“For me, it’s difficult for me to call myself a feminist in the classic sense because it seems to be very anti-male and it certainly is very pro-abortion… and I’m neither anti-male nor pro-abortion,” said White House Senior Counselor Kellyanne Conway during a CPAC interview on Thursday with Mercedes Schlapp.
Conway described her upbringing as being somewhat apolitical, in which the term “feminism” never arose despite her being raised by what she said were strong and independent women:
“I was raised in a house, I call it South Jersey’s version of the Golden Girls, with the housecoats and everything – nobody ever had a single political conversation, by my mom, her mom, two of my mother’s unmarried sisters… but I was raised to be a very strong and independent woman without anybody ever saying the word ‘feminist’ or having a political conversation. We were just, we taught to be free-thinking [and] independent.”
Conway described what she said was a “natural affinity” of President Donald Trump to work with and promote women to senior positions in the Trump Organization.
On the Democrats’ and broader left’s attempt to frame women as a monolithic political constituency, Conway spoke of the failures of Hillary Clinton’s deployment of feminism as a political narrative: “I thought it was very telling this year… that many women looked past he commonality of gender and were looking for what they shared in terms of issues, ideology, vision, and just what they want out of their futures for themselves.”
Feminism is a neo-Marxist sociological paradigm predicated on the false premise that women have been oppressed by and relative to men across human history. It frames men and women as separate political constituencies (ignoring the ubiquitous institution of family) competing against one another in a zero-sum struggle for political power. It further frames women as a generalized cohort of victims oppressed by men.
NATIONAL HARBOR, MD – FEBRUARY 23: White House Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway (L) is interviewed by Mercedes Schlapp during the first day of the Conservative Political Action Conference at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center February 23, 2017 in National Harbor, Maryland. Hosted by the American Conservative Union, CPAC is an annual gathering of right wing politicians, commentators and their supporters. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
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