http://www.terrylowry.com/?page_id=1003

I, like many Americans, voted this week. And in the weeks leading up to the election I have been bombarded with ads for many candidates, including “The Link Letter,” a Texas conservative newsletter. The February issue focused on voting and why men and women should vote Republican. To make these points, there was a double page feature with one page titled “S.H.E. Votes. WHY?” and “Why Does H.E. Vote?” First, let’s note the difference in the titles. I cannot help but read the first title as a question of why women vote in the first place or why they should be allowed to vote. But that is the least problematic thing here. The article explains that women vote for Safety, Healthcare, and the Economy. But men? Get ready. (pages 6-7)

  1. “He does not want disturbed men in women’s facilities.” By disturbed men the Texas conservatives refer to Drag Queens reading to the man’s children and grandchildren. The conservative man is logical and sees “the stupidity and hypocrisy of those who do not want to give hormones to cows, but want to see little boys turned into little girls.” 
  2. “He is standing tall, saying: I will no longer be quiet. I will no longer be ashamed of being a man. I will no longer be afraid to say that I am a Republican…I will pick the best candidates to defeat the lying, American-haters that masquerade as sanctimonious liberators for the oppressed.” This phrase is repeated multiple times and I have a lot of issues with it. First, the idea that men are quiet and ashamed of their manhood is absurd. Men have been the superior role in our society, and white conservative men in particular are currently ruling politics. This reasoning for voting was a huge contrast to that of the issue-based reasoning given for women. I found this interesting because generally it is the stereotype that women are the emotional, feeling ones and men are logical and practical. But here, the push for men to vote is loaded with pathos. 

I want to pose a few questions about this:

  1. How have targeted political advertisements changed over time? Have they become more or less gendered and what effect has this had on policy and/or political platforms?
  2. In this newsletter the reasons that men and women vote are separated. Is there any potential benefit to making distinctions between policy issues based on gender? What effect does this have on voting outcomes? If only one gender is being sold a particular idea, could that undermine the intended outcome of an election? 

 

Next, I want to highlight a particularly relevant ballot proposition. (page 36)

Prop 6: “Texas should ban chemical castration, puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and genital mutilation surgery on all minor children for transition purposes, given that Texas children as young as three (3) are being transitioned from their biological sex to the opposite sex”

  • I want to tie this to our in-class discussion on transitions. First, until puberty there is really no difference between a young boy or girls body. The only differences are genitals and external appearance which is controlled by the parents or individual. And due to the lack of sex hormones in a child’s body, it is not recommended that any medical transitioning devices/techniques are used. So a three year old child would not be given sex hormones. The logic given for this proposition is that these rights are reserved to adults because a child’s brain is not fully developed. However, federal law establishes age 12 as the minimum age of consent (though 18 is more commonly referred to as age of consent) which shows a recognition for an adolescent to understand their identity and make choices about their body. 

I know this is not like my other blog posts, in that much of it was just informational. But I really wanted to encourage other people to read this piece. I personally found it to be entertaining and kind of horrific (9/11 imagery). But when I really think about the fact that there is an audience for this newsletter and that people truly vote like this, it scares me for our future.

Ashley F.