There actually is a strain of something not entirely unlike feminism on the right, sort of a trans-exclusionary impersonation of third- or fourth-wave. This is your Megyn Kelly or Nancy Mace. The “Boss Babes” mentioned in the article. They are still supposed to look a certain way and never presume to tell a man that he’s benefitted from privilege in any way, but they are allowed to compete in a man’s world within the guardrails. They’re permitted to be a sort of wish-fulfillment fantasy for less ambitious conservative women and a mouthpiece for those women’s concerns, so they’re allowed to be assertive and maybe even to have prioritized their own careers, e.g. Mace being the first female cadet to graduate from The Citadel. However, they’re not really supposed to look like anything other than a news anchor (the performative femininity is allowed to stand in for the feminine roles they’re deprioritizing), and they’re never allowed to imply that their choices should be the mainstream option. The more “traditional” life choices they can (appear to) cram in beside their careers, the more loved and admired they will be.
They are given a platform as “unicorns” and as a sort of pressure-release valve so feisty little girls in conservative households can be given a role model, but the notion that all women should be pursuing what they want without guidance and protection from a man is anathema, and every time someone like Kelly deviates from the straight and narrow, she will be unceremoniously slapped back in line.
If I’m in a charitable mood, I might say that given the worldview they’re indoctrinated into, they are sort of instinctively trying to make a life they can be proud of and show a different path to be an example, but the acceptable persona is so wedded to a particularly banal and unimaginative vision of the patriarchy that it’s impossible for it to be what some of them want it to be, and it’s no wonder some of them visibly chafe.
There actually is a strain of something not entirely unlike feminism on the right, sort of a trans-exclusionary impersonation of third- or fourth-wave. This is your Megyn Kelly or Nancy Mace. The “Boss Babes” mentioned in the article. They are still supposed to look a certain way and never presume to tell a man that he’s benefitted from privilege in any way, but they are allowed to compete in a man’s world within the guardrails. They’re permitted to be a sort of wish-fulfillment fantasy for less ambitious conservative women and a mouthpiece for those women’s concerns, so they’re allowed to be assertive and maybe even to have prioritized their own careers, e.g. Mace being the first female cadet to graduate from The Citadel. However, they’re not really supposed to look like anything other than a news anchor (the performative femininity is allowed to stand in for the feminine roles they’re deprioritizing), and they’re never allowed to imply that their choices should be the mainstream option. The more “traditional” life choices they can (appear to) cram in beside their careers, the more loved and admired they will be.
They are given a platform as “unicorns” and as a sort of pressure-release valve so feisty little girls in conservative households can be given a role model, but the notion that all women should be pursuing what they want without guidance and protection from a man is anathema, and every time someone like Kelly deviates from the straight and narrow, she will be unceremoniously slapped back in line.
If I’m in a charitable mood, I might say that given the worldview they’re indoctrinated into, they are sort of instinctively trying to make a life they can be proud of and show a different path to be an example, but the acceptable persona is so wedded to a particularly banal and unimaginative vision of the patriarchy that it’s impossible for it to be what some of them want it to be, and it’s no wonder some of them visibly chafe.