Growing up I was always asked who I idolized or looked up to as a role model. As a four-year-old, I answered Mulan. As an eight-year-old, I answered Ali & AJ. As a 13-year-old, I answered Taylor Swift. And as an 18-year-old, I should have answered Hillary Clinton. But, I didn’t.
Instead, I sat scrolling through Twitter drooling over Joy Villa as she tore off her white gown to reveal her beautifully designed “Make America Great Again” dress, and retweeting the savage quotes of Tomi Lahren. I wanted to be like them in their confidence and willingness to be a minority group in a majority party. I saw conservative women doing things that I wanted to do, and I found their outspokenness to be empowering.
All too often are liberal women prided for their involvement in politics, and looked up to as these amazing women who stand for women’s rights and feminism. And while I’ll give it to them, they — mostly — do stand for female empowerment, what really strikes my nerves are how we have completely missed some other very empowered women in politics because they swing for the other team: conservatives.
Conservative women, in all their power and strength, have been fighting for a place in the spotlight because for liberals, they don’t really fit their narrative. Liberals can’t stand the idea of an empowered young conservative woman because it scares them. It scares them that women are just as empowered as they are on the opposite side of their political platform. Popular conservative females are the “feminists” of the right wing, and we need to make sure that young conservative girls see and know that they exist.
Recently, Michelle Obama made remarks on the Republican party calling them, “all white, all male.” Of course, Joy Villa was very quick to fire back in a tweet about how she is neither a male, nor white. Twitter trolls responded to her for it and claimed that she really isn’t a feminist or for women empowerment if she is a Republican.
Well, lies.
Fact: Not all conservatives are male. In case you missed it, here are some really cool women conservatives: Sarah Palin, ran as Vice President for presidential nominee John McCain in 2008, Laura Ingraham, host of the “Laura Ingraham Show” on Fox News, and Kelly Anne Conway, a key part to President Trump’s campaign in 2016 and still holds power in the White House in advising.
Female empowerment isn’t really what political standing you hold. It’s about being proud of your womanhood and owning that fact. Outspoken women, like Tomi Lahren, are shut down because they can’t stand to hear her be possibly right and passionate about the topics she presents because they go against typical “feminist” views. There are so many conservative women that we don’t hear about because they are simply conservative.
I’m not saying that I agree with everything Tomi Lahren, Joy Villa, and all other listed above believe in. That’s the beauty of politics, the ability to choose your own standings. But, I am standing with them in that these women deserve more praise rather than hate. It takes guts to publicly put out a very minority opinion. These women receive so much negativity that young conservative girls see this and can become intimidated by the hate they are given. There’s this huge stigma that conservatives stand for keeping women out of politics and “in their homes,” but this new generation of conservatives are very different and are waiting to fight back.
For me, Tomi Lahren has been my role model for years. I only hope to have a percentage of the confidence she has when she gets on TV and starts talking about politics. She’s one of the very reasons I continued my dive into American Politics and decided to major in Political Science.
I first found it insane Tomi was so outspoken. We as conservatives are never thought to be loud and “obnoxious” as many of my friends have named Tomi, but that’s what I loved so much about her. Her fearlessness to put herself out there with her political views. She stands by what she says and believes, and does it in good name of conservatives.
Tomi Lahren provides an outlet for girls, just like me, to feel comfortable in our conservative views. Too many times have I been told I don’t stand for women equality or empowerment because I’m conservative, but I do. I just don’t fight for or stand for equality in the way that liberals might, which is OK and should be OK. But, that doesn’t really seem to be the case nowadays.
People lashed at me for not supporting Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Election. They say as a woman I should have supported her.
To me, that’s not using my voice as a woman, that’s just ignorance.
I used my voice as a woman to voice for what I think should be done in this country. I didn’t support Hillary Clinton because I didn’t believe in the things she supported and fought for. I supported Donald Trump because his political views lined up with mine more than Hillary’s did. I didn’t support Donald Trump because of him as an individual. I could care less about his life at home, but more about what he wants to get done in this country.
Conservative women need recognition. So many girls see only what we’ve seen in politics. Liberal women, fighting for things that don’t really relate to women, in the name of feminism. If we don’t start recognizing these conservative women other young conservative women may become discouraged in politics and move on to some other passion. The problem is: we still need more women in politics on both sides of the political spectrum.
Especially on the conservative side, where yes there really is a significantly smaller number of women, but there still are women. There are more than what the left likes to say there is because it, again, does not fit their narratives of how women are liberals and feminists. Which leads to an entirely different political issue that doesn’t relate to my topic here.
In the end, it’s not about saying that conservative women are better than liberals or are "more correct" in their statements, it’s just about putting out a better name for them and actually recognizing that they exist. Too often they are only recognized as “ploys” of the right to show “representation,” but in reality, they are truly conservatives and deserve to be recognized for their accomplishments in government and media. I’m not saying they are perfect or better in any way or that they have no flaws, just that we need to make sure that young conservative women actually know that good role models exist for them in the right wing, and that it’s OK to be a woman in the Republican Party.
