this post was submitted on 04 May 2026
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Explain Like I'm Five

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Simplifying Complexity, One Answer at a Time!

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[–] unknownuserunknownlocation@kbin.earth 20 points 1 day ago (1 children)

For one, the Maga movement isn't about women being subservient to men. There are some fairly large parts of it that are about that, but it's definitely not the whole movement.

Let's start with the women that are part of the movement, but not part of the "subservient to men" part. They are generally women with conservative views, often the "you should have to work for it" crowd. They have often worked hard themselves to achieve what they've achieved (especially in the lower classes), and there's a sense of "why should I have to work hard but others can leech off of me". Then there's the abortion issue. They see it as protecting unborn children. Yes, I know what anti-abortion laws have done - but they often don't. The way things are portrayed in conservative circles is often that abortion is being used as a form of birth control - and if that's the way you're looking at things, well, abortion can quickly sound like something spiraling out of control. The cases of medical necessity where a lack of an abortion can mean the prospective mother dies is not really on their radar. Add on top the "tough on crime" narrative, which can feel quite reassuring, especially when right wing outlets have overblown certain dangers.

Then there are the women who are part of the more misogynistic part of the movement. I mean, for one, a number of things they don't directly view as misogynistic. They don't necessarily see housework as something "lower" - in fact, they see quite a bit of value in it. And especially if they view it that way, they don't quite see why other women wouldn't want to work that way. Then, there is a certain toxicity in the Maga movement in general - and trust me when I say: toxicity can very quickly keep you in situations you don't want to be in. It often creates kind of a mental trap that prevents you from escaping, without going into too much detail. What you can see in individual abusive relationships, you can see large scale in movements like these (and that's not limited to women, either - men are affected by this as well, the Maga movement doesn't do them much good, either). Which often adds the next layer of complexity: that situation can often make people on the outside look down on them - an they notice it. And especially in situations like those, when people feel like they're being looked down on, they will often double down on their opinions, making things even more difficult.

[–] username123@sh.itjust.works 4 points 23 hours ago

Bravo, good analysis, imho. Having lived in conservative shitholes, I agree with it.

[–] rumschlumpel@feddit.org 31 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] agentTeiko@piefed.social 8 points 1 day ago

The sad thing is there was an active effort to corrupt the churches after they got a little too socialist for National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) in the early 1900s and supply side Christianity was born. Ronald Reagan elected directly out of that movement funded by NAM.

[–] superglue@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

My mother is MAGA its all about abortion for her. She see its as a very black and white topic and there will be no debate on the matter. Whoever wears the red hat gets the vote.

[–] crozilla@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

This. So much this.

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 1 day ago

Yes actually, they do want to be subservient their entire lives, or at the very least, never fundamentally challenge terrible social norms.

Call it indoctrination, stupidity, whatever you want, there's no law of the universe that prevents women from promoting and believing in horrible ideas that harm them.

Plenty of MAGA women homophobes and aspiring and actual tradwives out there, that believe that they're too emotional and/or cursed by God to be allowed to vote.

Hell, you never met or seen online a literal femi-nazi, an ardent female nazi white supremacist?

They exist, not really too hard to find if you look for em, they tend to be quite outspoken.

Shit, just any ole kind of racist woman is fairly likely to be a MAGAt, doesn't have to be white.

Stupidity and cruelty exists potentially within everyone, anyone.

[–] PP_BOY_@lemmy.world 15 points 1 day ago

Christianity is one hell of a drug. Most of these women believe in more of a "seperate but equal" approach to sex division.

[–] ohulancutash@feddit.uk 6 points 1 day ago

The entirety of Christianity is peer pressuring to be subservient to something.

[–] Krusty@quokk.au 3 points 23 hours ago

Many embrace being a "trad wife," short for traditional wife. There's also TERFs.

Just go to your nearest Pentecostal and/or Evangelical Church and you're going to find a congregation full of such women (and men.) These people make up about a third to maybe a half of Trump's base. Warning: they mostly all openly hate lgbtq, and they'll do it from the podium to a cheering congregation. If you're any sort of 'out of the closet' I do not suggest going.

There's also this company called Barna research. They're the biggest religious research institution in the world. And they also own a ton of companies (subsidiaries). Some of which produce these weekly planners for churches of all sorts of denominations. They are remarkably similar in their talking points over every Sunday in the year - all 52 of them.

It's almost prophetic how relevant they can be (probably due to the prevalence).... Very conservative/traditional messaging. Very doom and gloom - that the end is coming, and the world's going to shit. Very anti-progressive/anti-socialism even anti-Jesus' teachings! And it's the same core messaging and talking points whether it's a Lutheran Church or Catholic Church or whatever....

[–] KC_Royalz@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

Actually some do. A lot of colleges in the south, women are only there to find a future husband

[–] outandinburger@ttrpg.network 7 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Would you be subservient to an ideology you agree with?

[–] meco03211@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

Well, but mine's right!

[–] Tiresia@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

NO GODS

NO MASTERS

... only free hugs. =3

[–] daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 1 day ago

Real answer is thar either:

They don't see MAGA ideology as woman subservient to a man in a bad way. They agree with the relationship man-woman that MAGA proposes.

Or:

They do not agree with it but they agree so much with other politics MAGA defende that they put up with sexism.

Some people explore this stuff by playing maid, but only for fun with fun people in fun situations. Other people try to force everybody to do it.

[–] P00ptart@lemmy.world 1 points 22 hours ago

My aunt is leaving my uncle for this exact reason, but she's still an R.

[–] BunScientist@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago

Can't search for it right now but I remember some video from Andrew Callaghan where he interviewede a woman who ha an abortion, she regretted it, and her conclusion was somethiig along ths lines of "women can't be trusted to make decisions, we need the patriarchy"