Subtlety has long left Republican politics behind, yet even with that caveat some prominent conservative faces still manage to shock with their seeming brazenness. While this can occasionally feel accidental, the result of impulse or poor judgement, when it comes to the DeSantis family, you get the feeling everything is deliberately chosen to send the clearest message. And now, the first lady of Florida Casey DeSantis has been causing waves online with a recent outfit choice that bears a startling resemblance to a dress worn by some truly despicable characters on a hit television show.
The former television host knows just how under the lens women in the spotlight can be, so there’s no doubting every choice she makes is calculated, especially with regards to fashion. So, the fact she went with an outfit that’s seemingly identical to those worn by the wives of the powerful men in the HBO series The Handmaid’s Tale shouldn’t be ignored, especially in the wake of her husband’s repugnant, regressive, and hateful morality crusade against teaching children about LGBTQ+ people and sexual health.
The Handmaid’s Tale, adapted from a Margaret Atwood book of the same name, is a drama set in a dystopian near-future, where fertility rates have collapsed as a result of environmental factors. After a brutal civil war, an ultra-religious government established a new nation named Gilead, which roughly covers the geographical United States. The government is incredibly conservative and misogynistic, not allowing women to work outside the home, own property, or even read. The few remaining women who can carry children are referred to as “Handmaids,” and are effectively sexual and reproductive slaves for the upper class of Gilead. The wives of these ruling men are complicit in this sexual slavery, and help to enforce the social order. These are the people whose dress DeSantis seems to be aping.
The irony of her outfit will not be lost on most political commentators, who have noticed the terrifying direction in which Florida is heading under her husband. Aside from his horrific “Don’t Say Gay Bill,” which seeks to erase any mention of LGBTQ+ people in a classroom setting, he’s also overseen one of the most regressive anti-abortion laws come into effect in the state, effectively outlawing the procedure for any pregnancy over six weeks long — a timeframe in which many women wouldn’t have even realized they were carrying.
While Gilead’s public hangings and brutality have yet to be aped by Floridians, the rhetoric DeSantis espouses is certainly a building block to getting there. And, as powerful as the Yale-educated governor is, a theocratic, regressive movement needs foot soldiers to really get going, and that means women who are happy to see their rights diminished in the name of traditionalism. We perhaps shouldn’t be surprised that someone married to Ron might think that way, but we should also take it as a warning: Florida is not a safe space for minorities, and we need to be observant about the dark place it’s heading towards.
