We can blame The West Wing for a lot of things. I would argue it weaponised mansplaining. Josh Lyman and Donna’s relationship has imprinted on some men’s minds, in the same way a study released this month said that a certain part of some people’s brains will never forget Pokemon. A lot of otherwise harmless men tell me stuff to which my face is clearly broadcasting boredom. The clue is in the teeth of my smile not touching my bottom lip.
One man was explaining how the far right has evolved online and I was genuinely looking around the room for another person he may have been addressing. I am a woman whose puberty coincided with MySpace, Bebo and the rest of the internet’s Japanese knotweed. Fire management of shrub land, AKA deforestation, in New Zealand is this thing I’m researching for another thing - lady. of. mystery. In order to determine the history of the setting-fire-to-the-earth caused by human settlement, archaeologists and scientists took soil samples. They then determined the timings through analysing soil cores for pollen and charcoal and spores.
Us women are riddled with the morse code of male anger, aggression, disappointment and entitlement. We can read the room. For years, campaigners in America warned about the rolling back of Roe v. Wade. For years, campaigners in Ireland warned about the eventuality of Savita.
We’re a couple of long, long days on from the local and European elections and I can’t stop thinking about some tweets I saw from both genders. ‘Victims’ of Green Waves, previous councillors no longer making it across the line being a true loss to cities etc., transfers not going the way they should, people running who shouldn’t be running.
HOWEVER, I do have to thank The West Wing for helping me get through my brain heating up at these comments. There’s an episode where the fictional man Josh Lyman, who works for the fictional president, complains about another liberal fictional candidate catching fire, attention and the president’s votes. “He is taking the presidents votes,” he says to the other man’s fictional female advisor, Amy Gardner. “That right there, that’s the crazy part of your argument. They’re not his votes,” she replies. And leaves the room.
The ballot is private, the ballot can be cruel, the ballot belongs to the people.
If you’re confused by people’s choices, ask them why instead of why not. Don’t be Josh Lyman.