Column: What I got wrong in the ‘bad built’ blowup

Hello and happy Tuesday. There are 160 days left until the election, and the week of reckoning has come for Donald Trump, the guy who definitely did not sleep with Stormy Daniels, but also, definitely did not hide her payoff.

Jurors will hear closing arguments today in his 34-count felony trial, then make their merry way into deliberations. No telling how long that will take. But if found guilty, Trump faces a punishment that’s likely to range from probation to four years in prison (though theoretically he could get a decade).

Interesting but disturbing fact: Winning the presidency could serve as a get-out-of-jail card if he is convicted, maybe waylaying any incarceration.

There’s nothing in the Constitution that prevents a felon from running for president, but serving time while serving as president? That’s tougher. Are we going to ask visiting heads of state to go through the metal detectors at Rikers Island to see The Donald?

He could argue that any prison sentence needs to be suspended to allow him to do his elected duties.

So accountability is dead, at least in politics. But here in the Fourth Estate, regardless of what many folks believe, we like to keep it real.

Today we’re going back to the “bad built” body controversy, and what I got wrong.

The recap

Rep. Jasmine Crockett, right, and other lawmakers from Texas pray at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington in 2021.

(Jacquelyn Martin / Associated Press)

Last week, you may recall, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green made a racist dog-whistle remark to her Black colleague Rep. Jasmine Crockett during a legislative hearing.

Crockett responded with the clapback heard ’round the world, asking the committee‘s chairman whether he would also allow one panel member to describe another as having a “bleach blonde, bad built, butch body.”

I wrote about how younger legislators like Crockett (who is a millennial) are far quicker to engage than their older, stay-above-the-fray counterparts — and how younger voters want to see more of the fighting style that Crockett offered.

I still commend Crockett for not silently taking MTG’s abuse.

‘Butch’ is not an insult

But readers pointed out to me that the use of “butch” felt harmful to some in the lesbian community, and they’re right.

“5 B’s would have been sufficient,” wrote one reader.

It “hurt my heart,” wrote another, that I didn’t call out the butch comment.

“As the mother of a little girl who identifies as bi, it’s bad enough that she has to face insults from the boys that she beats in soccer on the playground [and] that she looks too butch with her chin length hair and muscular body.

I hope the future of our politics isn’t fighting racism with homophobia. Butch and luscious lashes are both beautiful.”

I also spoke with Jennifer Rowray. Rowray goes by @cowboyjen on Tiktok and is somewhat of a butch influencer, living a farm life in Iowa and once serving as a delegate for Barack Obama in that state. I caught her while she was driving to the feed store.

She told me she thinks that butch means ugly and hard to straight folks. That just forces young women to internalize that if they feel butch, they can’t ever be seen as beautiful.

Jen Rowray, who goes by @cowboyjen on social media, is a lesbian influencer who seeks to mentor younger generations on what it means to be butch.

(Jen Rowray)

“Like, instead of being powerful, we are aggressive,” she said of the way some critique women. “Instead of being quiet, we are unapproachable. We are cold and distant and rough and tough and scary, even.”

But Cowboy Jen says butch isn’t about looks or even attitude. It’s just who she is, a woman who embraces her masculinity. And within the LGBTQ+ community, it’s just a descriptor.

That’s what she wants young lesbians to understand: that butch isn’t ugly no matter what cis-world says, it’s just a feeling about who you authentically are.

“You can’t take it off with clothes; you can’t take it off with makeup,” she said. “Nothing I can do will take off my masculinity, and that is the butch experience.”

It’s somewhat ironic that I needed Cowboy Jen to tell me all this, since my own mom was a butch-ish lesbian, though she came out later in life. She was beautiful inside and out, and is now probably rolling in her grave. Sorry, Mom.

Allies are sometimes imperfect

Cowboy Jen and the two readers I quoted told me they weren’t angry with Crockett (or, graciously, me), and believed she had probably been speaking in the heat of the moment, rolling B words as fast as she could.

And Crockett has a long history of standing up for LGBTQ+ rights, which is especially hard to do in Texas, where she’s from.

Rachel Gonzales was one of her constituents when Crockett was a Lone Star State legislator, and knows about it personally. Gonzales has a transgender daughter, Libby, and the family has vocally opposed anti-transgender legislation, including testifying at hearings at the state Capitol.

Gonzales told me that at one such event, anti-trans activists began spitting at Libby and her friend and screaming obscenities. Crockett had the kids taken to her personal office to keep them safe.

“As far as I am concerned, there is no one else like her,” Gonzales told me. “I never doubted the fighter she would be before that, but from that moment forward she has been personally dedicated to fighting for a safe and equitable world for all kids.”

Of course, the far right is all over Crockett with accusations of being homophobic — though it seems like the GOP celebrates and promotes homophobia (there’s little sense of irony among Republicans). Not shockingly, the pro-MTG crowd would love to blow up a story about how terrible Crockett’s comeback really was.

Cowboy Jen would like Crockett to apologize — to help those younger lesbians see that change can happen, that we can all learn and do better.

It’s one of those topics that, in the cesspool of our political times, is almost impossible to have a nuanced or respectful conversation about.

But I’ll have it, because, like the mom who wrote to me, it hurts my heart that what I wrote could cause pain to any young person out there, as they seek to define who they are in this very crazy world. So feel free to give me your thoughts.

Honestly, I always thought the sixth B should have been another word, anyway.

What else you should be reading

The must-read: Biden has stayed silent on Trump’s trial. The verdict will change that.
The talker: Uvalde Families Accuse Instagram, ‘Call of Duty’ and Rifle Maker of ‘Grooming’ Gunman
The L.A. Times Special: Meet Arizona’s most powerful political couple, who are on opposite ends of an abortion ban

Stay Golden,
Anita Chabria

P.S. RIP Kabosu

The shiba inu whose “much wow” face became a meme has passed away at the age of 18 while being petted by her mom. You can read Kabosu’s obituary here.

Kabosu, the Japanese dog who inspired a meme and became the face of Dogecoin, has died at 18.

(Philip Fong / AFP via Getty Images)

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