In Defense of Free-Thinking Women

(NOTE: I realize that, as a Canadian, it may not make immediate sense for me to take personal issue with an element of American politics; however, rest assured that American politics always have, and always will bleed into Canada eventually. In this case, the rhetoric under discussion is already present here.)

To whom it may concern,

Hello - alleged "gender traitor," here.

I am a woman, born and raised. Despite this, I consider myself to be fairly conservative in my politics, having come to my current views through countless hours of thought, debate, reasoning and reflection upon them - rather than by glancing between my legs - and I am not afraid to say so. Furthermore, despite the near-uniform condemnation of individuals of my general phenotype in the mass media, to the extent where the very phrase one might use in reference to humans such as myself has gone from descriptive in nature to derogatory, I am still not afraid to tell you that I am white.

That's right: not only do I have a female body, with female sex characteristics and reproductive organs, but the skin that holds those and other organs within me is *white*! I am one of those evil, backstabbing, treasonous white women. The absolute nerve!

Putting all catty behavior aside from the time being, it appears that "white women" - in general, supposedly; therefore myself, in practice - have made a very serious, very grevious mistake. By all accounts, this mistake appears to have occurred as a by-product of our false belief in our own abilities as independent thinkers.

Admittedly, this is not the first time that this mistake has been pointed out to us. Following the 2016 election of

U.S. President Donald Trump, I can recall the outrage displayed by many of those who supposedly fight for "our" interests upon learning that a little over half of white, American women voted for Mr. Trump. Unfortunately, several decades of "feminist" indoctrination attempts by the media, public schools and higher education apparently did little to prevent these women from exercising their right to vote for whomever they damn well pleased; just as those brave, tenacious suffragettes had hoped for when they campaigned for our voting rights so many years before. Nowadays, we may as well call the actions of those women a mistake as well, for we white women apparently are not voting the way we're *supposed* to.

Now, in any other time and place the notion that women - let alone white ones - are *supposed* to vote in any particular manner would be rightfully derided as sexist, as would making any other similar sweeping judgements on a person based solely on one or two of their immutable, non-negotiable characteristics. Here in Bizzaroland, however, we do things differently: we presume that all women want the same thing, and denounce the outliers as either brainwashed or antagonistic to other women. In this case the media has decided that white women are leaning somewhat more to the latter, the assumption being that we have chosen to preserve our "whiteness" over our "sisters". How else could we continue to support the candidates of our choosing instead of those who have been hand picked for us by the oh-so-ironically named "Democratic" Party?

Recently, this type of blatant sexism - if I cannot also call it racist, if only because our skin is the wrong colour - has reached an all new low. Now, we are not only chastised for having the gall to freely participate in the democratic process, we are *also* being asked why we can't keep "our" men - those eternally evil white males - in check. Why do we tacitly support them by voting similarily? Why have we abandoned our non-white sisters to to take up our supposed positions as first mates of the patriarchy?

Let me tell you a thing or two about white men - an insider's perspective, if you will. Being white, the rest of my family also happens to be white. Biology necessitates that at least some of my relatives be men, at the very least my father in addition to my grandfathers, great-grandfathers, and so on. As a matter of fact, I was the only female child born to my particular generation of my father's family - all five of my cousins are white males. Not only am I related to a bunch of white men (most, arguably, are "dead white men"), but I have also been in a committed relationship with one for almost six years - his family is also white, and filled with even more white men than mine - and I fully intend on having a handful of white children with him, some of whom might grow up to be - you guessed it - white men. And believe me when I say that there is no political scandal (manufactured or genuine) conceivable that would cause me to abandon my family members on the basis of their sex - just as there can be none that would cause them to do the same to me. By more than just blood, I have infinitely more in common with these white men than I do with "women", generally speaking. "Jokes" about torturing and/or killing white men evoke in my mind images of my father, my partner, my uncles, and my cousins - none of whom are anywhere near deserving of such disgusting rhetoric that is directed toward them, no matter what their sex or race.

Furthermore, and despite what I am told, "white men", as a group, have done me no harm. Individual white men, sure - but I have always blamed those instances on those men being bad people, and *not* on them being men. My rationale for doing so lies in the fact that plenty, if not *more* women have harmed me as well. In my experience, our differing chromosomes have affected only the means by which they might harm me: perhaps a particular bad man might wish to hurt me physically or sexually, while a bad woman may choose to hurt me emotionally or psychologically. I am unfortunately quite familiar with the latter; and yet I still bear no ill will toward women as a whole. Again: to blame the actions of those few women on all of them as a whole would be silly, and I see no reason why reversing the genders involved would make it any less silly, if not downright ignorant and intellectually lazy.

So when major, once-respectable outlets like the New York Times, the New Yorker, and The Guardian publish articles telling me (and women who look like me) that we must "disavow" white men, that we must "come and get them" and start telling *them* how to vote as well, what they are really telling me is that what's between my legs is *far* more important than what's between my ears. What they are telling me is that not only am I compelled to think a certain way because of my sex, but also that I am compelled to behave a certain way because of my skin colour. And would you believe me if I told you that of all the men I have ever met, I can only think of *one* who has admitted to believing that women are, or should be, "all the same"? Meanwhile, there are quite literally dozens of so-called "feminists" who are doing precisely that in my Twitter feed.

When I call myself a "white woman", it is a description - not a biography. I refuse to be bullied into playing along with my "sisters", these bloodthirsty wolves in sheep's clothing, who are more than happy to see me silenced the minute I step out of line with the opinion *de jour*. So much for solidarity!

Whether or not I vote similarily to white men is, to me, irrelevant - as irrelevant as it would be were I to vote similarily to the bulk of black or latino men. Skin and chromosomes be damned, I will continue to believe in what I do because of my brain, and *not* because of my genitals nor what opinions someone may have regarding them. I will do so no matter what I am called, and no matter what "implications" some uncharitable individual may wish to draw from it: I left such schoolyard tactics of namecalling and cold shouldering far behind me when I graduated the sixth grade, and I have no intention of going back.

Yours sincerely,

Some Uppity Woman, Who "Doesn't Know Her Place."