PETRUCCI: Men should replace women in hot seat
What if we held men accountable for the disenfranchisement of women to the same degree we hold women?
“(Brett) Kavanaugh will be on the Supreme Court. And Collins' vote to put him there will almost certainly be the most consequential — and controversial — of her career,” said CNN journalist Chris Cillizza on Friday after Sen. Susan Collins (R-M.E.) announced that she would support Kavanaugh’s nomination.
“... if she is wrong about Judge Kavanaugh and he joins an effort to overturn Roe (v. Wade), the health care law or other progressive policies, she would no doubt be held responsible,” said Carl Hulse of the New York Times after Collins’ vote.
As we know, Collins followed through with her promise and Kavanaugh was officially confirmed as associate justice to the Supreme Court on Saturday.
It must be her ability to skin a wild Maine boar with her teeth and then cook it on the DIY steel spit roaster she learned to make on Pinterest that gives this woman more political weight than any of her colleagues. I mean who else could single handedly place Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court, destroy women’s access to abortion and forever be responsible for the legacy of the court for the next generation?
Oh that is right, her colleagues who also voted “Aye."
I mean what would happen if a male senator voted to move Kavanaugh's confirmation forward? Oh that is correct, absolutely nothing.
Let us compare Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) who voted “Aye” bucking party lines and Collins who voted “Aye” along party lines.
Manchin is the guy who bucked his own political party in favor of his maleness. Collins is the woman who sides with her party disregarding her femaleness. Yet, it is Collins who receives the wrath as the deciding vote regarding the Supreme Court.
By contrast, female senator Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), like Manchin, is a democrat representing a red state. Heitkamp was one of three to break with her party last year in the vote for President Donald J. Trump’s Supreme Court justice nominee, Neil Gorsuch. Heitkamp was on the fence about Kavanaugh. Yet, unlike Manchin, she voted “no." This decision made the most sense since she is a woman.
What does this say about what institutions these public figures are expected to uphold? It is permissible for a man to protect the institution of manhood even in defying his own political party and it is expected that a woman must adhere to her political party and only defy her political party to defend against her own and other people’s marginalization.
This remains the case even though decisions to overturn Roe v. Wade, labor, healthcare and other contentious legislation were decided by a majority male Supreme Court. There has never been a time when women have comprised a majority of the court, therefore it is women who are expected to defend against the laws which perpetuate their lack of freedoms.
The bar is so stunningly low for men that an infant taking its first steps could hurdle it. So the only thing Collins must do to be accepted in this political firestorm is simply to become a male herself.
Is she does this, we could just call her: Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-T.N.), Sen. John Barrasso (R-W.Y.), Sen. Roy Blunt (R-M.O.), Sen. John Boozman (R-A.R.), Sen. Richard M. Burr (R-N.C.), Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-L.A.), Sen. Bob Corker (R-T.N.), Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), Sen. Tom Cotton (R-A.R.), Sen. Michael D. Crapo (R-Idaho), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Sen. Steve Daines (R-M.T.), Sen. Michael B. Enzi (R-W.Y), Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Sen. Jeff Flake (R-A.Z.), Sen. Cory Gardner (R-C.O.), Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), Sen. Dean Heller (R-N.V.), Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.), Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-M.S.), Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-O.K.), Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-G.A.), Sen. Ron Johnson (R-W.I.), Sen. John Kennedy (R-L.A.), Sen. Jon Kyl (R-A.Z.), Sen. James Lankford (R-O.K.), Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-K.Y.), Sen. Jerry Moran (R-K.S.), Sen. Rand Paul (R-K.Y.), Sen. David Perdue (R-G.A.), Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Sen. Pat Roberts (R-K.S.), Sen. Michael Rounds (R-S.D.), Sen. Marco Rubio (R-F.L.), Sen. Ben Sasse (R-N.B.), Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-A.L), Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-P.A.), Sen. Roger Wicker (R-M.S.) or Sen. Todd Young (R-I.N.).
There is no doubt Collins, alongside the two other white women who voted to advance Kavanaugh’s nomination, have, in the words of Vox correspondent Liz Plank, accepted “to be used as pawns by a party that consistently strips their rights and minorities’ rights …” The issue of white women is deeply entrenched in a larger scheme of white female disenfranchisement and favoring of their superior white status over their inferior female status.
While we should continue to question these women, what if we put men in the same hot seat and made them actually responsible in these situations?
Francesca Petrucci is a School of Arts and Sciences senior double majoring in journalism and media studies and political science and minoring in Spanish. Her column, "The Annoying Vegan Millennial," runs on alternate Tuesdays.
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