A dress code in one room of the Capitol is like government-mandated, systematic rape, liberal magazines tell us – Washington Examiner

Reflecting on the battle between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton last fall, Bill Maher postulated that the Left's penchant for hyperbole desensitized voters to serious threats.

Here's what Maher said in November:

I know liberals made a big mistake because we attacked [George W. Bush] like he was the end of the world. And he wasn't. And Mitt Romney we attacked that way. I gave Obama a million dollars because I was so afraid of Mitt Romney. Mitt Romney wouldn't have changed my life that much or yours. Or John McCain. They were honorable men who we disagreed with and we should have kept it that way.

"So we cried wolf and that was wrong," Maher concluded. "But this is real."

When everything is an apocalyptic threat, nothing is.

More than its other branches, the feminist Left is especially inclined to traffic in hyperbole. Lately, that's taken the form of drawing breathless comparisons between modern America and Gilead, the fictional setting of "The Handmaid's Tale," a novel and television series.

Liz Wolfe described the world of The Handmaid's Tale in the Washington Examiner last month:

...in it, the theocratic Republic of Gilead has conquered the United States in the wake of a fertility epidemic. In Gilead, a group of red-robed women called handmaids must serve as human incubators for the upper class of politicians, via rape, centered around their monthly fertility cycle. Women cannot read, are unable to vote, and are not supposed to own property. Dissenters are hanged.

Yet, after news circulated that female reporters are not allowed to wear sleeveless dresses in the Speaker's Lobby of the Capitol Building, serious people and publications suggested the policy was reminiscent of Gilead. "What's next?" Vogue asked. "A white bonnet and red robe uniform la The Handmaid's Tale?"

"In the time of Trump, wavering rules on women's business appropriate outfit feels too much like The Handmaid's Tale come to life," an Esquire article declared. NBC's Ronan Farrow juxtaposed the CBS article with a direct passage from the novel. A Newsweek headline asked, "Handmaids' in the House?" And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

All this, because female Hill reporters are, and have been for years, subject to a moderate dress code in a small area of the Capitol building. (By the way, men are required to wear jackets and ties upon entry as well.)

In recent months, feminists have staged Handmaid's Tale-inspired demonstrations to protest healthcare legislation as well.

They need to be careful.

From Kamala Harris being "interrupted," to Wonder Woman making less money than Superman, to John McEnroe saying Serena Williams couldn't compete at the same level against men, feminists consistently discuss instances of perceived sexism, most of which are exaggerated at best and many of which only impact women of privilege, as though they are evidence that women face insurmountable obstacles to meaningful sexual equality.

Everything is treated like a crisis.

Any time a story of actual oppression or discrimination against women arises, nobody will believe it because feminists already told us we were already in Gilead, where things couldn't get worse.

Emily Jashinsky is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.

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A dress code in one room of the Capitol is like government-mandated, systematic rape, liberal magazines tell us - Washington Examiner