comment and it comes up in tweets about "crooked Hillary", the debate tonight, and how Megyn Kelly should be removed from the Republican party because she is a woman who is not supporting Donald Trump. There is a recurring theme throughout what we have read in this class of linking manhood with strength, but it is important to note that these women who are voting for Trump are equating Democratic feminism with weakness, which is different from what we have seen.
DeleteThese maps are interesting to consider especially with the readings we have been doing about the post suffrage divisions between women. Many people thought that women would remain as a solid, unified voting bloc but in reality there were many divisions between the political beliefs of post-suffrage women. While divisions between women obviously still exist, women and "women's issues" still draw a largely unified voting bloc. Additionally, I often find myself struggling to understand how women support Trump. Yet, as we talked about it class, allowing women to have their own opinions, no matter what they may be, is part of recognizing women as equal individuals.
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