Essay: Feminist Killjoy Here To Wreck Your Parties

Image: BBC

Two days after the U.S. Presidential Election, a clear winner has yet to be announced but this much is clear: the fascist on the ballot was not defeated mightily and decidedly That so many Americans voted for Donald Trump - an estimated 69 million - is an indictment of America, not just Trump, not just the GOP. America.

And while Trump might be losing, and Biden might win, know this: white supremacist patriarchy is the real winner in America. So let me wreck your party and tell you that even if Trump loses, we are still fucked. 

If President Grab Them By the Pussy taught us anything it is this: while all pussies are equal, some pussies are more equal than others. In white supremacist patriarchy’s ranking of our pussies, it was less about making America great again and more about keeping white men top of the hierarchy, and divvying out power via proximity.

Unless you are a wealthy, able-bodied, cisgender, heterosexual, conservative white man, if you voted GOP/Trump, it means:

-You benefit from proximity to one

-You wish to be one 

-You want to have their advantages and to hell with everyone else.

And that is the hierarchy that white supremacy delineates. In other words, the further our pussies - cisgender and transgender - are from the above, the less equal they are.

Conservatives in the U.S. - a mainstay of white supremacist patriarchy but let’s be clear, white supremacist patriarchy is not confined just to them - have been working for this moment since the 1970s and Trump was their useful idiot who delivered it. Trump said out loud what so many whispered. He was never an aberration, but rather a fruition of decades of white supremacist, misogynist, bigoted rot. 

I refuse to celebrate and I will not let you either. Fuck being cheerful for the sake of being cheerful. Only the white and privileged can afford such naïveté and obliviousness.

And his next iteration will be cleaner, fitter, better dressed and politer so that those who are not wealthy, able-bodied, cisgender, heterosexual, conservative white men can vote for him unabashedly and unashamedly and say they did it for God, country and to keep our pussies in check. We are fucked because the conservative victory has made that possible.

Conservative victory? What conservative victory, you ask.

This: Conservatives dominate the Supreme Court 6-3, the Republican party has maintained its Senate majority*, and the GOP has gained, not lost, seats in the House. Regardless of who the winner of the Presidential Election is, conservatism has won. Mitch McConnell has won. White supremacist patriarchy has won.

(* Since I wrote this, a seemingly secure Republican seat in Georgia has fallen to a run-off, that will be decided in January)

I refuse to celebrate and I will not let you either. Fuck being cheerful for the sake of being cheerful. Only the white and privileged can afford such naïveté and obliviousness. My concern if Joe Biden wins the presidency is that the white liberals who spent the Trump era crying  “This isn’t my America” (sidenote: WHAT FUCKING AMERICA HAVE YOU BEEN LIVING IN?) will now celebrate “My America is back!” and go on amnesia overdrive. 

Democrat or Republican, regardless of who occupies the White House, I fight the crimes of white supremacist patriarchy because the presidents never do.

Too many wealthy, able-bodied, cisgender, heterosexual, conservative white Americans develop amnesia as soon as elections are over. Black and people of colour who also develop that amnesia do so because they either have the advantages that white Americans enjoy or wish they did.

Those of us who want liberation, remember. Democrat or Republican, regardless of who occupies the White House, I fight the crimes of white supremacist patriarchy because the presidents never do.

And I refuse to let you forget the dangers of white supremacist patriarchy, regardless of who votes for it. I know that some Black and people of colour and queer people voted for white supremacist patriarchy. They think that basking in its reflected glory, or that accepting crumbs it throws them, is anything but the capitulation to white supremacy that it is. Voters who support white supremacist patriarchy: does controlling our pussies mean that much to you? Are you filled you with that much power, albeit reflected? Do you want to be a white man, that much?

So while of course I want Trump gone, I know much of what brought him will remain and that much of what brought him is this country and the white supremacist patriarchy that is foundational to it, and not only to the GOP. Patriarchy is not simply men nor is it simply misogyny. There are cis-women who accept its crumbs; all pussies are equal but some pussies are more equal than others. 

Fuck your toxic positivity. The white supremacist patriarchy has erected a big tent for patriarchs of all backgrounds to enter. If you can’t be white, you can still share in patriarchal glory.

White supremacy, misogyny, capitalism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, ageism: those are patriarchy’s oppressions that keep its dominance alive. They won’t disappear, regardless of White House  occupant for the next four years. 

And if Biden is finally declared the winner, he is not the one to deliver the robust fight we must mount against white supremacist patriarchy. If anything, as well as celebrating “This is my America again,” his white liberal supporters will take this as a chance to once again extol the nonsensical and toxic fuckery of “civility” and “unity,” which much like toxic positivity, demands we delude ourselves into a lockstep that benefits just white liberals. 

Also, white supremacist patriarchy is not defeated by embracing or reaching across the aisle to fascist enablers. When the GOP wins anything, no matter how narrowly, they act like “Fuck everyone WE OWN THIS!” When the Democrats win, no matter how widely even, they are more eager to reach out across the aisle than they are to their own side.

How do you reach out to the estimated 69 million voters who, with eyes wide open, chose fascism and white supremacy - who chose President Grab Them By the Pussy?

I’m a tenaciously optimistic person. My optimism is saved from being foolish by my tenacity and that tenacity finds its teeth in feminism. 

How do you do that in a country that REFUSES to acknowledge it is on the threshold of a theocracy? A country that REFUSES to acknowledge that white Christianity is warmly nestled in its politics? 

So fuck your toxic positivity. The white supremacist patriarchy has erected a big tent for patriarchs of all backgrounds to enter. If you can’t be white you, can still share in patriarchal glory. White supremacy does not jealously guard toxic masculinity. White supremacy does not hold a copyright over patriarchal fuckery and the conservative victory in the U.S. will ensure it is widely available. 

I’m a tenaciously optimistic person. My optimism is saved from being foolish by my tenacity and that tenacity finds its teeth in feminism. 

Feminism is the antidote to conservatism.  a robust, unapologetic, incredibly rude “Fuck You, You Will Not Get Away With This” Feminism. I don’t care who is in the White House. I am not a nice feminist. I am not a polite feminist. And I long ago dispensed with civility and unity. 

Whichever one of the two white men in their 70s win, I am here to wreck your party. Regardless of how the useful idiot of white supremacist patriarchy fares, his was never the only head I wanted. So, declare your winner, America. I will defy, disobey, and disrupt your celebration. 

Fuck the patriarchy. 

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Mona Eltahawy is a feminist author, commentator and disruptor of patriarchy. Her first book Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution (2015) targeted patriarchy in the Middle East and North Africa and her second The Seven Necessary Sins For Women and Girls (2019) took her disruption worldwide. Her commentary has appeared in media around the world and she makes video essays and writes a newsletter as FEMINIST GIANT.  

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