By D’Anne Witkowski, TGP Senior Copywriter
To all of us who have ever been called hysterical for warning that systemic right-wing attacks on reproductive rights could push the United States back to the pre-Roe era where legal and safe abortions were nearly impossible to come by in some states, congratulations! We were right.
Not that being right feels good in this instance, especially as we’re still being called hysterical as we watch our rights stripped away before our eyes. It’s the gaslighting we’re, unfortunately, used to even after Roe v Wade was overturned, even after a single activist judge banned mifepristone, a medication used in the majority of abortions in this country. Even as we see the grave harm being done to pregnant people in states that have enacted strict abortion bans. We’re still told not to believe what we’re seeing with our own eyes.
And it doesn’t just come from right-wing conservatives. It comes from people in our lives who, frankly, don’t pay very close attention to political matters. They think that the doomsday scenarios that those of us who DO pay attention are warning about are from some dystopian fantasy novel. It’s happening right now.
Of course, reproductive rights aren’t the only thing we’ve been called hysterical for sounding the alarm about: climate change, the erosion of democracy, the rise of fascism, an extreme minority ruling the country, systemic racism, LGBTQ+ hate, rampant misogyny. It’s all in our heads.
But being called hysterical around the issue of reproductive justice is especially insulting given the misogynist history of hysteria.
Throughout history, dating back to 1900 BC, women who acted out by, say, having opinions, enjoying sex, being nervous, writing poetry, or any other thing men didn’t like, were deemed hysterical. And it wasn’t just a rude label to slap on someone. Hysteria was considered a mental disorder. Women with hysteria were, by definition, mentally ill. And while the mentally ill are still marginalized today, the treatment of “hysterical” women ranged from the horrific (clitoridectomies) to the bizarre (forced orgasms). And, who were the people making these decisions about women’s bodies? Men.
It wasn’t until 1987, when a British doctor named Dr. Leppard went public with his own hysteria, that the myth of hysteria being a “women’s condition” was busted.
“I get hysterical,” Dr. Leppard said. “Do you believe it? It's such a magical mysteria when you get that feeling.”
His admission was surprising considering that not even 45 minutes prior he’d described women as, “One part love, one part wild, one part lady, one part child,” which was rightly criticized as sexist and a little gross.
Uh, hang on, I’m getting a call from my editor.
Hello?
(inaudible)
It is? Oh, wow, that’s embarrassing. Thanks for catching it.
Okay, so it turns out that Dr. Leppard is not a medical professional but is, in fact, Def Leppard, a British hard rock band that hit the big time in the 80s. My editor also informed me that there is also no Dr. Jovi or Dr. Crüe.
And, of course, women being labeled as hysterical didn’t stop in the 80s. In fact, it’s never stopped. You don’t have to look very hard to find evidence of the “women are crazy” trope. I already mentioned being gas lit, but there’s also the whole “women are too emotional to be President of the United States” thing. There’s the whole “women make up stories about sexual assault all the time” thing. There’s the whole “we can’t trust women to make decisions about pregnancy” thing. Not to mention that there are still scores of things that women aren’t supposed to do because they're “unladylike.”
It’s important to note that misogynist folks don’t just hate women, they also hate anyone who is trans or non-binary. And for many of the same reasons! The patriarchy truly is the worst.
The right-wing extremist obsession with controlling women’s bodies when it comes to reproductive choices is directly tied to the right-wing extremist obsession with transgender people. It’s all about wanting to control bodies in order to shore up the dying patriarchy. It’s about power and domination. There’s no humanity in that. Humanity is for girls.
Just kidding. Humanity is for all of us and we reject one another’s humanity at our peril.
But it certainly has occurred to me that men are, well, too emotional.
I mean, maybe a man who brings a gun to a drag queen story hour is too emotional to own a gun? Maybe a man who posts “MEN CAN’T GET PREGNANT!” over and over on Twitter is too emotional to use social media? Maybe an elected official who writes a law to ban a single trans middle school student from running track is too emotional to hold public office? Maybe a police officer who treats sexual assault survivors like hysterical liars is too emotional to uphold the law?
I could go on. But I won’t for fear of being called hysterical.
Wait a minute, what am I talking about? I work for The Guerrilla Politic. We aren’t afraid of being called hysterical. We won’t be gaslit into thinking that we’re making a big deal out of nothing when it comes to issues of social justice and equity. And as daunting as things seem, the very reason TGP exists is to elect women, LGBTQ and BIPOC people to positions of power because representation matters.
We see time and time again what happens when the only people in power are cis gender, heterosexual, white men. At best, women and people in the minority are ignored. But given the extreme right’s hold on the Republican Party women and minority groups are actively being targeted for harm.
We want elected leaders who support reproductive freedom, who believe in climate change, who understand and want to change systemic racism, who aren’t afraid to speak out against the gun industry, who will stand up to white supremacy, who want to help lift people out of poverty. In other words, we want people who care about other people leading the way.
But where do we find these people? Answer: in the mirror. If you care about these issues and want to make a real difference in your community, then Run! For! Office! Whether you run for your local school board or you run for Congress, it matters.
And I just so happen to know about a woman-owned business who can help you with that. ;)
Just remember that when things are bad there will always be people who ignore or dismiss what is happening around them. But seeing injustice and calling it out is what we must continue to do, no matter what they call us. Our lives depend on it.