Behind the Patriotic Smile: What MAGA’s Women Aren’t Saying

By Torie Cortez | Dismal Freedom Press

Women participate in a political gathering, highlighting the intersection of patriotism and gender roles within American political movements.

At first, it looked like any weekend scene at Chuck E. Cheese in Modesto—kids running wild, parents clutching sodas, the soundtrack of electronic joy. But what caught my eye that afternoon wasn’t the noise. It was the stillness.

A group of women—flag shirts, Bible verse hoodies, MAGA hats—stood near the arcade counter. They smiled when spoken to. Laughed when expected. Each movement seemed measured, as if someone had taught them what safe looked like.

As a survivor of domestic violence, I recognized the cues instantly. The constant glancing for approval. The nervous laugh that hides tension. The quiet deferral when a man interrupts. Those aren’t politics; those are survival strategies.

So the question rose, quietly but firmly: Are MAGA women okay?

The observation isn’t meant as mockery—it’s concern. The body language of submission, practiced over time, doesn’t happen by accident. And in recent years, the cultural space around the MAGA movement has grown to normalize that dynamic.

Many of its female voices preach “submission as strength,” urging women to obey, defer, and “let men lead.”

The rhetoric mirrors something chillingly familiar to global watchers: theocratic systems that glorify women’s silence as sacred. In Afghanistan, Taliban rule enforces that submission through violence. In America, the enforcement is social—through shame, ostracism, and spiritual manipulation.

The similarities don’t make MAGA the Taliban. But they do raise a hard truth: both depend on women to self-police their own freedom. Both rely on loyalty built through fear—fear of chaos, of godlessness, of being labeled “unfeminine” or “ungrateful.”

Inside those fears, a familiar cycle repeats:

• A promise of safety if you obey.

• A sense of belonging if you don’t question.

• A warning that rebellion will destroy the family—or the nation.

Every survivor knows this pattern. It’s control, dressed as care.

Sociologists have studied this intersection of faith and power. A 2023 paper from Baylor University noted that women raised in fundamentalist environments often adopt “performative submission” to maintain social status within male-led movements.

Another from the University of Kansas described how “patriarchal bargains” let women claim dignity through obedience, even as autonomy narrows.

That’s the quiet paradox visible now in parts of MAGA America: women publicly claiming empowerment while privately living by rules that erase their voice.

It’s not all women. Many conservative women act from conviction, faith, and a real sense of duty. But the line between devotion and domination can blur fast. And when a movement encourages that blur—when it asks women to shrink for the sake of patriotism—it’s worth asking: who really benefits?

I can’t unsee what I saw that day at Chuck E. Cheese. The smiles didn’t reach their eyes. The laughter ended the second the men turned away. You don’t need to live in

Kabul to know what that means.

If we care about freedom, we need to start recognizing its quieter casualties.

Are MAGA women okay?

Maybe not.

And maybe that’s a question America’s too afraid to ask because it already knows the answer.