Shortly after Cassidy Hutchinson finished her searing testimony that correctly painted Donald Trump as a violent but cowardly bully, desperate right-wingers tried to make "Amber Heard 2.0" a thing on Twitter. The choice was a telling one, though not in the way the MAGA heads think. The abuse aimed at the former aide for Mark Meadows, Trump's chief of staff, who spoke before the January 6 committee on Tuesday, does resemble the harassment of movie star Johnny Depp's ex-wife. In both cases, misogynists launched an intimidation campaign to silence a woman. Not, importantly, because she's lying, but because her haters fear she's telling the truth.
The committee kept Hutchinson's plans to testify publicly under wraps until the very morning she was sworn in, and only announced the hearing the day before it happened. There are likely multiple reasons for this, but reports suggest that a major concern was Hutchinson's safety. The implications of that are chilling, of course. Until yesterday, it wasn't widely known in public how much Hutchinson had witnessed and was prepared to speak about. The people who did know what she witnessed would be those close to Trump and who know how he behaves when cameras aren't on him.
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Now the whole country has been told about the petulant, violent, and fascistic behavior that Trump's inner circle goes to great pains to conceal. And Trump is reacting with the same strategy he used to sic the mob on the Capitol: Winking at his violent followers, providing them a target for their rage, and trusting that they know what he wants from them. Not that Trump needs to be a rocket scientist to know his biggest fans happen to be the same people who fly into an incandescent rage when a woman speaks out against injustice. The heightened concerns about her safety, compared to the older white men who have largely been witnesses to Trump's behavior, is also a reminder that the Trump base has a particular hatred of a disobedient woman who happens to be young and pretty — another reason they went straight for the Amber Heard comparison.
The entirely predictable campaign of threats and lies aimed at Hutchinson is part of a larger pattern of vicious misogyny that is coming to define the summer of 2022.
The entirely predictable campaign of threats and lies aimed at Hutchinson is part of a larger pattern of vicious misogyny that is coming to define the summer of 2022. It's being described as a "backlash" against feminism, but that word feels inadequate to capture the savage fury that is erupting across the country. We're seeing a boiling over of the anger so many men (and even some women) have against women who speak out — or even women who are just trying to live their lives in peace.
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We saw this over the weekend, as Salon's Kathryn Joyce reported, in the reaction to protests that broke out across the country in response to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. The largely peaceful protesters were subject to violence across the country, both at the hands of police and angry civilian men, including at least two reported car attacks. Groups of Proud Boys showed up at protests to intimidate the largely female protesters, using a tactic that the far-right group has been increasingly using against LGBTQ people who dare do things like go to a drag show or attend a Pride parade.
Terrorism has always been a major part of the anti-choice movement. It reflects the sadism baked directly into abortion bans. And not just against women who want abortions and can't get them legally anymore, either, but against anyone capable of getting pregnant. There are already reports of patients being denied care for ectopic pregnancies and arthritis because doctors fear violating abortion bans. There are real concerns that doctors will also have to deny miscarriage management and cancer treatments, as well, because a fertilized egg — or even a hypothetical pregnancy — is legally more valuable than a woman in many states.
RELATED: The Johnny Depp and Amber Heard verdict: A victory for the war on free speech
As plenty of people have pointed out, the vitriol spewing from Trump right now towards Hutchinson sounds exactly like the boilerplate sexist lies he aims at women who have accused him of sexual violence, a crime he bragged about on tape. He even tried the "I hardly know" her lie about Hutchinson that he's used against sexual assault accusers, even though Hutchinson, as the committee demonstrated, worked a few steps from Trump's office and had to clean up ketchup after he had one of his plate-throwing tantrums.
It is possible that Trump didn't pay Hutchinson much mind, much like he likely has forgotten the names, if he even knew them in the first place, of many of the women that he's assaulted. There's little doubt he views most of the young women around him as a nameless servant class of pussies to grab. But that doesn't mean they don't remember him, his violence, and his bullying. Hutchinson's memories were extremely vivid and extremely believable, fitting perfectly with the idiotic man-child that we've all unfortunately grown to understand all too well.
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Despite the self-important preening from conservative men about "chivalry," the reality that too many women know too well is this: Male supremacy has always been maintained through violence. It's why one out of six women has been the victim of rape or attempted rape. It's yhy one out of every four women has been the victim of domestic violence. And why 81% of women report experiencing sexual harassment. (Frankly, the other 19% are probably just downplaying or don't get out of the house much.) In my experience, it's rare to go very long without being sexually harassed on the street. It's such a common occurrence that I often forget about it, except for those truly scary times when men follow me or grab at me.
We're seeing a boiling over of the anger so many men (and even some women) have against women who speak out — or even women who are just trying to live their lives in peace.
A lot of the people trying to discredit Hutchinson have landed on what they think is a killer "gotcha": If Trump's behavior was so bad, why didn't she leave or speak out sooner? This drumbeat of statistics, however, tells us why. Tyrannical behavior from men is completely normalized in our society, especially in the conservative circles that Hutchinson moves in. Trump's behavior may have been on the high end of the shitty male behavior spectrum, but it still falls within the parameters of what a lot of people are socialized to accept, especially when the bully is rich and powerful like Trump. He, like many men who behave the way he does, gets away with it because far too many people believe that being a bad-tempered thug is just what being a man is about.
RELATED: Did violence follow Roe decision? Yes — almost all of it against pro-choice protesters
Trump is the epitome of a toxic man. The tough guy bluster is a thin disguise over his true self, which is a sniveling coward. He can't even admit that he wanted to lead the mob that stormed the Capitol, quaking in his weenie boots over the fear of legal consequences. Cowards like Trump turn to violence against women because of their fear. They know in their hearts that they can't defend their views with facts or rationality. Even more importantly, they fear that, without unearned male privilege, they'll be exposed as the mediocrities that they actually are. So they turn to violence to get their way and enforce their status. If they ever played fair, they know full well that they'd lose.
