What in the world is going on with Republican women? That’s the question asked by Rebecca Traister in a recent article for New York Magazine.

The meaning of “woman” is clearly of tremendous importance to Republicans.

This is a party that is very upset that a trans woman would call herself as such. A party filled with members whom Trump can make cackle at rallies simply by using the term “transitional,” as if such a thing were utter nonsense. 

What is a “woman?” They asked Ketanji Brown Jackson during her Supreme Court confirmation hearings – a transphobic dog whistle that the future justice refused to answer.

What is a woman, according to Republicans?  

It used to be this. 

Or at least this is the image of a Republican woman I – a geriatric millennial, if you were wondering – grew up with. A traditionally feminine, conservative woman who stuck to conventional gender roles, such as they were. 

And now? 

It’s this. A woman who simultaneously refers to herself as belonging to the “weaker sex,” and also knows her way around guns.  

A few more examples:

Kristi Noem talking in her book – that she wrote! – about how she shot her puppy and left him to die in a gravel pit

More Marjorie Taylor Greene, posting videos of herself weight-lifting while listening to female-empowerment songs

And Republican candidate Valentina Gomez, who is in the race to becoming Missouri’s next secretary of state, and who apparently posted a video of herself jogging around St. Louis wearing a weighted vest and saying “Don’t be weak and gay, stay f-ing hard.” 

There’s also an odd offshoot that is kind of Sexy Hunter Lady, where you take all that aggression and then put a smoky eye on top (see: Donald Trump Jr.’s fiancé Kimberley Guilfoyle.]

This all fits in neatly with the far right’s rage-driven, hyper-aggressive, testosterone-infused approach to politics, where the goal appears to be to shout and demean your opponents into submission. 

But where does it fit in with Republican women? How do they reconcile their obvious interest in asserting themselves with the beliefs of the white patriarchy they support – meaning, a set of overlords who expect them to slavishly hew to their every heart’s desire, even if said desires include stripping women of their fundamental rights? 

How does this not create overwhelming cognitive dissonance for these women? 

How? Lauren Boebert, call me. Or…don’t call me.