Dingus of the week: Sarah Huckabee Sanders
The winner of the Aunt Lydia Award for Lady Misogyny
This week, at a town hall event with Donald Trump in Flint, Michigan, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that because Kamala Harris doesn’t have biological children, she “doesn’t have anything keeping her humble.”
Huckabee Sanders is the governor of Arkansas and daughter of Mike Huckabee, who was also the governor of Arkansas and also is not funny at all. And he has to be so proud that his daughter is carrying on his family legacy of saying the dumbest things imaginable under the guise of humor.
In fact, Mike Huckabee’s whole career has been based on never letting a little thing like common decency or Christ’s exhortation that we treat others with love stop him from hitting send on that tweet. And it’s great to see a former pastor not bound by the words of the gospel.
It’s inspiring that his daughter saw his career and was like, “I can do worse.” So she became Donald Trump’s press secretary, letting herself be a human shield for a convicted sexual abuser. She took a job that Sean Spicer thought was beneath him. Truly breaking the glass ceiling for women in the field of evil. Except maybe not breaking a glass ceiling, more like burrowing to depths of hell women have never before seen. Dante levels of girlboss.
Not since Phyllis Schlafly or Aunt Lydia have we seen another woman so determined to boot-kick other women into submission. I support women’s rights and wrongs, but this is too wrong.
Sarah, do your arms hurt from carrying all that water for the patriarchy?
To quote Michelle Wolf at the 2018 White House Correspondents dinner, “What’s Uncle Tom but for white women who disappoint other white women?”
In response to Huckabee Sanders’ remarks, many pundits pointed out the bias in stating that Harris isn’t a mother. Harris is a stepmother to two children, Ella and Cole Emhoff, who have embraced her as a parental figure. Even more of an endorsement is that their mother, Kerstin Emhoff, the ex-wife of Harris’ husband, Doug, has embraced her role of co-parent to the kids. And listen, if you have the ex-wife endorsement, that is saying something. Like you want the suburban moms in Virginia voting bloc? No, you want the salty ex-wives of Kansas voting bloc, and Kerstin’s endorsement means a lot more to me than Billie Eilish’s. (No offense, Billie.)
But Huckabee Sanders’ comment has some rotten oniony layers here. Because even worse than the idea that blended families are not real families and that step kids are not real kids is this idea that women need to be humble.
Doug Emhoff pointed this out in his remarks at a campaign event in Brooklyn, stating, “We know that all parents, no matter how you become one, make the same sacrifices and revel in the same joys of raising children as any parent anywhere.” He added, "As if keeping women humble, whether you have children or not, is something we should strive for. It is not."
Huckabee Sanders’ statement implicitly accuses the only person of color and the only woman in the presidential race of being uppity. In one move, she managed to insult blended and nontraditional families and do a little racism and misogyny on the side. You can’t say she isn’t out here working.
It’s a specific kind of racism that insists that high-achieving Black women show deference. The demand to be humble is a weapon used to punish Black women and put them in their place.
It’s also quite the attack to level on an opponent while sharing a stage with one of the most bloviating hucksters of American political history. Like, Sarah — you are onstage with a failed businessman who lost an election, who still lies about both those things because even the faintest whiff of failure is personally embarrassing to him, and you want Harris to be humble? Girl, you shouldn’t just be humble — you should be humiliated.
And now for something good
Kentucky outlawed conversion therapy.
Moo Deng! And Pesto the baby penguin!
The Indiana Fever are in the playoffs and the first game is Sunday!
And Candace Bergen remains amazing.
Friend of the newsletter, Taylor Kay Phillips, who writes the dingus for me when I am away, WON ANOTHER EMMY. Nice work, Taylor!
What I am enjoying
Like the rest of America, I am deep in The Secret Lives of Mormon Housewives. And despite being very familiar with many of these women from their viral TikTok accounts, I cannot tell them apart.
There is some sort of convergence principle at play here, wherein with enough medical and phone filter enhancements we will all eventually become one yassified clone of one another. I am still working out the theorem. But I cannot look away.
Also, my friend Katie brought me over some chicken and bean salad that she made too much of from a viral TikTok recipe and I have to say, it was delicious.
Also, thanks to the stomach flu and then a head cold1, I have spent a lot of time this week on the couch. To wit, I’ve caught up on TV watching and I saw A Perfect Couple, which was the perfect show. That Chris Pratt knockoff they got was a true delight as the spoiled older brother. Bono’s daughter was okay, but Elle Fanning as the annoying pregnant lady carried that show in her well-lotioned nontoxic glowing baby bump.
I am also really really enjoying Scaachi Koul’s memoir Sucker Punch (I got an early copy, be jealous) and Liane Moriarty’s Here One Moment.
Does my body hate me? Am I finally just coming down from an insanely busy year? All of the above?
I was somewhat surprised that SHS hasn't already a Dingus of the Week, but she really earned this one!
In some contrast, I think the way that Doug Emhoff and Tim Walz are existing and responding in their secondary/supportive roles relative to Kamala Harris is refreshing. I hope it doesn't come across like I think they deserve special recognition, it's just something I am noticing. Prominent examples of secure, non-toxic masculinity are rare. So much so that the only other person I can think of right now who fits that bill is Mr. Rogers.
But why does every conversation about women seem to have to do with children. Granted being a mother - biological, step, or simply to fill in a space - is very important work. However, men are not always spoken of in context to being a father or not. and what about those without children for whatever reason - does that mean that person has no merit. When is this society going to be able to discuss people based on their believes and actions and dare i say compassion? it pains me and depresses me to say i don't think that day will ever come.