The horror of being led by a woman

„Feminism is absolute filth,” as stated by a dismayed Călin Georgescu, in the podcast of Gojira, a well-known social media influencer. If anyone still doesn’t know who Călin Georgescu is today, he is the independent, pro-Putin, legionary discourse candidate who surprisingly made it to the second round of the Romanian presidential elections, and even from the first spot.

My colleagues at ISE and I were the first to see how the extremist balloon was inflating on TikTok through a strategy that I revealed from behind the scenes of the network I infiltrated. We warned, but apart from a few fellow journalists in Bucharest no one took us seriously. The authorities? Not a chance.

While we were paying attention to how Călin Georgescu is growing up, we also analyzed his speech in relation to his followers, in order to understand what he hypnotized them with (because that’s how most of his fans behave), beyond the strategies of algorithm cheating on the Chinese network.

Well, for me, it was not only shocking to relive the hatred against women, but also deeply disgusting to see that, on a societal level, we are the same, if not worse, almost three years after I was „raped” and „beaten to death” for a text I wrote. Because, hey, why do women write, what could they say, what do they have to say? Nothing, obviously.

Georgescu is stigmatizing feminism under the pretext that he loves so much the creation of woman, who is so special and divine, that she cannot in any way compete with man, do „man’s work”, act like a man. Because she loses her femininity, what don’t you understand? Georgescu sends the woman to the saucepan and to cradling children on the pretext that, otherwise, the beauty with which God left her on earth is being spoiled.

What’s even more shocking is that his wife in particular is scolding women in the endless live shows on Youtube, among natural and „self-healing” (no, go to the doctor) advice, about how men should not compete, that they should not wear pants (because energy goes up the skirt, yes, it’s real, read here) and that, be careful, a woman cannot and should not lead, be a leader, because that is not feminine (?!).

Exactly with this rhetoric, tight in its essence, „feminism is an absolute mess”, Georgescu’s followers constantly attacked the pro-Western, EU and NATO counter-candidate: „She’s a woman”, as if she was a devil, „I’d rather vote for a Russian than a woman”, „I’d rather cut off my hand than put my stamp on a woman”, „I will never be led by a woman” and the like.

Boys and men with mountains of pent-up frustrations crammed into tens of thousands of hate-filled, logic-fractured comments about a woman. Here we are. December 2024.

Note also that these waves of hatred and misogynism are directed at (only) the second woman ever to reach the second round of the Romanian presidential elections after the Revolution. In 35 years, the political class has promoted and society has voted only two women into the presidential finals:

The first time was in 2019, when current president Klaus Iohannis, the PNL candidate, entered the second round alongside Viorica Dăncilă, the PSD candidate. Now, Elena Lasconi (USR) is facing the Putinist candidate in Romania who is sending her to the saucepan, as is customary in Russia, so dear to Georgescu’s heart.

However, besides the misogynist comments that send Lasconi spinning in pots, two other rhetoric rolls that have quickly turned into hate campaigns against her are two crude fake-news:

„The woman” is going to „send men to war in Ukraine” and „she’s going to invade the country with gays”. These two ideas are intensively propagated on social networks, including with paid advertisements, both in the comments on Elena Lasconi’s pages and in posts distributed on all media platforms, especially on TikTok.

Călin Georgescu also said that women „can’t cope” at the top of the state. In contrast to this statement, more than 80 countries in the world are led by women, including the Republic of Moldova, where Maia Sandu recently won her second term as president.

Other controversial statements about Elena Lasconi were made by Gigi Becali, FCSB owner and AUR candidate in the parliamentary elections. After Sunday’s exit-poll results were announced, he told CNN’s Antena 3: „They vote for a widow woman, with a LGBT girl. Her daughter declared herself LGBT… what president do you want? Her, widowed, no man, and with a LGBT daughter.”

Presumably, if a man had been in the runoff against Georgescu, many of the reasons why „Lasconi shouldn’t be voted for” would have disappeared, and the campaigns against her would not have focused on her personal life or gender. Instead, the attacks would have been more about her political program or administrative achievements.

Actor Adrian Văncică, best known for his role as „Celentano” in the TV series Las Fierbinți, sent a public message in a Facebook video about the pro-Russian candidate with a legionist discourse who reached the second round of the presidential elections, Călin Georgescu, and about the gender hatred directed at Elena Lasconi: „How long are we going to believe that women are made to sit at the stove and are not fit to run the country? Why do we think so badly of women?”.

Fortunately, however, Georgescu’s outrageous statement that feminism is filth went viral on social media and did not go unheeded, but even sparked strong reactions from civil society, along with other outrageous statements about minimizing the role of women in society.

This line was also one of the reasons behind the chanting in several cities across the country, where thousands of young people gathered to protest against extremism. Alongside the protesters, several women known online, such as Delia, Erika Isac (who has even released a song about the need to send more women to Parliament) and Andreea Raicu, reacted to Călin Georgescu’s statements.

„No, Mr. Călin Georgescu, feminism is NOT filth. It is about gender equality, about eliminating discrimination and oppression based on sex and gender. Feminism is about respect for the opposite sex, respect for yourself and, most importantly, feminism is about progress,” Andreea Raicu told Georgescu.

Romania is not excelling in terms of the number of women in politics, in fact, it really screwed up badly in the 2024 parliamentary elections, and according to a study by the Filia Center, Romania will be in second last place in the European Union in 2023 in terms of women’s political power. But about that in a future episode.