Clueless and Insulting: NC Gov. Gives Cookies to Pro-Choice Protestors Rather than Meet with Them

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North Carolina has the dubious distinction of belonging to that growing list of states trying aggressively to roll back reproductive rights and women's healthcare, thanks in no small measure to ultra-Conservative Governor Pat McCrory. So, when the Guv recently approved a package of  anti-abortion measures, and sneakily attached them to a trasportation bill (???!!), women's rights protestors gathered around his mansion to let him know just what they thought of this idea and his leadership in general. They are demanding to speak with McCrory to make their views known. The governor has refused to meet with them, and instead made the rather bizarre and offensive gesture of offering them a plate of cookies. He was accompanied by a phalanx of security guards when he handed the plate to an activist saying: "These are for you. God bless you, God bless you, God bless you."

Hmmmm, a plate of cookies or reporductive rights, which would you prefer? 

The protestors wasted no time in letting the governor know what they thought. They considered the gesture condescending, left the chocolate cookies uneaten and slipped the plate back under the gates. They also included a note spelling out their position, since the Governor does not seem to get it. "We want women's health care. not cookies," it read. They also reportedly started to chant: "Hey Pat, that was rude. You wouldn't give cookies to a dude."

Probably not. While we can't say for sure that the Governor was trying to be rude, cookies, after all, carry a certain amount of meaning, as Amanda Marcotte pointed out in Slate. “Next to sandwiches, cookies are probably the most potent edible symbol of the belief that women’s role is to shut up, give up their ambitions, and return to the kitchen.” Barefoot and pregnant, like in the good old days. Others tweeted that the gesture was the kind of "let them eat cookies," statement, that no amount of "God Bless You's" can disguise.

Anti-choice legislation is just one part of the right-wing agenda that has taken over in the North Carolina statehouse and legislature recently The legislature has passed anti-Sharia laws, budgets denying the nations lowest paid teachers raises or tenure, and proposed strict, transparent Voter ID laws in the wake of the Supreme Court decision to gut the Voting Right Act. Last week, the legislature nonsensically proposed allowing  carry and condeal permit holders to bring their guns to bars and playgrounds. 

So you might say offering cookies to pro-reproductive rights protesters is just icing on the cake.