I predict 2018 will bring an epic War on Women

[nadine_mn]

Currently, there are a shit ton of men (mostly white) in power who are shell-shocked...2017 has been in many ways their worst nightmare:

Women are marching....by the hundreds of thousands

Women are voting...and many are voting for *gasp* other women

Women are running for office ...and *double gasp* winning and unseating MEN!

Women are speaking out about abuse and assault... And BEING BELIEVED and men are actually facing consequences!

For (again mostly white) men this is too much... on all sides women are finding their voices and their power and it is impacting them, their profits, their seats of power, their privilege.

Don't get me wrong, we have a LONG way to go, this is just the start.

But we saw how the pendulum swung when minorities start voting more and winning elections, start gaining equality, start getting an ounce of power. Gerrymandering, stacking courts, voter id laws, "culture" wars etc.

It's one thing to isolate a minority like a religion, immigration status or race. But to try to take power away from over half the population...an entire gender - that's going to be harder than siccing ICE on communities or finding ways to limit access to voting.

Women are all races, all economic groups, all religions, etc etc.

So the frightened men will do what they have done before...turn a group against itself. If they can get women fighting each other...white women vs women of color, Christians vs Muslims, lower class vs upper class, cis women against trans women, stay at home moms vs working moms, moms vs child free - then the focus will be off of the real threat to women.

More legislation to make access to birth control difficult, more abortion bans, lack of maternity leave, equal pay will be shoved aside. And they will recruit other women to be the lead voices...you know some of them: Ann Coulter, Kellyanne Conway, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, every woman on Fox News, many GOP women lawmakers. And they will fan the flames of division to take away from the real gains that happened this year.

All of us have to be vigilant, all of us have to fight the urge to do what Dems do best (in fighting). We need to resist fighting over who is a "true" progressive or a "real" feminist because bait will be thrown like never before.

I think they are still in shock from the elections..but when reality hits that their privilege is eroding, they are going to fight and unfortunately too many women will help them.

Just a quick note...I know not all men are assholes, I'm married to man who is a proud feminist and who has been absolutely sickened by the behavior of other men. I know good men are out there...this is directed at the bigots, the misogynists, the ass hats.

[Kath2]

1. That is such an excellent post!

I agree 100%.

We will face a backlash because they are threatened.

I'm getting together today with the friends I attended the Women's March with. That was only the beginning, as amazing as it was.

Not all men are assholes, but I was once married to one who was, unfortunately. They will stick with their sick, sexist, racist, homophobic ideas forever.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

2. As a woman who votes for Democrats.........

That is because I am educated and smart enough on the issues to not make it a habit of voting AGAINST my best interests and values.

Great post that share my sentiments exactly. I have an adult daughter and 3 granddaughters to fight for.

Democrats support .........

A woman's right to choose
Voting rights
Reproductive rights
Funded Healthcare
Equal Pay
Equal protection under the law
Marriage Equality
Educational opportunities
Job training
Assistance with childcare
and so much more.

if women are to rise and vote enmasse in 2018, they must be versed on the issues and values important to them and resist men women in politics who are intent on TAKING AWAY their rights. Women who vote for Republicans do so at their peril.

[Kath2]

3. Well-said.

I have an an adult daughter, also.

Democrats do represent my values for the most part - choice, equality, healthcare, etc.

And I find that when I speak with "conservative" women, Trump voters, they have very little in the way of argument. It is usually religion (Christian). That is not a real issue to me

[Wounded Bear]

8. That is really just a list of what I like to call "human rights"...

And, as a fellow Democrat, I support all of those rights and others.

We may differ and discuss what the priorities on that list might be, but individually I support them all. After all, I firmly believe that if one person's rights are violated all of us have had our rights violated.

I actually like voting for women, as long as they are progressive and/or Democrats.

[Danascot]

4. I predict that

women will be even more loud and proud than ever. Women will have a greater impact on culture and politics, not just in America but in the world, despite whatever backlash is thrown at them.

[Wounded Bear]

9. There should be another march...

[CrispyQ]

38. There needs to be one a month.

Last Saturday of every month. Something like that.

[crazycatlady]

5. And women will take to the streets and fight back

[mcar]

6. We will persist

[floWteiuQ]

7. And this is when....

Real men have to stand-up for the women, both in our lives and in the world!

[safeinOhio]

10. Here is the problem

"Overall, 54% of women voted for Clinton, much higher than the 42% of women who voted for Trump."

How could more than 20% have voted trump?

[dlk]

11. The Current Backlash Will Intensify

We all witnessed, firsthand, the existing backlash unleashed against Hillary Clinton during her presidential campaign. Just like the racists, who have always been hiding in plain sight, yet seemed to come crawling out from under every rock after Trump's election, the sexists and misogynists will become more visible and vocal with their, "So, you want to be equal? Well, take that... and take it like a man!" abuse from all directions. Like any social movement, it will get worse before it gets better, but women cannot ever give up the fight for equality, and for a more just and fair society. There will always and forever be an entrenched opposition to treating women fairly. We need a sustained resistance to make the change that lasts.

[nadine_mn]

12. We saw this past election how easy it is to divide us

I hope we can remember how strong we are when we are united.

But I expect it to get really ugly

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

13. I want to be snarky and say, How will we tell the difference?

One of the biggest problems can be women themselves. Apparently nearly half of them voted for Trump last year. And how many are going to vote for Moore? They willingly collaborate and collude with those who will keep them subservient.

It doesn't help that many religions, even supposedly mainstream Protestant ones, tell women that they must submit to their fathers and husbands, and say the the best, the only right thing for a woman to do in life is to have babies. We see families with twenty children glorified. It goes on and on.

And in recent years, things have gotten worse for women, and you're pointing out that it will continue to get worse.

If I had a chance to get born all over again I'd probably want to do so in one of the Scandinavian countries. Sigh. Maybe next time.

[shockey80]

14. I predict 2018 will be a year we will all never forget.

[sunonmars]

15. Its sad but there will be, some of the stuff I've already heard from guys after all this

Following on from that,

I have heard conversations in the last few weeks from men i find generally quite open to women rights of the like of Men refusing to be left alone in office situations with women so they can't be accused of anything.

Men refusing to engage in conversation with women in work situations of any kind of personal nature.

The office door being left open....so they cannot be accused, insisting on 3 people in meetings.

Male bosses saying they will tend to hire more men now so yes this could seriously affect women getting jobs which is going to be difficult to prove.

This could be seriously damaging to women advancing as the boys club circles the wagons, don't underestimate the power they can wield.

It could be a horrendous situation for quite some time.

I have already had one guy this week say, please don't close the door and another male colleague saying, "I'm sorry, I cannot engage in talk of a personal nature with you".

As for the office christmas party, the company have issued guideline about it and a lot of people have cancelled, not bothering to go.

I really don't know what to say about it all. I was dumbfounded.

[musette_sf]

21. It sounds like you work with/know a bunch of bros

who have each crossed the line at least once. It also sounds like there may be some kind of coordinated passive-aggressive (actually, simmering-aggressive) action plan going on here, if this is all happening in a single workplace.

I can't imagine having to deal with that in my day to day work. And what if your direct report is a man, or your manager is a man? Do you have your weekly 1:1 with the door open, or sitting out in the break room? I have doors-closed meetings in my office with men one-on-one, every day. So do all the women I work with.

Granted, I now work at a progressive diversity paradise located in a progressive diversity paradise urban area, and I have noted zero change and do not expect to see any occur. But having worked before in other (Texas) areas of the country, in a male-dominated field at the time, I can totally believe that what you described is happening IRL, and will now happen again in more places.

Would love to see those xmas party "guidelines". If they need anything more than the standard boilerplate "This is a business event, please enjoy yourself, but you are responsible for your actions, and inappropriate behavior will incur discipline up to and including termination", then there is something definitely wrong. If you have to define "inappropriate behavior", then there is something REALLY definitely wrong.

[nadine_mn]

25. I told this to my husband and I think his eyes rolled all the way back

He is insulted and offended by the way those types of men make all men look bad.

The ironic thing is that women have wanted open door conversations or to not be alone, and they were called overly sensitive. But now men need to be protected from women?

Ridiculous yet not surprising

[Squinch]

29. That's a lot of asshole in a small space there.

[ehrnst]

16. Progress is an upward spiral, not an arc

"Backlash" by Susan Faludi.

[IronLionZion]

17. Time for even more women to run for office as liberal Democrats

They haven't come up with voter suppression laws to disenfranchise women yet although I'm sure they are researching it. It's harder to gerrymander pockets of women, just the "urban" ones.

People in many areas are going to wonder why it's taking so long to bring back the coal and manufacturing jobs or deal with the opioid crisis or other problems that disproportionately affect Trump country. So their side is likely to have less turnout.

[calimary]

18. You make me think back to that telltale call into the limbaugh show.

I actually ear-witnessed it. Caller into that bullshit show flat-out declared that “this country started going downhill when women got the right to vote.” Shocked to hear the reality hand-delivered on a silver platter like that, but not surprised. I felt vindicated in my suspicions when I heard that caller - a male caller of course.

It just confirmed what I’d suspected all along, among that whiny-ass, miserable, mean-spirited, pissant, backward, resentful, misogynistic bunch of Troglodytes.

[FarCenter]

19. I doubt it. Women-led secular Puritanism is on the march.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

23. Puritanism was mostly about the subjigation of women.........

As well as their sexuality, and less about doing good works.

The Salem Witch trials of the 1690's were more about ccntributions of women when it came to herbal medicines, fear of burgeoning sexuality, equality in the home and in the community with men. Fear permeated the Puritans.

[FarCenter]

24. I did say "women led". The shoe seems to be on the other foot now.

[Squinch]

37. The "fewer teen pregnancies equals Puritanism" shoe?

[Squinch]

27. What is an example of this?

[FarCenter]

31. The Sexual Revolution is over

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_revolution#Backlash

Although the rate of teenage sexual activity is hard to record, the prevalence of teenage pregnancy in developed nations such as Canada and the UK have seen a steady decline since the 1990s.[37][38] For example, in 1991 there were 61.8 children born per 1,000 teenage girls in the United States. By 2013, this number had declined to 26.6 births per 1,000 teenage girls.

[Squinch]

33. This is "woman led secular Puritanism on the march"??? WTF??? Women who don't get

pregnant as teens are Puritans? The reduction of teen pregnancies is your evidence for Puritanism???

Please explain what the hell this means.

[joshcryer]

35. That's an extreme leap of logic there.

We appear to be flat as far as sexuality is concerned: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nsfg/key_statistics/n.htm

If anything there's an uptick in partners for women.

[PatrickforO]

20. This is a good, thoughtful post, because we do operate in a world of polarity.

I don't think the right has much more in it, though to try and swing the pendulum, because momentum after this last election particularly, seems to be swinging back to our side after going all the way crazy-right.

From what I've seen, I think Trump is going to have very, very long negative coattails down ticket, because while his base remains true to him, and it is about 30%, the independent voters left in droves this time around. Trumpism without Trump isn't working so well because Americans are awake now.

My point is I think we're all pulling the pendulum back to the left. I don't think the right has the strength to stop that; not with the grassroots efforts and dozens of good, young, diverse, new-to-politics, minority, and woman candidates that have jumped into races.

I actually have some joy in my heart, now that I'm writing this...we're seeing a change of the guard right now. That pendulum's moving, but it's moving our way.

There will, to your point, be attempts, but I'm not sure they'll pass. Because we are awake now.

What we have to worry about is the right has been slowly getting enough states together to call a Constitutional Convention, which I really don't think we want. We do have to watch for that and work with our state legislators to prevent it.

[Mister Ed]

22. Yes. And women are going to win.

Stay strong.

[cwydro]

26. Nah, I predict an epic war FROM women.

It is beginning.

And it is ONLY the beginning.

[Squinch]

28. I think it will be both. We are here and we are ready, but they are scared. This is their last

stand against us.

Grab my hand, cwydro. Into the breach we go!

[cwydro]

32. Ready and steady!

We are strong, we are here, and we are fed up with this nonsense that got elected this last time.

NO MORE of this.

[pangaia]

30. I'm glad you feel all men are not assholes.

But way way too many are.
I like to look at myself as in the "not asshole" catagory. Hope I am right.

Although, there have been moments.... when ..... I have been..... an..... asshole.

🤣

[Skittles]

34. watching the orange buffoon in the position that should have been Hillary's

women were already SICK of having to be twice as good as men to be considered half as good as men - but with Donald Fucking Trump, the least qualified person to ever run for president was held to NO standards at all while Hillary Clinton, the MOST QUALIFIED PERSON TO EVER RUN FOR PRESIDENT, was held to IMPOSSIBLE standards. ENOUGH ALREADY.

[crazycatlady]

36. Women marched to the ballot box in 2017

And ran for office in record numbers.

This needs to continue.

[nadine_mn]

39. I think it will, but I also think politics of division will be on the rise

Like a previous poster said, some people (mostly men, but sadly some women) think women shouldn't even be allowed to vote...blame the problems in our country on women voting.

I've heard women (lord knows what cave the were hiding in) say the same thing...I can't even wrap my head around that.

I hope all the news of how the Russian troll farm spread fake shit on social media will be remembered when more fake trolling crap is posted to drive wedges between groups of women.