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Sexist man uses hurricane Harvey photo to push agenda, gender studies professor shuts him down

In a Twitter thread, Christina ripped apart Matt's sexist comment on a photo from Hurricane Harvey rescue operations.

Written by : TNM Staff

Hurricane Harvey has been battering southern Texas and made its second landfall in southwest Louisiana on Wednesday and moved on to east of Houston on Thursday. The tropical depression has left at least 30 dead in its wake. Even as rescue efforts are underway, many took to social media to document the situation.

In the midst of this, Matt Walsh, a conservative blogger tweeted a picture of a man carrying a woman who was cradling a baby. The accompanying tweet read, “Woman cradles and protects child. Man carries and protects both. This is how it ought to be, despite what your gender studies professor says.”

The sexist tweet earned plenty of flak on Twitter, with many people taking offence to Matt turning an instance of courage in the face of calamity into a sexist agenda.

In fact, Matt's tweet inspired plenty of memes too.

The best response however came from a gender studies professor herself. Christina Wolbrecht quoted Matt’s tweet and said, “I was going to stick with sarcasm but as an actual gender studies prof, there's just so much to unpack here, I can't help myself.”

She then went on to rip apart Matt’s argument for gender status quo in a well-articulated Twitter thread.

Christina began with gendered division of labour and how women’s work (care and upbringing) remains unpaid and underappreciated even though it is necessary for human flourishing. She also talks about how we want women to continue doing this work without supporting them institutionally and economically.

Christina pointed out how gendering certain jobs is bad for men too. Men hesitate to take up jobs in the care sector believing them to be feminine and because they are low paying. Hitting the nail on the head, she says that the “value of work - holding the baby or carrying the mother” should be acknowledged and rewarded regardless of who does it.

Phew. Christina certainly owned that debate and other respondents on the thread seemed to agree too.

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