Women in Texas

I did a Dumb Thing the other day: Out of sheer boredom I typed the words “Texas” and “women” into a search engine.

Gods have mercy. If I am to believe Facebook and various “social” media sites the ladies here in Texas are suffering a level of religious purdah that makes Iran and Saudi Arabia look inviting. Apparently Texas is a Christo-fascist (there’s a pejorative I’ve not heard in a long time) state hell-bent on making Margaret Atwood’s deepest, darkest fantasies a reality, and our women are all helpless victims of religious patriarchy.

Being completely shocked to learn that I live in a Tehran cosplay — to say nothing of the fact that all of the Texas women I know “victim” is not the first descriptor that comes to mind — I decided to look and see how the male half of Texas had managed to skew voting.

Huh.

According to KFF.org there is a pretty good skew in Texas voters:

In at least the last five elections a bigger percentage of the distaff side of the species has voted in Texas elections. By as much as 4% some years.

In 1993 as a young deputy I was instructed by my Sheriff that I would “be in attendance” to an evening quilting bee. I protested, of course. Surely I was more effective out hunting criminals! He demurred, and I found myself sitting in a corner of the local meeting place, sipping coffee, and listening to the ladies chat … and run the town.

While not my first exposure to soft power (Texas, the South, and the Southwest are — at least in the rural parts — matrimonial) it was the first time that I realized just exactly how much power there was in gentle conversations with husbands and sons.

In Texas, the ladies outnumber the menfolk at the voting booth. On top of that some part of the male voters — at least in the rural areas — will pull the voting lever at least a little bit influenced by Mama, or Darling.

Which is a long-winded way of saying:

It’s Texas. If the ladies don’t like a law, they’ll change it.

However, if you’re a coastal liberal: By all means do not take my word for it. We’re a hell-hole. Save yourself and stay away.

LawDog

Meditations on Duty
The Blanket Fort

14 thoughts on “Women in Texas”

  1. As a woman, I decided I wanted to move to Texas, and after much discussion with my husband to pitch my idea to him, we moved here. I enjoy the practical Texan way of life and comparative lack of regulation to other places I’ve lived (including the state with the now-ironic motto of Live Free or Die). The internet is, as usual, flat wrong.

    But, as you say, the coastal liberal types should stay far away and stop despoiling the nature of Texas with their subdivisions. It’s for the ecology.

  2. Well. If liberal women want to find a man, Texas is the place. We have MEN here. The kind that make your ovaries squeak. I LOVE going anywhere in Texas and enjoying the visuals of the ranchers and farm hands, the construction workers and linemen, the cooks and the military men, all of them. And to a one, they’ll tip their hat, hold open the door, and treat you with respect. I like it here. A lot. Please, coastal elites–it’s REALLY HORRIBLE here. The weather is AWFUL, you’ll WILT, the storms are HORRIFIC, and the dust is terrible for your delicate skin. Stay over there!

    1. What Jonna said. Texas has fire ants, floods, drought (at the same time, yet!), fire-breathing armadillos, humidity that makes Kuala Lumpur feel like the central Sahara, all the plants have spikes, are poisonous, or both, and the snakes beat up on even the coyotes and cockroaches. Y’all don’t want to move here from the coasts or other civilized places, seriously.

      Oh, and if you don’t like going from blizzards and -5F to fires in two months, don’t move to Texas.

  3. I think the issue is that the liberals who make these claims think that all of X (women, minorities, or whatever “oppressed” group they think they speak for) has to unanimously agree with them. And, if what they think X must want isn’t happening, X is being oppressed. They refuse to believe that X group might actually be made up of people with widely diverse opinions.

  4. I knew we were moving to Texas when my Calmer Half looked at me with the kind of look in his big brown eyes you rarely see outside of a black lab watching you cook bacon, and said, “It’s just like some parts of the African veldt!”

    Ah, homesickness. How could I say no to that?

    While it doesn’t hold a candle to Alaska, it does sneak up on you, and somewhere along the way, after a few years, you start being able to see the green in all the sere brown, and the life in all the dust and wind. While the sun does its best to wither and desiccate and cancerify everything under its glaring rays, the concept of spring in February holds its charms, and the ability to drive the 2-3 hours needed to go shopping or 5 hours to see friends, instead of having to fly, is quite nice.

    The best part of Texas is the people. I do love our group of friends, and am fond of the Tiny Town we live in, right down to the waitress who smiles at me, and goes, “You’re not awake yet, hon. I’ll get you your usual.”

    If you do not enjoy being referred to by strangers as “sweetheart” and “honey”, and having men insist on opening doors for you… and being surrounded by women and men who will expect you to act like a lady, not just a woman… you won’t thrive here.

    If that doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, you should definitely stick to the coast and all its amenities and culture.

    1. Ma’am- you are correct about the people. For me, that’s the only thing going for it. I escaped the high plains in 1988 and doggone if I didn’t have to move back. (family) This part of Texas should’ve been left to the rattlesnakes and tumbleweeds.

  5. And it was because of y’all that I started talking up Texas when husband and I were figuring where we were going once we left Philly. So, it’s my fault we’re in Texas. I’m loving it here. Haven’t found a diner like Dorothy’s yet, but working on it.

  6. Funny thing about that. It is OBVIOUSLY related to the Abortion ban, which said bill was penned BY A WOMAN (Valoree Swanson) BEFORE SCOTUS overturned Roe. But they completely gloss over that bit…

  7. I find the feminazi view of history annoying.

    They will determinedly proclaim that women can do “anything”, except -apparently – convince their husbands, fathers, brothers and sons, that they are worthy of respect.

    Mention any one of the laundry-list of influential ladies in history, and you will be informed that they are a “special case”. By people who ignore the fact that all the influential men in history are also “special”…. in the sense that very, very few people have what it takes to persuade entire tribes, nations and empires to listen to them.

    I grew up in a family full of women who got things done. Often differently from the way that the men did, but the Got. Things. Done.

  8. Ahh, I know that tone of voice. It usually starts with “Sweetheart…” in a tone where a sugar cube wouldn’t melt in her mouth and then proceeds from there. I know I might as well put my work boots on and firmly grasp the smelly end of the stick.

  9. Now that we live in Texas, both my wife and I are happy to vote and be able to have our votes for a Republican mean something.

    Mrs. EMSArtifact was quite amused when we voted in the primary election to note that while there was a line to get ballots at the Republican table, the ladies at the Democrat table were like the MayTag repair man.

  10. Being a Texas native, I was quite shocked to find out just how wussy certain California female natives were, back when I was stationed at the Presidio of Monterey. The only wussy women I’d encountered before then were doing it deliberately so they wouldn’t have to extend any effort – you know, lazy assed dirtbags.

    Those CA “women” were nothing more than infantilized “princesses” of the entitled kind. And they bred, Gaia help us all.

    If you are female and can’t get something done, ask for help. We’ll do that. If you just don’t want to do anything and let others do it for you, stay in those liberal hellholes your mommies help create. We don’t want you in Texas.

  11. My maternal grandmother and aunts were Forces of Nature. One ran (OK, was secretary) of one of the largest school districts in the state. The other helped manage the second largest livestock show in the country back in the days before computers. Both also cooked, sewed clothes, did other handicrafts, gardened, killed snakes if needed, and could hunt or fish if they had to. While being ladylike about it all. I doubt they considered themselves “oppressed,” unless it was when one of my uncles brought home too many catfish and they had to can the things.

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