If you thought you couldn’t be shocked by anything else in the 2016 Presidential Election, you would be wrong! On Tuesday, a map demonstrating Democrat and Republican voter distribution by state was released, illustrating the huge gender gap in voter preferences this election. The reactions were...discouraging.
And here's if just dudes voted. pic.twitter.com/HjqJzIVwc4
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) October 11, 2016
As you can see, female voters in this election are significantly turning out for Hillary Clinton, while male voters are demonstrating a much higher tendency towards Donald Trump. After this map went viral, because there are no consequences to our words and actions on the internet (JK), Trump-favoring Twitter users took the opportunity to share a new political plan of theirs—repealing the 19th Amendment!
If you need a history refresher here, the 19th Amendment was passed in 1920, and gave women the right to vote. It was won after decades of tireless fighting by women and allies to have equal rights as citizens of the United States. This amendment hasn’t even been around for 100 years! It’s unreal! Not to mention that women of color were routinely unable to exercise their right to vote well into the late 20th century, and voting is often still difficult for other marginalized groups today.
*Sighs deeply*
@emmaroller men should never have given women the right to vote #RepealThe19th
— Haunted Holly (@HollyAnswers) October 11, 2016
I maintain that many of our problems as a Republic would be solved if only we could #RepealThe19th
— Leslie ن (@LADowd) September 21, 2016
So, yeah. People on Twitter were seriously talking about this, and suggesting that taking back women’s right to vote would be for the good of the nation. Politics (and Twitter) can be so disheartening, y’all. But it is in these feelings of defeat that we gotta RALLY! Educate yourself and others, and stand for your rights.
Given the way Donald Trump views women, the fact that this kind of thing is being said is, depressingly, not surprising. We have so much more work to do in the way of making sure that women receive equality, and not just in jobs or education. It's even more crucial that people actually believe in the equality and inherent personhood of women, so that no one is ever inclined to say they should be denied their civil rights.