Ron DeSantis About To Lose The 'Ladies On Alimony' Vote

It's a Man's Man's Man's Man's Rights World.

Last week, Florida Grand Dragon Ron DeSantis signed legislation that would put an end to alimony as those in the state know it. The measure does away with "permanent alimony" entirely, allowing those who have been married for 20-plus years to only collect alimony for 75 percent of the time they were married, and letting judges adjust or end alimony for those of retirement age.

And you know who really doesn't like that very much? A whole lot of women living in Florida .

Alimony payments, now referred to as spousal support, have always been rare — even in the '60s, only about 25 percent of divorces included them. Now, that number is closer to 10 percent and is rarely permanent. Why? Because of pre-nups, most households being two-income households, and there being less workplace discrimination against women. Ironically, the men's rights creeps who seem obsessed with the idea that women are regularly getting married, divorcing men, and then taking all of their money for the rest of their lives have feminists to thank more than anyone for alimony payments being less of a thing.

 However. 

Florida has long been a popular place for people to spend their golden years, and that includes a sizable number of women who are on permanent alimony. Many of these are older women who put their husbands through college and then stayed home at the expense of their own careers — and were then ditched by their husbands who left them for younger women, only to find themselves unable to compete in the job market after having been out of it for so many years. In other words, those who got Betty Broderick'ed and didn't kill their husbands in retaliation.

Indeed, there are so many of them there that they actually have an advocacy organization called the “First Wives Advocacy Group."

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And those ladies are pissed .

“On behalf of the thousands of women who our group represents, we are very disappointed in the governor’s decision to sign the alimony-reform bill. We believe by signing it, he has put older women in a situation which will cause financial devastation. The so-called party of ‘family values’ has just contributed to erosion of the institution of marriage in Florida,” the group's founder Jan Killilea, a 63-year-old Boca Raton woman, told The News Service of Florida in a text message on Friday.

Some Republican women (who, let's face it, are very likely the ones who will be harmed the most by this) have even vowed to switch their registration just to campaign against DeSantis for what he's done to them.

“He [DeSantis] has just impoverished all the older women of Florida, and I know at least 3,000 women across the state of Florida are switching to Democrat and we will campaign against him, all the way, forever,” Camille Fiveash, a Milton Republican, told Orlando Weekly on Friday.

These aren't evil, spoiled, selfish women demanding "to be kept in the lifestyle to which they have become accustomed," these are women who signed a contract with someone who had agreed to provide for them them financially in exchange for their taking care of their home, raising their children, etc., instead of remaining in the workforce. They were deprived of future earnings of their own in exchange for making that sacrifice. If they are able to get jobs now, which will be difficult given the fact that it's still pretty ageist out there and many of their skills and training will be outdated, they will not be making the same amount they would have if they had stayed in the workforce all along. Yes, it's a marriage contract, but in these cases it is also a labor contract, which the supporting spouse reneged on.

While it's hardly surprising that the Right would be pushing for an end to permanent spousal support — given that it has been at the top of the Men's Rights wishlist for decades — it is certainly ballsy of them to do so while there has been a marked upswing the last few years when it comes to right-wing pundits encouraging women to quit their jobs to be stay-at-home wives and mothers. Or, rather, pushing a line that women don't even want to work and would prefer to stay home with their babies but evil feminists have created a culture in which they feel forced to do so against their will, in order to please us. ( This, too, is certainly interesting in light of how  angry the Right gets when they talk about other people they believe "don't want to work." )

Republicans have also often refused to support funding for universal daycare and other things that we obviously need on the grounds that they want "parents" (by which they mean mothers) to stay at home with children. You know, because people who can't afford childcare can definitely afford to live on a single income.

So, just to be clear, they want women to give up their jobs and stay home with children, but they also want to get rid of the safety net that allowed them to make that choice without putting themselves at risk of extreme poverty should it not work out. That's the dream. Throw in that they're also trying to get rid of no-fault divorce in many places and it sure sounds a lot like they might be trying to force women to stay in bad marriages in order to not end up entirely destitute.

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