Women in the Tampa area are in for a treat next weekend. Rep. Gus Bilirakis is hosting a free “Women’s Summit” at an area high school, with lots of fun workshops tailored to all sorts of women’s interests, from puttering around in the garden to keeping their bodies slim! There’s no one quite like a woman’s elected representative to Congress to help her learn how to get a rockin’ bikini bod.
Bilirakis, a six-term Republican congressman, is convening several speakers for the get-together, including keynote Judy Genshaft, president of the University of South Florida. According to the summit’s Eventbrite page, Genshaft will appear alongside a personal trainer who “specializes in weight management, physique transformation, and lifestyle coaching” and a financial advisor offering “A Guide to Financial Planning Designed Specifically for Women,” which will focus in part on “helping women in transition, such as divorce or death of a loved one.”
The whole thing would be rather insulting if it weren’t so hilarious. It looks like it was planned by a man whose most profound encounter with womankind was the time he accidentally wandered into the control-top undergarment department at JC Penney. The flier for the summit is colored in a nauseating salmon pink, with its text in white Times New Roman and a lengthy line-broken hyperlink smack dab in the middle. Its tagline: “providing an opportunity for women to learn about relevant topics that have a direct impact on their lives.” As if women are waiting around for their congressman to help them establish a fitness regimen and a financial plan! Kind of an adorable thought, if you can overlook the underlying idea: that the main thing women want to talk about with their member of Congress is how to start a vegetable patch.
Bilirakis stood by his summit in the Tampa Bay Times, saying the workshop topics were derived from conversations women had at a “stakeholder session” he held four years ago. “I try very hard to allow ideas and agendas to be driven by the people I serve,” he told the paper. “I’ve always said the best ideas come from the people.” Bilirakis’ lack of shame has not kept his opponents from milking the event, with glee. Democratic candidate Robert Tager, who is vying to challenge Bilirakis in November, wrote on Facebook that the congressman had voted against women’s interests for years, but “now wants to act like he recognizes women as humans. Pathetic he uses Pink for the color and has a topic for Financial planning for Women. I guess his reasoning is that because women make less then men for the same work, their financial planning must be different.” Commenters on the post are having fun with the summit’s agenda. “I love to watch my husband garden while I study for the bar,” one woman wrote. “Also, my husband is horrible at financial planning, do you think they would let him go to the summit?” One man wondered, “‘Gardening’? ‘Losing Weight’? Gee, did they forget ‘Living Barefoot and in the Kitchen’?” Someone else has been busy posting gifs of Aunt Lydia and Offred’s commander from The Handmaid’s Tale.
Chris Hunter, another Democratic challenger and former federal prosecutor, accused Bilirakis on Twitter of “using taxpayer money for a thinly-veiled campaign event.” He continued: “Quite a shameless election-year stunt considering his anti-woman voting record—he voted against Violence Against Women Act, Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, etc—& refusal to denounce Trump’s misogyny.”
Indeed, Bilirakis’ summit looks even more bizarre through the lens of his voting record. He trumpets his votes against women’s health care, then offers a class on “Women’s Health 101: Maintaining a Healthy Weight and Promoting Wellness,” as if weight-loss is what women mean when they say “women’s health.” He votes against equal pay legislation and paid family leave, then hosts a workshop for women on “Achieving Work/Life Balance.” He buys a bunch of stock in Rite-Aid, accepts tens of thousands of dollars from pharmaceutical companies, pushes through legislation that hinders DEA enforcement efforts in the opioid industry, and then slaps his name on a women’s summit class called “Combatting Addiction and Substance Abuse.”
In Bilirakis’ defense, the summit does include one workshop on getting women involved in government. And, luckily, Bilirakis has billed the event as his “first annual” women’s summit, so the listed classes won’t be his last word on what women like to do. Can’t wait to see the lineup for next year!
