Comedian Chelsea Handler, an advocate for “women supporting women,” is at it again – criticizing the great culprits behind Donald Trump’s victory. (White women, of course.)
In an essay penned for Arianna Huffington’s new health site, Thrive Global, Handler attacked those who take their rights for granted and bow to their male overlords. “Specifically,” she posited, “the 53% of all white female voters who chose Mr. Trump.”
“94% of black women voted for Hillary Clinton, because unlike white women, black women don’t take their rights, liberties, or justice for granted,” Handler jabbed.
Indeed, when presented with the chance to elect Hillary Clinton, white ladies “reactivated their prehistoric Pavlovian reflexes and fell obediently as they reincarnated the great female penchant for self-mutilation so brilliantly articulated by H. L. Mencken: ‘Misogynist: A man who hates women as much as women hate one another.’”
And the result of giving in to that “great female penchant for self-mutilation”? Trump is at the helm and his second in command is a man who, as Governor of Indiana, “spent most of his free time signing Christian Shariah forced pregnancy laws .” A grave picture indeed.
In her essay, Handler committed the fatal flaw of this election season (demonstrated by both right and left): careless reductionism. Instead of acknowledging that many conservative women are passionate about policy issues – such as the dignity and rights of unborn children – she conflated conservative with “anti-woman,” negating the validity of views held by many females.
Thus, when Handler attempted to advocate unity among women, she did so ineffectively. Pinning the results of the 2016 election to an “imposed” competitiveness that has taught women to “tackle, rather than climb,” Handler recommended “treating other women and our America with more respect than we have obsequiously shown for our traditional male dominators.”
To accomplish this mission, the comedian encouraged dialogue and connection with women of opposing views and backgrounds. This is a noble goal, but it sounded like an unfortunate punch line coming from the woman who told The Daily Show’s Trevor Noah that there was “something wrong” with ladies who didn’t vote for Hillary.
By truly listening to the white women she lumped together, Handler might discover that competitiveness and obsequiousness had nothing to do with the voting patterns of millions of them. Legitimate concerns about the economy, law and human dignity did.
But to cut her some slack, the Chelsea host did conclude by acknowledging that she could do better at bridging differences to find common goals. And to that, I say, so could we all.
