Amid her repeated gender-based attacks on White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, conservatives have rightfully challenged Chelsea Handler’s feminist credentials, arguing such conduct is hypocritical from a self-styled champion of women.
On Monday, however, Handler proved why charges of hypocrisy aren’t entirely accurate — she doesn’t believe in the universality of her own platitudes. The comedian, for instance, recently asserted broadly that a feminist “is someone who supports other women.” Fair enough, though interpreting such statements from feminist leaders literally is just about always a mistake since they typically end up qualifying them.
Indeed, Handler later did exactly that. Challenged by a Twitter user to defend her anti-bullying activism while simultaneously bullying Sanders, Handler replied on Monday, “When someone lies to the American public every single day, i rule out the normal rules of not making fun of someone’s appearance. Sarah Huckabee is pure evil.”
Though her admission of “rul[ing] out the normal rules” was in direct response to a question about bullying, Handler also clearly excluded Sanders from the “normal rule” she established about feminists “support[ing] other women,” as her mockery could never be interpreted as support for the press secretary.
Handler deployed her generalization that a feminist “is someone who supports other women” similarly to how some use the common refrain about a feminist being anyone who believes in the fundamental equality of men and women, a definition gatekeepers of the movement constantly qualify by arguing that people who do not share their intersectional world views do not truly believe in equality and must therefore be excluded. That’s important for conservatives to understand.
No, I don’t think Handler should be able to have her cake and eat it too, scoring points with trite platitudes that she is almost certain to modify later. But given her predictable concession that the rules don’t apply to everyone (namely a political opponent), it’s important to engage beyond charges of hypocrisy and meet Handler where she really is. That means acknowledging her open and unabashed belief that certain conduct excludes people from “the normal rules,” be they “not making fun of someone’s appearance” or “support[ing] other women.”
As the feminist movement becomes indistinguishable from the rest of the left-wing claptrap, the gradual discarding of pretenses is helpful to understanding the perspectives of its adherents.
