Despite its tabloid treatment, the story of Katie Hill is a tragedy. But make no mistake, she’s still a villain.
The Democratic congresswoman from California, who announced her resignation yesterday, is no ordinary victim of slut-shaming. She’s a powerful woman who used her stature to begin an improper affair with a subordinate more than a year her junior, and one who expressed fear over Hill’s abusive behavior.
In allegedly leaked text messages from Hill’s former lover — a female campaign staffer who was courted by both Hill and her husband — she described the relationship with Hill as “toxic.”
“I am terrified of pushing back against you or upsetting you,” the campaign staffer texted Hill. “I have seen how you treat Kenny and I think that if I cause any issues, even if I am very worried about how you are acting, that very quickly you will decide you don’t want me in your life.”
She also expressed fear to Hill’s husband, texting him that Hill could “ruin politics, take all my friends, and isolate me.”
These are not the text messages of a thirtysomething Ph.D. candidate consensually dating a college student who happens to be a decade younger. Flip Hill’s gender, and we wouldn’t even be discussing it. This was a clear abuse of power by a powerful person over a subordinate.
Hill likely violated ethics rules passed by the House just last year in her alleged affair with yet another subordinate (which she has denied), this one even younger and hired on the taxpayer dime. The pattern of behavior here indicates that Hill didn’t just wind up in a one-off affair with someone who happened to be younger than her. She deliberately began relationships with people she had the power to hire and fire, and then she violated House ethics rules while doing it.
And yet, her defenders have painted her as some sort of feminist martyr.
So they ran #KatieHill out of Congress for sex in a matter of weeks, but people who kidnap and cage babies, who steal health care from the sick and dying, who are ravaging the environment, are still walking the halls of power.
— Peter Daou (@peterdaou) October 28, 2019
I have yet to see a news story about Rep. @KatieHill4CA that puts the crimes and sins committed against her in the lead. She was abused, betrayed, and humiliated. But you have to dig way deep into every news story to learn that. Sex with an adult is not a problem.
— Siva Vaidhyanathan??? (@sivavaid) October 28, 2019
This is a heartbreaker on many different levels and a reminder that women are often held to *completely* different standards from men.
I look forward to hearing her reflections on this & hope that the pressure applied to her is one day applied equally to men of equal stature. https://t.co/AkQ4uUM3v2
— Lis Smith (@Lis_Smith) October 27, 2019
The conclusion of this unsavory saga isn’t a slut-shaming indictment of third-wave feminism. If Hill happened to have a promiscuous personal life with people not under her pay or in violation of ethics, there’s little doubt that she’d be able to ride out the storm. After all, consider who occupies the Oval.
But this is, in fact, a #MeToo success story, one that proves that the powerful, even women, can still be held to account.
