When something big is happening in our country, it's much more common that something more trivial is in the spotlight. This isn't to negate any news, but lots of times our focus is misplaced and our targets misguided.
One of the most common juxtapositions with the current administration is that when a woman points out something wrong, there is more backlash against the woman than what she points out.
One of the first times we saw this come into action was in May 2017, when comedian Kathy Griffin posted a video of her holding a mock-up of Donald Trump's decapitated head, with the caption referencing his infamous "blood" quote. The video also mirrored the surge in actual and threatened violence in this administration, including when the president said that he could shoot someone with no consequences.
As a result, Griffin was fired from CNN and had her tour dates canceled. In a video published the following October, Griffin claimed she received extensive government investigation and was treated in a similar way that as a suspected terrorist.
About a year from the original controversial post, Griffin's only screen credit is a Comedy Central series parodying the current administration. While Griffin peaked earlier in her career, the lack of roles aside from those related to mocking the government is obvious. In a sense, she was blackballed from the industry, or at least, the most of the ties she had at the time.
While Griffin's post was graphic, she is a non-governmental public figure and was treated more harshly than those who have made violent claims while working on the federal level.
The most recent example of this phenomenon came from an episode of Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, in which Bee criticized Ivanka Trump for hypocrisy regarding her social media posts about family after the president had enacted immigration policies that tore apart families with undocumented members.
As with Griffin, the attention focused not on the meaning behind the statement, but in the obscenity: calling Ivanka a "feckless cunt," which prompted multiple advertisers to drop her show.
Though Bee apologized, her previous employer and colleague, comedian Jon Stewart, argued that there was no point in apologizing, because no one was genuinely outraged.
"They don't give a shit about the word 'cunt,'" Stewart said in a Q&A session with the San Francisco Chronicle. Stewart continued to argue that the GOP will never give up the "We're the real victims" game, which allows them to gain one up on their opponents.
"Please understand that a lot of what the right does – and it's maybe their greatest genius – is they've created a code of conduct that they police, that they themselves don't have to, in any way, abide," Stewart said.
Despite the fact that Trump's immigration policies are light years beyond obscenity, Bee is the one who comes out looking like the bully in the end. The administration appears victimized, even though they haven't had a problem with the word "cunt" before.
The most empowering rebuttal of this that we've seen recently was in April 2018, when comedian Michelle Wolf performed at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. One of Wolf's jokes focused on press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders' history of lying: "I actually really like Sarah. I think she's very resourceful. She burns facts, and then she uses that ash to create a perfect smoky eye. Like maybe she's born with it, maybe it's lies. It's probably lies."
Much of the backlash argued that Wolf went too far in criticizing Sanders, though Wolf noted that she took special care not to criticize Sanders for her appearance, which is a common target for women. Rather, she focused on something the administration has been widely criticized for: outright lying and obstruction of the free press.
While there was much conservative backlash to the Sanders joke, Wolf did not apologize, instead saying: "I wouldn't change a single word that I said. I'm very happy with what I said, and I'm glad I stuck to my guns."
While overwhelming uproar in reaction to one person is understandably alarming, Wolf exemplifies what it means to use your voice 110%. Not saying sorry for something you believe in is a lesson we can all learn from. Here's to more loud women still being loud and still not apologizing.
