If Carly Fiorina Were A Liberal, Would ‘The View’ Still Attack Her?
This article originally appeared in Forbes.
Presidential candidate Carly Fiorina is heading into the lioness’s den on Friday morning. She will appear on ABC’s The View, a week after co-host Michelle Collins said that Fiorina’s face looked “demented” during the recent presidential debate and co-host Joy Behar joked that the candidate’s face would be a good Halloween mask.
The View is usually hostile territory for conservatives and Republican candidates. Viewers and casual observers of the media war between the left and right will recall past fireworks between the show’s former co-hosts Rosie O’Donnell and Elisabeth Hasselbeck. Hasselbeck served as the show’s token Republican for a 10 year period. Liberal feminism is the conventional wisdom on The View and those who challenge it appear at their own risk.
But on the eve of tomorrow’s show, it’s The View’s co-hosts who should be worried.
They now have to face Fiorina’s feminism. Here is a taste of what The View and their viewers have in store. Writing on Facebook this morning, the former CEO shared her thoughts about the current state of feminism. “Feminism began as a rallying cry to empower women — to vote, to get an education, to enter the workplace,” Fiorina explained. “But over the years, feminism has devolved into a left-leaning political ideology where women are pitted against men and used as a political weapon to win elections.”
“Being empowered means having a voice,” Fiorina continued. “But ideological feminism shuts down conversation — on college campuses and in the media. If you are a man — or a woman — who doesn’t believe the litanies of the left, then you are ‘waging a war on women’ or offensive as a candidate, as I have been called.”
I suspect Fiorina will mention that the recent personal attacks from The View co-hosts against her are a case in point. It is difficult to imagine any of the co-hosts joking about Hillary Clinton’s appearance, or the face of any of their ideological sisters in politics.
If Fiorina was a liberal feminist, they would likely be talking more about her glass-ceiling-breaking status as the first woman CEO of a Fortune 50 company than her appearance. But as a conservative, Fiorina is fair game for a personal attack.
Rather than dwell on the personal attack, Fiorina is likely to launch a frontal assault on the hollowness of liberal feminist ideology.
Her Facebook post continues, “The progressive view of feminism is not about women. It is about ideology. And their policies are not working for women.” Offering her definition of feminist, she explains:
A feminist is a woman who lives the life she chooses. We will have arrived when every woman can decide for herself how to best find and use her God-given gifts. A woman may choose to have five children and home-school them. She may choose to become a CEO…or run for President.
It was Donald Trump himself who fired the first critique of Fiorina’s appearance this primary season, telling Rolling Stone to “look at that face” after being asked about her candidacy. When Trump’s attack was brought up at a debate, Fiorina offered a devastating response: “I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said.”
Like Trump, The View’s co-hosts better be ready to confront Fiorina’s new face of feminism.