Cowboy westerns where white women were rescued from “savage” Natives spun the genocidal project of “manifest destiny” into a classic image. State violence wielded as protection for white women has long been a touchstone of white racial domination. Portrayed in minstrel blackface by white actors, their political and social gains are motivated solely by their marauding lust for white women. The fact that gender violence against white women is overwhelmingly perpetrated by white men doesn’t dent this propaganda. For the right, a white woman worth protecting is a white woman whose gender role supports white male dominance.

Source: The Guardian February 01, 2026 14:08 UTC