Let’s admit we are glad the voting cycle of the presidential election is over. We wait for the electors to cast their votes on December 19th to make it official. This was by far the most vicious political season of my lifetime. I don’t recall the numbers of controversies, accusations and mud-slinging which the voters and non-voters witnessed this year.
The results left several experts scratching their heads in total bewilderment. In order to make sense of the results of the presidential race, pundits, reporters and politicians have given their assessments. Tonight, my phone was pounded by text after text of friends making sure I saw the following article. The picture told the story, but not the one the reporter wrote.
Jenny Kutner opinion piece on mic.com titled, “Female misogynists were Trump’s most crucial ally” includes a picture of several WOFF women in front of the crowd at a Trump rally. The trance-like look on their faces told part of the story to Ms. Kutner. I will recap her opinion piece and give “the rest of the story.”
After lamenting Hillary Clinton’s concession speech for including “Sorry…” Kutner writes:
“And yet, the ascendancy of Donald Trump to the nation’s highest political office happened, in part, because of the unapologetic actions of female misogynists. Many, many women — most of them white — voted for an accused rapist, a known bigot, a paragon of toxic masculinity, to be the next president.
According to exit polls, 53% of white women, many of them college-educated and many of them young, chose Trump. In doing so, they didn’t just turn their backs on an opposing candidate who happened to look like them, a fact that is in and of itself historic; the female misogynists who voted for Trump stood on the backs of others — people of color, immigrants, LGBTQ people — to maintain a social order in which they too are second-class citizens.”
After a brief review of the term, “misogynist,” I realized the author was calling WOFF women – women haters. I see that as only partial truth which requires further explanation. Later in the article she calls white women who voted for Trump, “female chauvinist pigs.” She writes,
“…In the early aughts, the feminist writer Ariel Levy popularized a term (female chauvinist pigs) to describe women who objectify themselves and others, thereby contributing to a culture in which men can also demean and diminish them.”
That my friend does not ring true in the sub-culture of WOFF since it is as matriarchal as you can be. Honestly, how was the photographer or author supposed to know that? I suspect she made her assumptions by appearance of the WOFF women and their position of being front and center. The picture fit her message.
Kutner goes on to quote another writer:
“Anne Helen Petersen wrote in a recent piece for BuzzFeed. “The best way to ignore it, of course, is to stay silent — and thus ensure they don’t have to have a conversation, or articulate a defense, of what their vote implicitly endorses.”
As a comparison, Jane Whaley and her women followers were not hiding their support of a man that Kutner describes as “an accused rapist, a known bigot, a paragon of toxic masculinity…” and obviously white. After the Trump rally in Hickory, NC several months ago which featured WOFF members, Leigh Valentine and Frank Webster on stage; Jane Whaley and her entourage have been seen front and center at several North Carolina Trump rallies. Several members were filmed on stage at a NC Trump rally gladly speaking as examples of the “Deplorables.”
Kutner goes on the put forth several observations about male dominance and white supremacy which I don’t echo. She further describes the females voting for Trump as a way to restore white ruling power, “Women have helped them — a lot of women. This time, providing that help required female misogynists to ignore their own humanity and the humanity of others by necessity.”
A woman’s vote for Trump is equated with women who hate women and ignore “their own humanity.” Really? I will let the skin deep “logic” stand for it is. I will also clarify that though the picture of WOFF women at Trump’s rally may have fit Kutner’s emotional and color based narrative about white women voters, the depth of irony in which the women she chose also attended WOFF is too much to pass up.
The Rest of the Story….
Contrary to appearances and unbeknownst to Kutner; the featured female faces in the picture belong to women living in a closed matriarchal sub-culture. In that group, certain women are elevated, but none above the woman standing directly in front of Trump of which we can only see the top of her head. That woman is the leader of Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF) – Jane Whaley. The trance like stare on many of their faces is not only an indication of their condition at the moment, but also a key to understanding their place in life. Continued membership inside of WOFF requires members to live in a trance-like state under the spell of the leader. In this state, individual thought and critical thinking are suspended in addition to any regard for self-awareness which may alert the member to the perception of outsiders.
Members in the picture live under the cover of a bubble-like dome created by believing the words of Jane Whaley. Inside this bubble, women are not “female chauvinistic pigs” “who objectify themselves and others, thereby contributing to a culture in which men can also demean and diminish them.”
Members objectify themselves and other members; men, women or children by allowing Jane to control every aspect of their life which in turn does diminish and demeans them. Out of reach of member’s perception is the truth that within WOFF, every member is property to Jane. They are objects whose sole purpose is to worship her and confirm her position as most holy, most righteous and the only connection to God. If she believes Donald Trump is God’s man for the hour, then her member-objects will follow suit or their membership status “among God’s people” would be jeopardized. To the faithful, no political candidate is worth risking WOFF membership.
With the glaring lack of self-awareness, absent critical thinking skills and no matter how educated or outwardly loving the women in the picture appear I doubt any WOFF member would agree to Kutner’s assessments. Their reply; “Women hating women? No way… We love all people…” (Except those who oppose our leader and bubble maker, Jane Whaley.)
For that matter, no WOFF members would agree with my observations. The difference is Kutner does not know the women in the picture; whereas I lived under the same bubble for 16 years.
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Scripture references are Amplified Version unless otherwise noted. (Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation ) This is post number 579.