NRA Spokeswoman Dana Loesch: Women Should 'Stay in Their Lane' and Stop 'Matriarchal Witch Hunt' Against Men

Right-wing commentator and National Rifle Association spokeswoman Dana Loesch railed against feminism during her streamable show Relentless earlier this week, telling viewers that the third-wave of the movement is "toxic" and fails to appreciate men.

The host, who has repeatedly attempted to present guns as a women's empowerment issue, described discourse surrounding gender relations as a "matriarchal witchhunt" in a video captured by Media Matters, a left-wing news organization.

"I am so tired of this matriarchal witch hunt on young men," Loesch opined. "There is nothing toxic about masculinity, but there are plenty of toxic things about third-wave feminism and the matriarchy that's attempting to assert authority and also be the ombudsman over all characteristics and definitions of that which are either masculine or feminine."

She went on to suggest that women should remove themselves from the dialogue surrounding masculinity and suggested feminists "wouldn't know what masculinity was if it hit them in the face."

"As a boy mom, kind of had enough of this," Loesch said. "Especially like women who just need to stay in your lane and don't be telling men how their masculinity is toxic."

Loesch, who has close to one million followers on Twitter, has been critical of prominent women's issues, notably the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements against sexual harassment and gender discrimination in the workplace. At a Voter Values Summit in 2017, she declared the women's rights movement "dead."

"We are in a post-feminist era," she said. "Feminism is dead. It is dead as a doornail."

Despite her disavowals of feminism, the gun rights advocate has claimed that the NRA supports women—a demographic the gun group has repeatedly tried to court with gun-themed fashion shows featuring bedazzled purses and accessories.

"We're told we're too stupid, too weak and too simple-minded to defend ourselves in the face of a threat," Loesch said in a March 8 message for International Women's Day. "The NRA is telling women 'Empower yourself.' We trust you to be able to determine your needs for self-defense. We trust you to defend your family."

Her comments came amid a reinvigorated movement for additional gun control, boosted by the fallout from the most recent deadly mass shootings. The NRA has also been attempting to recruit new members in recent months, all while studies show that conservative women support policies that the NRA is firmly against.

According to the Pew Research Center, about six in 10 Republican and Republican-leaning women who own guns said they would be in favor of assault-style weapons bans, while close to six in 10 said they were in favor of a database that would allow the federal government to track gun sales.

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Dana Loesch, the spokesperson for the National Rifle Association (NRA), speaks during the 2018 Conservative Political Action Conference at National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland, on February 22. Loesch recently told feminists to “stay in... Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

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