After the vice presidential debate on Wednesday, Megyn Kelly tweeted that Sen. Kamala Harris should not have “made faces” in response to Mike Pence and should have instead taken it “like a woman,” which she said in a later tweet meant that women are just as capable as men of being “stoic.”
Take it like a woman. Don’t make faces.
— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) October 8, 2020
Whether they are or aren’t, Kelly’s point is well taken. For years, feminists have drilled home the idea that women are “just as tough” and “just as capable” as any man. If that is true, it means that when a woman is under pressure at work and is challenged in some way, such as in a debate, she can be impervious to her opponent’s remarks and simply stay on task.
Harris didn’t do that. Rather, she sneered in response to Pence’s comments and put her womanhood on full display. She used it to imply that Pence was purposefully trying to “one-up” her as a man, and she wanted to let him know she cannot be intimidated.
That’s not the mark of an equal debate partner. It’s a mark of a bitter one.
Pence did his job, pure and simple. And yet, in the news (if we can call it news anymore), we heard and read a litany of responses about how Pence, one of the least aggressive politicians on the planet, behaved in a sexist manner for, get this, engaging in debate at a debate.
That his opponent was a woman should, by all accounts, be irrelevant. Isn’t that what women have been arguing for all this time? To treat them the same as men? To assume the sexes are interchangeable and to behave accordingly? Seems to me that’s precisely what Pence did. And yet, for adhering to feminists’ own dogma, he was accused of “mansplaining,” a ridiculous made-up term to describe a man who talks down to a woman.
Men in America can’t win. If they do what comes naturally, they’re toxic. If they do what feminists have been telling men for years to do, to treat women as they treat men, they’re sexist. Huh?
Meanwhile, women get a free pass. They can behave in any manner they wish and still cry sexism, even while using their sex to win.
If women in America want to get into the ring with men, I’m all for it. But women can’t have it both ways. Either play with the big boys (“take it like a woman”) or get off the stage.
Suzanne Venker (@SuzanneVenker) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She’s the author of five books and a relationship coach, as well as the host of The Suzanne Venker Show. Her website is www.suzannevenker.com.
