Michele Bachmann’s daughters aren’t allowed to ask boys out

Michele Bachmann didn’t go to her senior prom and she’s determined to ensure that her daughters won’t either. Or, at least, that’s what I gathered from this interview with Sean Hannity about Bachman’s new book. (Listen to the audio here.)

BACHMANN: People do find out [in my book] that I did not get asked to my senior prom.

HANNITY: Well, neither did I. And nobody would go with me.

BACHMANN: Well, in my time, girls didn’t ask boys to prom. If you didn’t get asked, you didn’t go.

HANNITY: Yeah, well let me tell you, I have a 13-year-old son. Those days have changed big time.

BACHMANN: And our girls are not allowed to do that in our house. They have to wait for the boys to call.

Let me get this straight. Strict traditional gender roles meant that the young Michele sat at home, no doubt sadly imagining the awkward slow dances she wasn’t having, instead of enjoying a fun rite of passage with her peers? And now, instead of dreaming of a better, freer world for her daughters, Bachmann wears her rejection as a badge of honor, clings to an out-dated mentality that never worked for anyone (including, um, her), and hopes her daughters will be just as restricted as she was? Got it.

With her recent endorsement by our favorite anti-feminist has-been Phylis Schlafly it’s perhaps unsurprising that Michele Bachmann is proudly embracing such antiquated gender roles. It may be too late for her, but there’s hope yet for her daughters. To Elisa, Caroline, and Sophia (and assorted foster children): Don’t listen to your mother.

St. Paul, MN

Maya Dusenbery is executive director in charge of editorial at Feministing. She is the author of the forthcoming book Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick (HarperOne, March 2018). She has been a fellow at Mother Jones magazine and a columnist at Pacific Standard magazine. Her work has appeared in publications like Cosmopolitan.com, TheAtlantic.com, Bitch Magazine, as well as the anthology The Feminist Utopia Project. Before become a full-time journalist, she worked at the National Institute for Reproductive Health. A Minnesota native, she received her B.A. from Carleton College in 2008. After living in Brooklyn, Oakland, and Atlanta, she is currently based in the Twin Cities.

Maya Dusenbery is an executive director of Feministing and author of the forthcoming book Doing Harm on sexism in medicine.

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