As an American leftist cishet man, I’ve been thinking a lot about what people like me can do in the wake of the election to support women. There’s a dangerous temptation to mansplain the election to them while making them talk about their trauma with me, telling myself that I’m “reaching out” and attempting to let them know that I care. I’m trying to turn away from that impulse and replace it with a more useful one, which is to simply empower women in whatever small way I can, even if it has nothing to do with reproductive rights or politics. These are people whose identity group has just been insulted and demeaned on a massive scale, publicly, who now have to worry about essential rights being taken away, including in some cases the right to exist; the very least I can do is, like, defer to them about what we have for dinner. If I can also in some way provide a safe refuge and protect them using my privilege, that would be great.

Basically what I’m saying is that, with political power being taken away at the national scale, it’s going to be natural for women to seize as much back in their personal life as they can. This hasn’t affected me personally yet, but I’m trying to get out ahead of it and see what I can do to grant some power and offer refuge.

Also I think boycotts and general strikes of all sorts will be increasingly necessary given that all means of political opposition is being taken away. Leftist men similarly might want to think about whether there are things they can withhold from MAGA-run organizations to seize back power–and then grant that power to marginalized folks.