Republican Senate candidate on feminism: 'I want to come home to a home-cooked dinner at six every night'
Courtland Sykes criticises 'mean-spirited radical feminists', and claims millennial women don’t respect Hillary Clinton because of her personal life
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.A conservative US Senate candidate from Missouri has sparked outcry after bashing feminists and saying he expects his wife to cook him dinner by 6pm every night.
Republican Courtland Sykes posted a statement to Facebook in response to questions about his stance on women’s rights. In the post, he said his wife had “ordered” him to respect women’s rights, but she knows that “I want to come home to a home-cooked dinner at six every night – one that she fixes and one that I expect one day to have daughters learn to fix after they become traditional homemakers and family wives”.
The candidate expanded on what he expected of his daughters, saying he didn't want them to grow up into "career obsessed banshees who forego home life and children and the happiness of family to become nail-biting manophobic[sic] hell-bent feminist she devils who shriek from the tops of a thousand tall buildings they think they could have leaped over in a single bound – had men not ‘suppressing them’."
Mr Sykes criticised what he called “mean-spirited radical feminists”, and claimed millennial women don’t respect former First Lady and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton because of her “personal life’s wreckage”.
“I don’t buy into radical feminists’ crazed definition of modern womanhood and I never did,” he wrote.
Mr Sykes is one of four Republican candidates jockeying for the chance to challenge two-term Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill in the November general election. The candidate previously drew condemnation for posting a photo comparing Ms McCaskill and other Democratic women to Disney villains.
Critics descended on Mr Syke’s latest Facebook post, which he shared days after the one-year anniversary of Donald Trump’s inauguration. Tens of thousands of people participated in women’s rights marches across the country to mark the anniversary.
“You, sir, are ridiculous,” the Women’s March of Missouri Facebook page commented on Mr Sykes's post. “Go back to the stone age.”
Mr Sykes currently works as Managing Director of Talosorion, a company he described to local news station Fox 2 as “a consulting and education firm, frankly; specifically designed for military and special forces intelligence guys”.
He told the station the hopes to run his campaign in the model of Mr Trump, advocating for a border wall with Mexico and pushing his pro-gun, anti-abortion stances.
“We’re going to be wrecking shop, cleaning house, and reconstructing,” Mr Sykes said. “That’s our goal.”
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments