Naomi Wolf has gone, in recent years, from feminist lady who wrote a book I found at age 13 to be especially profound to full-blown conspiracist. She was getting wacky beforehand — to my knowledge, somewhere around the time when the deeply weird Vagina: A New Biography came out — but really went over the deep end during COVID, with all the anti-vaccine nonsense.
But this week, we must say, the Naomi Who Is Not Naomi Klein (Wonkette commission link!) has truly outdone herself.
“Who has seen a heavily pregnant woman since 2021?” Wolf asked, ever so plaintively, on social media. The implication, of course, was that this had been caused by the COVID vaccine.
I don’t live the kind of lifestyle in which I regularly encounter heavily pregnant women (they don’t spend a lot of time in bars!) as much as I did when I worked in a baby clothing store, but I’ve certainly seen them at the grocery store and walking down the street. I’ve most definitely written about them a great deal, what with the whole “multiple states outlawing abortion” thing.
For the record, the COVID-19 pandemic actually resulted in an increase in the birth rate. A little baby bump if you will. True, the birth rate resumed the downward trend it’s been on since 2007 afterwards, but not for reasons having anything at all to do with the COVID vaccine, as she was likely implying since that’s her whole thing now.
It’s worth noting that the tweet she was quote-tweeting was a response to “illuminatibot” — a bizarre right-wing conspiracy account that implied that the vaccine was to blame for that person seeing fewer people around these days. Not, you know, the fact that there are still a whole lot of people out there who need to take precautions, largely because of anti-vaxxers like Wolf and friends.
While most people found Wolf’s comments ridiculous, she did have her supporters.
“I've seen my city turn into an androgynous, drug fueled dystopia. I've seen people shooting up and pooping at the same time in the middle of 5th Ave and James. I've seen cross dressing explode. I haven't seen a pregnant woman in public since 2020,” said one very observant person.
If anything, though, that observation merely suggests that the COVID vaccine made some people remarkably coordinated, as shooting up and pooping at the same time is truly a feat unto itself. I can barely chew gum and walk at the same time without significant risk of faceplanting, so color me impressed.
PREVIOUSLY:
"𝐼'𝑣𝑒 𝑠𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑚𝑦 𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑛 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑜 𝑎𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑔𝑦𝑛𝑜𝑢𝑠, 𝑑𝑟𝑢𝑔 𝑓𝑢𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑑 𝑑𝑦𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑝𝑖𝑎. 𝐼'𝑣𝑒 𝑠𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑜𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑢𝑝 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑝𝑜𝑜𝑝𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑎𝑚𝑒 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑖𝑑𝑑𝑙𝑒 𝑜𝑓 5𝑡ℎ 𝐴𝑣𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐽𝑎𝑚𝑒𝑠. 𝐼'𝑣𝑒 𝑠𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑠 𝑑𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑙𝑜𝑑𝑒.”
I've seen fire and I've seen rain.
I've seen presidential terms I thought would never end.
“I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate... but no pregnant women."