The one thing that has struck me most about the Kavanaugh hearings was not that the good ol’ boys club backed him up (since we knew that was coming, didn’t we?) but that the headlines weren’t plastered with the obvious. Kavanaugh was described as many things, but never as hysterical. That word has been (until now) reserved for the mostly female protesters.
After the hearing, Kavanaugh was described as “angry and emotional”.
We were told we had witnessed Kavanaugh’s “raw, unfiltered pain”.
Trump even described his testimony as “powerful, honest, and riveting”
Judge Kavanaugh showed America exactly why I nominated him. His testimony was powerful, honest, and riveting. Democrats’ search and destroy strategy is disgraceful and this process has been a total sham and effort to delay, obstruct, and resist. The Senate must vote!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 27, 2018
All of this left many of us wondering what kind of alternate reality we were living in this past week. Kavanaugh seemed to be praised for his passion and conviction, while female protesters were accused of being a nuisance and hysterical. Ben Sasse asked, “What’s the hysteria coming from? He continued: “The fact that the hysteria has nothing to do with [Kavanaugh] means that we should ask what’s the hysteria coming from?” All over the country, protesters made headlines for their ‘female hysteria’ which is a word used to label anyone who has passion and conviction but who is also female, it seems.
Not that the ‘H’ word wasn’t mentioned at all in relation to Kavanagh. Michael D’Antonio at CNN pointed out that if Dr. Ford had acted the same way Kavanaugh did, she would have been labelled ‘overwrought and hysterical’. Rebecca Traistor noted that if Ford had shown any semblance of anger, her words would have been shrugged off as ‘shrill or hysterical’.
See, hysterical “if” he was female.
But now, two days after hearing Kavanaugh’s testimony, Nancy Pelosi has finally made this comment in an interview Saturday at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin, Texas.
“I couldn’t help but think that if a woman had ever performed that way, they would say ‘hysterical,'” Pelosi said about her reaction to Kavanaugh’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday.
“It’s not time for a hysterical, biased person to go to the court and expect us to say, ‘isn’t that wonderful.'”
And finally, it’s become a headline. Brett Kavanaugh is Hysterical.
Now how does that feel, Kavanaugh?
You can follow me on Twitter @maymepolitizoom
