ISBL Asshat of the Week: Phyllis Schlafly

It’s rare that we have a female Asshat of the Week here at ISBL — though we’ve made exceptions for the delightfully delusional Michele Bachmann — because it’s generally the male gender who acts in the most asshatted manner. But today we induct a new female into those hallowed halls: one Phyllis Schlafly, who is visiting our world from the 1920s.

While we have all heard the GOP whispers about rebranding their party, to make them more LGBT-friendly, more Latino-friendly, more female-friendly, we haven’t really seen much action on that, at least at the national level. In fact, just this week, the Republicans — even female Republicans — voted down the Paycheck Fairness Act — meaning women might earn the same as men and not the 23% less than men they earn now.

Sidenote: a junior Asshat of the Week is the Republican Congresswoman  from Tennessee, Marsha Blackburn [right], who actually suggested that Republicans have long “led the fight for women’s equality.”

Now, to be fair, a hard thing to do with Republicans, they say they have a good reason for voting against equal pay .... Obamacare. Yes, it’s the Blame Obamacare excuse from the GOP once again, because they are suggesting that Democrats were using the issue to distract from the alleged problems with Obamacare.

But I digress …

Let’s talk asshat; let’s talk Phyllis Schlafly, a prominent, vocal, and oh-so-out-of-touch member of the Republican movement who suggests that the current pay gap between genders is not wide enough. In an op-ed piece for the Christian Post, Schlafly — the founder of the Eagle Forum PAC — says that woman should never be paid the same as men, and wants the pay gap widened so that woman will be able to find themselves a suitable husband. She says:

“ … women typically choose a mate (husband or boyfriend) who earns more than she does. Men don’t have the same preference for a higher-earning mate.

While women prefer to HAVE a higher-earning partner, men generally prefer to BE the higher-earning partner in a relationship. This simple but profound difference between the sexes has powerful consequences for the so-called pay gap.

Suppose the pay gap between men and women were magically eliminated. If that happened, simple arithmetic suggests that half of women would be unable to find what they regard as a suitable mate.”

See, in Phyllis Schlafly’s world — not in present-day America, I’m guessing — all women really want is a man to take care of them and if you start treating women equally, meaning equal pay, they will simply lose interest in finding a mate.

It’s no great surprise that Schlafly thinks this way; she has long been the voice of the most conservative parts of the GOP and has used her  Eagle Forum PAC to give money to the likes of fellow ISBL Asshat of the Week winners like Eric Cantor, Michele Bachmann, Steve King, and Ted Cruz.

But her stance, especially given that the GOP is trying to make itself more appealing after losing the White House [again] in 2012, will only undermine the efforts of the party to rebrand itself. This, though, is actually a good thing, so maybe Schlafly should get a different award from ISBL?

No, asshat will do nicely.

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