Bill Kintner: Nebraska State Senator Says Women Can't Understand Themselves, So He'll Do It For You

So here's the story: Male Republican legislator justifies criminalizing a woman's right to choose by spreading biased and completely false information about the female psyche in order to suppress their sexuality. Sound familiar? 

State Senator Bill Kintner of Nebraska, recently told the Journal Star that life's biggest mystery is women. Fair enough — one look at the dude and it makes sense that he's baffled. We aren't upset about that statement ... yet. But what is troubling is what he said next: "No one understands [women]. They don't even understand themselves." Hang on a second. The jump from "I'm pretty miserable with the ladies" to "No woman can understand herself" seems a bit much.

Men, on the other hand, are "very basic, very simple." Which is supposedly why they should be allowed to control reproductive laws. Women don't understand themselves and therefore have no idea what's best for them.

Welp, that settles it then. I'll head back into the kitchen where I can contemplate how mysterious I am and leave all the decision making up to the men. 

Welp, that settles it then. I'll head back into the kitchen where I can contemplate how mysterious I am and leave all the decision making up to the men. 

Sadly, but altogether unsurprisingly, Kintner claims that his views align with the "morals of Christianity" and therefore allow him to both justify telling women what their bodily rights are, and reap the benefits of a rigorously patriarchal household. He said, “In our household, we have a separation of powers. The legislative is downstairs and the executive is upstairs. We don’t talk about what she does on her side and what I do on my side. There’s no sharing of inside information.” Sorry, Mrs Kintner. Also it is worth noting that the phrase "morals of Christianity" have been interpreted to mean everything from burning people at the stake to passing out lollipops in prisons, so I'm not even going to try to deflate this argument ... mostly because it is not actually an argument. 

Every time I read about something like this I desperately hope it'll be the last time. However, after 200 years of feminist progress, people like Kintner send us reeling back to square one.