How Much Worse Can It Get?

A Rant

It just feels like we’re in an abuser renaissance. All of the misogyny slop content and bubbling fascism have created the perfect conditions women to be publicly abused while their abusers get off scot free in the realm of public opinion. While the dogpiling of notable women is not new, I have never seen so many women be smeared all at once. And on a national scale no less. Shady PR firms are getting rich conducting multiple, coordinated campaigns with the same exact playbook. Isolate a famous women and her story of abuse, then misinterpret her statements, then make light of her claims, then bully her out of her livelihood and home. Make it so that no matter what she does she never gets away from the person who harmed her. What this does is create a chilling effect over the speech and autonomy of women worldwide. If the most famous or powerful women among us are being treated as such, then there must not be any hope for the rest of us. For other women, this fans the flames of their internalized misogyny. “Well, I’m not like those lying hoes so it could never happen to me.” Sister, you are the closest to the chopping block. No because what do you mean you’re doing pick me apologia and this country is looking more “under his eye” everyday?

The story that absolutely gutted me and forced me to write this piece is from

Abortion, Every Day

. In a hospital bed in Georgia, there is a woman who had a massive brain bleed and suffered brain death. However, the hospital has kept her body hooked up to machines and will continue to do so because she was pregnant. The family is not only devastated by their loss, they have to contend with the fact that doctors have turned their loved one into an incubator. All on the family’s dime no less. As you can imagine, the baby is not doing well in utero and the longer they keep this grotesque puppeteering up, the more like that the baby will not even make it past infancy. All to avoid violating and abortion bill that “protects life”. This is the very definition of hypocrisy.

Now, you may be wondering what this has to do with the celebrity women hate campaigns but it’s really quite simple. Both the laws and the normalization of mass weaponized misogyny chip away at our humanity. If we aren’t punching bags, we incubators. If we aren’t incubators, we’re targets. If we aren’t targets, were broodmares and so on. None of those things I mentioned are human. None of those things have rights or can move freely on their own or can voice their own opinions. None of those things can say no. That’s what conservatives and their media outlets and the incel podcasters and whoever, want for us. We are so cooked it’s not even funny.

The pile-ons also serve as a helpful distraction. For those of us with the means to fight back, they take up space and mental energy. They serve as big floating targets to pour our energy into, while the women losing their lives in hospitals across this country go unnoticed. So not only are we watching famous women suffer, we’re watching their suffering eclipse all else. Unfortunately for the average woman, a famous woman’s plight (one who has made some of your favorite songs or movies) tends to take precedence. The coordination this all takes would almost be impressive if it weren’t so totally devastating for so many women.

As is customary with these rants, I have no solutions. Really I shouldn’t have to find a solution in a rant but I feel obligated to at least state, that I have none. This is me metaphorically banging my head against a wall. I just feel so horribly for these all of these women. From Adriana Smith to Cassie to Halle Bailey.

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