GOOD GRIEF

[Content Note: Misogyny; objectification.]

It continues to be a real mystery why Republicans aren't connecting with a majority of female voters:

Republican Sen. Mitch Holmes has seen women wearing "over the top" attire during his decade in the Kansas Statehouse, by which he means, their tops didn't cover over enough.

"A blouse that came way past the rib cage was one of the most outlandish ones," he told The Associated Press in an interview on Monday. He said his dress code was needed to prevent distractions from the legislative process.

But after he was shamed on social media as a "sexist" and "cave man" for telling women how to dress, Holmes dropped his guidelines the next day. His written apology Tuesday said he "meant no offense" by suggesting that "for ladies, low cut necklines and mini-skirts are inappropriate." Failing to apply the code to both genders, he wrote, was unacceptable.

It's at least the fourth time recently that [Republican] lawmakers have retreated from statehouse dress codes that applied to female colleagues, lobbyists, interns, and other citizens.

This story was filed under the headline: "State Lawmakers 'Distracted' by Women's Wardrobes."

Well. If the straight gentlemen who disproportionately fill state legislative positions can't contain themselves and retain their focus in the presence of women who are wearing whatever the fuck we want, perhaps the solution is to replace them with women, who won't get so gosh darn distracted by reflexive objectification.