You're not imagining it. Republicans have been weird about women for years.
If it feels like the misogyny just won’t stop, you’re not crazy. You’re just paying attention.
And yes, it is only going to get worse with Vice President Kamala Harris at the top of the Democratic Party ticket.
We're less than a month into her presidential campaign, and the attacks have only been amplified since Harris became the presumptive nominee after President Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid. Notice the first wave of attacks that had nothing to do with her policies.
So, here’s a little reminder of who and what the Republican Party is elevating, and who they're tearing down in the process. They've been doing it for years.
Trump has been a misogynist this whole time
“Crazy.” “Crooked.” “Horseface.”
At a certain point, calling out Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s sexism feels trite. It doesn't mean it lacks importance.
We have known, for years, that he is a raging misogynist. It was visible in 2016 when he ran for president against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. It was visible in the 2005 Access Hollywood tape, which surfaced in October 2016, on which he said what we all know he said about basically assaulting women.
It was notable recently when he was found guilty of defaming and sexually assaulting writer E. Jean Carroll. And it has been repeatedly true when you realize his history of infidelity. This history includes cheating on Melania Trump as part of the Stormy Daniels case.
Now that he’s once again facing a woman on the Democratic Party presidential ticket, his sexist attacks rebooted when he had to pivot from Biden to Harris.
“I'm not a big fan of his brain, but I think that she's actually not as smart as he is,” Trump said at a rambling news conference last week, comparing Harris with Biden.
He later added that Harris’ surge in the polls could be attributed to the fact that she is a woman and “represents certain groups of people.”
Trump has questioned Harris’ race and made fun of her laugh. He mispronounces her name constantly. Most recently, Trump has taken to calling her “Kamabla” on social media. His allies have called the vice president a “DEI hire.”
None of these are legitimate critiques of her policy, but rather sexist and racist attempts at disparaging her based on things she can’t control.
Then JD Vance entered the 2024 campaign
His running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, isn’t afraid to say the quiet part out loud, either. Vance has been getting backlash for comments he made in 2021 about our government being run by “childless cat ladies.”
All of that is compounded by the Republican Party’s desire to regulate our bodies by overturning Roe v. Wade, implementing statewide abortion bans across the country, failing to codify the right to birth control and endangering the use of in vitro fertilization to conceive.
Across the country, there are women who are living their worst nightmare because of this. We were reminded of this again this week when Texas women filed a federal complaint, saying they almost died after being denied medical procedures for ectopic pregnancies.
GOP effort to control women: Republicans want to control women so much they voted against protecting contraception
It’s not just in the conversation. It’s shaping the law.
And if Republicans take control of the White House and implement parts of Project 2025, I fear that we will continue seeing regression in the progress women have made over the past century.
Messaging on women can also be seen from Trump enablers in media
It’s not just our politicians. It’s on television and seeped into our culture.
A few weeks ago, Fox News host Jesse Watters went on a weird sexist rant about the “White Dudes for Harris” fundraising call, going so far as to say that “when a man votes for a woman, he actually transitions into a woman.” Watters has a history of being sexist beyond that incident.
Then there's the way other women will use misogynistic ideas to put down their political rivals, like when Megyn Kelly said recently that Harris slept her way into politics. Considering Kelly has dealt with misogyny in her own life, like being called a “bimbo” by Trump’s followers, it’s disheartening to see her use the same sort of slut-shaming language against another woman when I'm sure there is plenty about Harris' policy that Kelly disagrees with.
It's not just the political class, either.
Who can forget NFL kicker Harrison Butker's speech at Benedictine College earlier this year, where he told female graduates that they had been fed "diabolic lies"?
There's also Andrew Tate, the kickboxer turned right-wing influencer whose toxic masculinity led him to claim that "humanity cannot survive with female empowerment."
The lies on abortion: Have you heard about 'Baby Olivia'? It's how Republicans are lying to kids about abortion.
All of these remarks over the past few years are building up and shaping our country for the worse. And while I'm hopeful about Harris' campaign, I know that misogyny will continue to follow her life in politics ? and shape all of us in the process. I also know that women have been watching.
Misogyny has been rampant. Women have responded.
Polling from CBS News shows Harris leading among women 54%-45% against Trump.
In 2017, 3.2 million women and supporters organized marches across the country to express their frustration with Trump’s presidential inauguration. Things haven’t seemed better since then.
In 2022, women lost the fundamental right to an abortion, a right that gave women the opportunity to control their reproductive health and participate more fully in society. The Republican plan was always to overturn Roe v. Wade ? and despite claims that it is to protect the lives of the unborn, moves to ban IVF and failure to codify the right to birth control prove that it’s about controlling women more than anything.
It was that loss that led young women to the polls in the 2022 midterm elections to stop what could have been a "red wave." At the time, Watters noted the voting differences between married women, who lean Republican, and single women, who lean Democrat.
"So we need these ladies to get married," the Fox News host told viewers. "And it's time to fall in love and just settle down."
Misogyny isn't new, but it is getting old
It's impossible to see the way Republican men talk about women and not notice the misogyny. It even affects women within the party; just listen to what some voters had to say about Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, who was clearly a better candidate than Trump.
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Living in patriarchy is not new, but it is exhausting. Wait until I show you the emails I get from this column.
I am tired of hearing that my worth will only materialize once I’ve become a mother. I’m tired of hearing that lawmakers know what is best for my body, instead of me or my doctor. I am tired of hearing women torn down by the Republican Party and its supporters, or not deemed "woman enough" because of their looks, as demonstrated by the "transvestigation" of Olympic boxer Imane Khelif.
The more we see these attacks on women, the more I hope to see other women ? and men ? push back. It surely won't stop for the rest of the election cycle, nor would it stop if Harris were to be elected president. But instead of pretending that sexism is a thing of the past, it would be best for all of us to understand the role it's playing in 2024 and vote accordingly.
Follow USA TODAY elections columnist Sara Peque?o on X, formerly Twitter, @sara__pequeno
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: MAGA's sexism is nothing new. Trump's GOP has always hated women
