It Continues to Be a Real Mystery Why Republicans Aren't Connecting with a Majority of Female Voters

[Content Note: Misogyny.]

Y'all, I just can't figure out why it is that the Republican Party has a female voter problem:

A discussion over a pending criminal domestic violence (CDV) bill took a bizarre turn this week when [Republican South Carolina state Senator Thomas Corbin] offered some bizarrely sexist commentary on the role of women in the political process.

Corbin's comments – made at a legislative dinner held in downtown Columbia, S.C. – were reportedly directed at S.C. Senator Katrina Shealy, the only female member of the 46-person State Senate.

..."I see it only took me two years to get you wearing shoes," Corbin told Shealy, who was elected in 2012 as a petition candidate.

Corbin has a reputation for saying that women "do not belong" in the South Carolina General Assembly and should instead be "at home baking cookies" or "barefoot and pregnant." Which is the context for his awesome "shoes" joke, I guess.

He didn't stop there:

At one point in the conversation – which quickly escalated into a confrontation – Shealy is said to have angrily asked Corbin where he "got off" attacking women.

His response – overheard by numerous lobbyists and fellow lawmakers – was one for the ages.

"Well, you know God created man first," Corbin said, reportedly smirking at Shealy. "Then he took the rib out of man to make woman. And you know, a rib is a lesser cut of meat."

Women are a lesser cut of meat. WOMEN ARE A LESSER CUT OF MEAT. This is an actual thing said in the actual world by an actual human adult man in the actual year of our lord Jesus Jones two thousand and fifteen.

One of Corbin's colleagues dismissed this shit as a "running joke" between Corbin and Shealy, but Shealy doesn't seem to share that impression:

"She got in his face," one lobbyist who attended the event said of Shealy's reaction, adding that at one point "we thought we were going to have to hold her back."

Raise your hand if you're a women who's experienced being harassed by a man in a professional environment who insisted it was all just good fun while you slowly boiled. Why you gotta get so mad? Geez, get a sense of humor.


[Video of a clip from Bridesmaides; Jon Hamm tells Kristin Wiig: "It's called humor. Learn about it."]
The report states: "Shealy declined to discuss the matter with FITS–citing its irrelevance to the legislative matter under discussion," which is basically politic-speak for "I'm choosing to swallow shit today, instead of ruining the afternoon."

Because of course Shealy can't win: If she says anything about it, she'll be cast as the humorless hysteric who can't take a joke. Not as a woman deserving of respect who is standing up and asking to be respected.