Like a child-voiced wife, Senator Katie Britt embodied the Christian right’s expectations of femininity.

America is still recovering from the determination of Alabama Senator Katie Britt. statement: “Right now, the American dream has turned into a nightmare.” Between her diamond-laden cross, her rebuttal of the State of the Union from her eerily empty kitchen, and resorting to childish chatter, Britt exemplified a thin model of female acceptability within right-wing politics and marriage extended from evangelical Christianity.

Women have long been useful spokespeople for conservative values ​​in America, particularly when those values ​​limit women’s rights and roles. While second-wave feminists protested and led awareness groups in the 1960s and 1970s, their fiercest enemy was Phyllis Schlafly, a conservative Christian who organized women around kitchen tables to thwart the Human Rights Amendment. Equal Rights Initiative (ERA), warning that the ERA would lead to gay bathrooms, women in combat and to erase God’s divine balance in writing sexual neutrality into the law.

Schlafly wasn’t anathema to personal power: She ran for office in the United States Congress twice (although lost). She knew how to appear submissive in conservative circles. Before her speeches, and to the anger of the feminists she debated, Schlafly thanked her husband for allowing her to speak. She and her lieutenants made and delivered pastries to legislators to rally them to their cause.

In the Republican rebuttal to the president Joe BidenState of the Union Address, Britt introduced herself as a U.S. senator, but “it’s not the work that matters most. I’m a proud wife and mother of two school-aged children.” Likewise, Schlafly, architect of the religious right, has often called herself a housewife and indicated that her profession was “mother”.

Those who have only observed Christianity’s far-right from afar may recognize its strict gender ideology through extreme politics – or reality TV. TV’s Duggar Family, led by Jim Bob Duggar (a former Arkansas state representative), featured many homeschooled children (19 and up!). Mother Michelle Duggar served as a receptacle for all these blessings and swooned in supporting her husband’s views. She also used a pinch, your childishas if placed under the authority of her husband, her voice was also bound.

Writer Tia Levings, author of the upcoming A Well-Trained Wife: My Escape from Christian Patriarchy, pointed out that what some describe as is Britt’s “fundie baby voice” similar to the “vocal training and forced modulation” experienced by many women in fundamentalist Christian sects. The women are coached “remain gentle” and display a “gentle spirit” through disposition and voice.

This is the antithesis of vocal fry who challenge authority.

As abundant memes will attest, Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett‘s “little girl’s voice” is strikingly out of step with the influence of its station.

The high-pitched voice of a young girl echoes the submissive smallness demanded of women in churches that place men in authority over women. Yet for listeners in these communities, the code-switch to a docile mother, daughter, and caregiver resonates clearly.

Mothers play a vital role in building the political infrastructure that believers in Christian patriarchy (softened as “complementarianism”) support. Some have shaped their lives around homeschooling their children and even allowing those children to be homeschooled. organized as foot soldiers for Republican campaigns. Some families dream that their children will grow up to become the Generation Joshua and lead the country.

When Donald Trump ran for office in 2016, it was amid an avalanche of sexual assaults allegations and the “Grab them by the pussy” adhesive tape. Seventy-five percent of white evangelical women vote for him anyway. At the time of the election, many expressed a politics focused on ends, justification and means: Trump promised that he would appoint justices to the Supreme Court who would end corruption. Roe deer. Let’s be clear, conservative Christians also have abortions. When I attended the 2022 annual convention of the Southern Baptist Convention, a staff member of the Ethics and Religious Freedoms Commission (The public policy arm of SBC) pointed out that one in three women in SBC churches have had an abortion.

Political commentators often ask why people vote against their interests. A better question: Why do people support leaders – religious or political – who oppose their full personhood or rights? Sometimes it’s to protect the little bit of power they have.

Better yet, if you can, do it with a smile.

Britt interpreted femininity as a professional woman influencer. On Instagram, professional women coach their followers on how to have a happy household, submit to their husbands, and give up their careers, all while starting their own businesses as content creators. Britt flashed a smile (and occasional, passionate shock) and pretended to be just another busy mom – within the American apparatus Senate. Scratch that. From inside her kitchen.

Britt could have risen to the occasion as a speaker, or at least not pretended to hold back tears, or misrepresented sex trafficking survivor’s story. Instead, she embodied what Christian patriarchy identifies as women’s nature: scared, in need of male protection, residing in his kitchen. It was a prank. It was always a joke. But when enough people believe in it, just as in the case of Christian nationalism, it becomes a reality in our politics that, left unchecked, can become a civil norm rather than a niche religious norm.

Sarah Stankorb is the author of the national bestseller Disobedient women: how a small group of faithful women denounced the abuse, Powerful pastors overthrown, and triggered an evangelical judgment. His work appeared in The Washington Post, Slate, Atlantic, Marie Claire, and many other publications.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.