A woman's place is in the kitchen, even if she's a U.S. senator giving the most important speech of her career.
Intentionally or not, that was the message conveyed by the GOP opposition's response to President Biden's State of the Union address on Thursday, when Alabama Sen. Katie Britt spoke on behalf of Republicans from a background associated with centuries of female servitude.
Sharing the shot with a refrigerator and a basket of fruit, the rising Republican star spoke quietly and dramatically about the country's nightmarish condition. “I just watched President Biden's State of the Union address from our living room,” she said. “I wish you would understand what royal families face around kitchen tables like this.”
However, there was no table or family. Just a photo of Britt, sitting alone, in an overwhelmingly beige kitchen with eerily empty countertops. And the dry erase message board on the refrigerator door? White.
Republican Party strategists were probably trying to create a safe, homelike family environment that real americans could relate in these difficult times. After all, they have kitchens, unlike the fake Americans in the blue states, who live in antifa communes and subsist on squeezed juice. But the zombie kitchen strategy failed.
Before Britt even opened her mouth, the optics of the rebuttal fueled widespread criticism that Republicans are turning back the clock on women's rights and freedoms to the days of June Cleaver.
A long-sought goal for the right was achieved in 2022 when the United States Supreme Court officially overturned Roe v. Wade, declaring that the constitutional right to abortion no longer exists. Abortion is now banned in many states, and presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has reportedly said that he will support a 16-week abortion ban if he is re-elected.
It's an unpopular stance, even among Republican voters, and a topic that many have avoided discussing publicly for fear it would hurt them in the voting booth. Not surprisingly, Biden doubled down on his support for reproductive rights on Thursday, criticizing Republicans and the Supreme Court in the House of Representatives for overturning Roe v. Wade. “My God, what freedoms will they take away from you next?” he said during a fiery 68-minute speech.
The “Keep her in the kitchen” message, deliberate or not, is also in tune with Trump's record with women. Dominating the news this week are Trump's settlement payout issues with a woman he sexually assaulted, and news about his upcoming trial involving hush money he allegedly paid to a porn star he was dating. that he had had sexual relations while his wife was pregnant.
Is it any wonder the Republican Party is struggling to retain the women's vote?
Biden won among 55% of women who voted in 2020, and Trump won 44%, according to data from the Pew Research Center. And now this from a Feb. 1 article in a Quinnipiac poll: More women say they will support Biden over Trump, with 58% favoring Biden compared to just 36% favoring Trump, a change of 5 percentage points compared to December.
Choosing a woman to deliver the rebuttal State of the Union address was undoubtedly a conscious effort to fix the GOP's women's problems, and Britt was designed as a non-confrontational response to other “colorful” women in the party like Marjorie Taylor. Greene.
The 42-year-old rising Republican star wore a simple plain green blouse, a sensible hairdo and minimal makeup. But the look was so generic that he could have been a nonspecific character in a pharmaceutical ad if he were just picking flowers at an outdoor market or riding a bike in a tank top to celebrate the removal of his moderate to plaque psoriasis. serious.
To be fair, delivering the opposition's State of the Union address is a thankless job. In 2013, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) nervously drank bottled water during his rebuttal speech, and the country has never forgotten it. Other efforts have been broadcast from a restaurant and a high school in not-so-subtle attempts to connect with the public.
Perhaps the producers of this year's opposition speech were going for a cooking show vibe. Celebrity chefs and cooking competitions cross all political divides, although the writers behind Britt's speech clearly appealed to the Republican base, with the usual talking points about the southern border, crime at the hands of undocumented immigrants, the threat of communist China, and Biden's age.
“The American dream has become a nightmare,” Britt said of Biden's presidency. If the country setting was intended to represent a safe respite from the liberal maelstrom outside, it failed. Instead, she dragged viewers back to a time when women knew their place, and it was in the kitchen.
