1946: (The Constitutional Assembly as Theater of Misogyny — The Promise of Women’s Suffrage Legislation Eclipsed by Representatives Debating Women’s Politica…

1946: (The Constitutional Assembly as Theater of Misogyny — The Promise of Women’s Suffrage Legislation Eclipsed by Representatives Debating Women’s Political Sincerity Intellectual Capacity National Loyalty and Self-Control as Voting Citizens, Noiriste Assemblyman Emile St. Lôt Calling the Women “Bad Mothers” and “Dictators,” One Op-Ed Sarcastically Asking Whether Women Would Now Be Members of the Military, the Debate Revealing the Misogyny Embedded in the Discourse of Modern Republican Citizenship and Féminisme Becoming a Political Slur Crescendoing with Boos That Followed the LFAS Women’s Departure Under Military Escort — by the End of the Assembly No Women Were Represented): The scene of separation opened the debate for criticism about the philosophies espoused by the LFAS and turned it into a referendum on feminism itself. The promise of women’s suffrage legislation was eclipsed by representatives debating women’s political sincerity, intellectual capacity, national loyalty, and self-control as voting citizens. Assemblyman Emile St. Lôt, a noiriste and president of the leftist coalition Front Révolutionnaire Haïtien, called the women “bad mothers” and “dictators.” One op-ed respondent sarcastically questioned whether women would now be members of the military — though women had in fact served in the nineteenth-century revolutionary army and fought as cacos against the US occupation. The debate revealed the misogyny embedded in the discourse of modern republican citizenship: féminisme bounced off the hallowed walls of the assembly as a political slur and crescendoed with a chorus of boos that followed the removal of the femme du peuple. Shortly after the unnamed woman’s ejection, the members of the LFAS voluntarily left the assembly, followed by taunting boos and a military escort. By the end of the assembly, there were no women represented. The national newspaper Le Nouvelliste reported that the members of the Ligue Féminine were assaulted, but no media outlet mentioned the unnamed woman’s dismissal. The asymmetry of erasure is telling: even in the record of women’s exclusion, the woman of the people is excluded from the record.