Two famous feminists are spreading misleading information about a story that went viral last week.
After CBS News published an article on how a dress code in the Speaker’s Lobby of the Capitol building impacts reporters, debate raged online over whether the rules were sexist for requiring women to wear closed-toed shoes and dresses with sleeves. Lost in much of the conversation was the fact that the dress code also applied to men, requiring them to don jackets and ties, and has been in existence for years, even under the speakership of staunch feminist Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
On Monday night television personality Chelsea Handler chimed in on the conversation, tweeting, “Paul Ryan enforcing dress code in Speaker’s Lobby in the U.S. Capitol that bans women from showing their shoulders. Welcome to Abu Dhabi.”
Welcome to Abu Dhabi?
Handler is supposed to be a comedian, so let’s hope that wildly hyperbolic comparison was an attempt at humor. Although, given the chorus of outrage that emanated from her feminist peers last week, I’m inclined to believe she was serious.
Which brings us to our next purveyor of misleading information, author Margaret Atwood. After news of the dress code spread last week, feminists compared it to the draconian laws enforced in Gilead, the fictional society of Atwood’s 1985 novel The Handmaid’s Tale, which was recently adapted into a television series. In Gilead, women are forced into sex-slavery to bear the children of government officials and forbidden from reading or owning property.
That feminists in modern America seem to believe a simple dress code in one room of the Capitol building makes puts us in the same league as Abu Dhabi or Gilead is bizarre and unfortunate.
Nevertheless, Atwood herself joined the conversation on Monday night, drawing that same absurdly disproportionate parallel between her own fictional universe and the Speaker’s Lobby.
“Is Paul Ryan scared of shoulders? The Republican dress code is straight out of #TheHandmaidsTale,” Atwood tweeted, copying the text of a Guardian headline along with a link to the article. She did the same with a Glamour article titled, “More sleeves: House of Representatives’ Dress Code Includes Strict ‘No Sleeveless Policy for Women.” Atwood also retweeted a follower who asserted, “Speaker Ryan interpreted it in a draconian way. Speaker Pelosi didn’t.”
The Glamour article claims reporters took to Twitter to share how the dress code “tends to disproportionately affect women,” before embedding a series of tweets that, save one exception, didn’t include reporters alleging the code disproportionately affects women. In fact, to the contrary, many reporters took to Twitter to share how the dress code affects men and women equally. They also confirmed that it’s been enforced at the same rate for years.
The Guardian article relies on the account of one reporter who theorized a recent “crackdown” was due to the hot Washington summer weather, nothing more or less, and a video of Speaker Paul Ryan reminding members of Congress, not reporters, to wear appropriate business attire on the floor of the House to justify the contention that Republicans’ “hatred” of women is driving heightened enforcement of the dress code.
In fact, the author’s palpable hatred of Republicans drove this reckless exercise in conjecture based less on facts than prejudice against one political party.
Meanwhile, those of us who wish there were a serious movement to advocate for basic sexual equality will continue to long for the day that feminist leaders represent women’s interests more responsibly.
Emily Jashinsky is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
