“The promise of being the chosen woman in a man’s world has allowed conservative women to drink the Cool-Aid of bigotry”
BY LEIGH DOUGLAS, IMAGE PROVIDED BY PRESS
USA Election night November 2024, I was (perhaps ill-advisedly in retrospect) hosting an election watch party for my podcast, Queer Gals Watch The West Wing. It was becoming clearer by the moment that Kamala Harris would lose. Heralding Donald Trump’s impending victory was not some crusty old man, but the oddly compelling, proudly Gen Z, new mom, Karoline Leavitt. The Trump Campaign Press Secretary was positively gleeful in the face of Kamala Harris’s defeat.Â
Call me a man hating lesbian, but I can handle a cis straight white man promoting bigotry. I am so inured to these voices, they barely register. As a woman who loves women, when I hear a woman – especially a young woman – spew the same offal, I take it personally. I expect more from women.
In this frightening political moment, I have become hyper-focused on conservative women like the White House’s press secretary Leavitt. I need to understand how she can recite far-right dogma with her full chest. I have thus stalked her Instagram with the intensity of a jealous ex. Her Instagram story highlights read, “Mama life, maga, media, cooking, truth, faith, fitness.” In an ad for a dating app, she poses in a baseball cap bearing the slogan “Republicans are hotter.” The caption reads, “Don’t shoot the messenger. Hat by @daterightstuff – the anti-woke dating app for conservatives. Only 2 genders allowed!”
After she called District Attorney Fani Willis “deranged,” and defended Donald Trump against what she called “show sham trials” he gave her a shout out, “I watched her on television two days ago defending me, and fighting for me… She’s doing a good job.” Soon after, she landed the job in his campaign.
Leavitt and the “Make America Hot Again” conservative American women who worship her are not a uniquely American phenomenon. Leader of the UK’s Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, has described conservatism as being “in crisis” (while it is demonstrably on the rise worldwide!). The first Black leader of a major UK political party has also labelled Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DEI) a “woke propaganda”.
When Trump placed aspirational young mothers like Kayleigh McEnany and Leavitt behind the Press Secretary’s podium, he defanged the appearance of misogyny in his successful efforts to overturn Roe v Wade. Similarly, Badenoch serves the British conservative cause. When the most prominent voice against DEI is a Black woman, it saves white conservatives from having to consider themselves racist. In return, these women’s careers are fast-tracked. At 27, Leavitt is the youngest ever Press Secretary. When Badenoch first joined the Tory leadership race in 2022, she had never held a cabinet level position. Political star makers seek out these women to lend legitimacy to chauvinism and white male supremacy. The promise of being the chosen woman in a man’s world has allowed conservative women to drink the Cool-Aid of bigotry.
In ROTUS: Receptionist of the United States, queer Irish-American comedian Leigh Douglas plays Chastity Quirke – a rising Republican aide whose faith in the system begins to crack. Blending political satire, theatre and stand-up, the show explores the role of conservative women in upholding patriarchal power. Inspired by real-life figures like Cassidy Hutchinson (the former aide to President Trump’s White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who testified against the president regarding the 6 January Capitol attack) and Alyssa Farah (Trump’s former assistant).
ROTUS is a sharp, darkly funny portrait of loyalty, ambition, and the courage to break ranks and will be at the Gilded Balloon from 30 July – 24 August. For tickets and more info, visit:Â Â tickets.gildedballoon.co.uk.
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