Stockholm Syndrome — the psychological phenomenon in which kidnapping victims develop an affection for their captors as a response to the threat of abuse — may afflict Republican women, suggests a Nation columnist aghast at the existence of pro-life females.
“I’m ashamed for my sex that any woman is still planning to vote for Romney and Ryan,” The Nation’s Katha Pollitt wrote yesterday. “What’s the matter with them? Do they have Stockholm syndrome? And how about you, women of Virginia—21 percent of whom in a just-issued Public Policy Polling survey say they “strongly” agree that abortion should be banned even in cases of rape and incest? (For women 18 to 29, it’s 32 percent.)”
Pollitt’s rhetorical device casts the Republican Party in the role of abusing women. “It’s important to note that these symptoms occur under tremendous emotional and often physical duress,” Ask Yahoo explains in its write-up on Stockholm Syndrome. “The behavior is considered a common survival strategy for victims of interpersonal abuse, and has been observed in battered spouses, abused children, prisoners of war, and concentration camp survivors.”
Pollitt declared to women that “the Republican Party is not your friend,”citing controversial comments made by Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter (!), and Todd Akin, among other things.
