GOP women promote purity (but don’t practice it) + sex appeal + toxic femulinity

Last updated on: May 25, 2023 at 8:01 am by Kathryn Shihadah

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GOP women promote purity (but don’t practice it) + sex appeal + toxic femulinity 2023-05-25T08:01:20-04:00 Kathryn Shihadah

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WARNING: this post is about Marjorie Taylor Green and Lauren Boebert, and is consequently both racy and racist. Reader discretion is advised. (TBH, it’s also a tad gossip-y.)

It’s never been easy to be a woman, and nowadays it’s hard to keep up with the evolving standards. I was raised in the conservative world, and we did what men said the Bible said: we were quiet, demure, gentle, respectful, feminine.

But, as they say, times, they are a-changin’.

Our new role models, female Christian leaders – like the gentlelady from Colorado Lauren Boebert and her accomplice, the gentlelady from Georgia Marjorie Taylor Greene – have flipped the script.

These two are redefining the “strong Christian woman” so dramatically that perhaps a bit of analysis is in order, just to make sure they are genuinely what they say they are. Strong. Christian. Women.

Are they “women“?

Obviously Lauren and Marjorie have to be women, since they believe there are only two genders, and they’re definitely not men in drag…right?

Both of these gals are mothers to biological children – at least in Marjorie’s mind, that is an important distinction. Both have been married – to men – so there’s that. They know what it means to be a woman. Here’s proof:

Not long ago, Marjorie declared,

I’m going to tell you right now what is a woman. We came from Adam’s rib. God created us with his hands. We may be the weaker sex, we are the weaker sex, but we are our partner’s, our husband’s, wife.

Lauren Boebert’s womanhood is more show than tell. She was presented with the coveted “Hottest Woman in Congress” award, and accepted it with feminine grace…because hot is the new chaste?

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Are they “Christian women”?

Both Lauren and Marjorie are staunch advocates of “family values” and “traditional marriage.” They have fought tooth and nail against non-traditional families.

But both of their marriages have apparently failed. Greene’s husband asked for a divorce, apparently, after she had multiple flings (her current boyfriend has appeared on television in drag, btw). Boebert initiated divorce proceedings with her husband. Apparently she was unable or unwilling to take her own advice. Last June, she proclaimed,

Are you struggling in your marriage? Begin to speak life into your marriage. Ladies, you were called to something great in your marriage. The power that you have in Christ, for your marriage, is unmatched. If you start chasing Jesus with everything that you have, I promise you, your husband will chase you chasing Jesus.

It is possible to stumble and still be a Christian. Is there a point at which failure to “practice what you preach” becomes full on hypocrisy? We can’t say with certainty where God draws the line, but Jesus gave us a hint when he said,

You’re hopeless, you religion scholars! You load people down with rules and regulations, nearly breaking their backs, but never lift even a finger to help (Luke 11:46, the Message).

Marge and Lauren have held our Congress by the throat, demanding “traditional” (read: white, hetero, two-parent) family values – not just for their fellow evangelical Christians, but for all Americans – when they themselves fail to meet their own most basic requirements.

When Lauren Boebert’s unmarried son failed the purity test (he got a young woman in a family way), she offered a workaround:

Obviously I’m a Christian, and there are standards we like to uphold, but none of us do it perfectly…I think just having that heart posture of wanting to serve God and do the right thing is so important…this is where we’re at, and we’re embracing it and we’re so happy.

That’s great for her son, but she has no such grace for the rest of America. (Did this give you a flashback to Sarah and Bristol Palin?)

Greene can not abide drag queens, but has a workaround when the drag queen is her boyfriend.

So, are they Christians? As Lauren would say, “obviously.”

Are they “strong Christian women”?

If strength consists of brazenness, these two are powerhouses. They state their opinions boldly, cling to their beliefs doggedly – and spin their personas to look squeaky clean and conservative in the extreme.

Boebert lied about her son’s car crash, made racist statements about Rep. Ilhan Omar, misused campaign funds (more than once), fixated unnecessarily on public urination – andis obsessed with guns.

She announced in Congress,

A recent report states that Americans own 46% of the world’s guns. I think we need to get our numbers up, boys and girls.

In 2023, there have already been almost 18,000 gun deaths in the US, and over 240 mass shootings. Boebert proposed the “Shall Not Be Infringed Act,” a bill that would end a number of gun reform measures that were agreed upon in the previous legislative session – and proposed making the AR-15 America’s national gun. (More posts about guns below.)

MTG has publicly treated people with tremendous disrespect (for example here and here and here), lied, made antisemitic and islamophobic statements. She asks the American people for grace and privacy regarding her divorce, but doesn’t mind sticking her nose into other Americans’ marriages.

Apparently these two women have a cult following among evangelical Christians. Is there anything about them worthy of emulation?

Or are they just another example of evangelicalism’s failure to practice critical introspection?

(Read this from CNN for an excellent, quick look at the dangers of Christian Nationalism.)

(If you are energized by challenges to the evangelical status quo like this, please subscribe to my newsletter! If you would like to comment on this post, please pop over to my Facebook page. All of my posts are there and open to constructive comment! I welcome your thoughts.)

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