Missouri Senate candidate Courtland Sykes got into trouble with leftists and feminists for issuing a Facebook statement about women’s rights that runs counter to feminist dogma about the choices women make in their lives.

CBS News:

“In light of recent questions regarding my views on Women’s Rights, attached is my full statement,” he posted on his verified “Courtland Sykes for Senate” Facebook page. On whether he favors women’s rights, Sykes said his fiancée, Chanel Rion, has given him orders to favor them, “so I’d better.” “But Chanel knows that my obedience comes with a small price that she loves to pay anyway: I want to come home to a home-cooked dinner at six every night, one that she fixes and one that I expect one day to have daughters learn to fix after they become traditional homemakers and family wives — think Norman Rockwell here and Gloria Steinem be damned,” he said in the post.

The left is taking this statement as a “demand” that his fiance cook him dinner every night after they are married — an obvious attempt to brand the veteran and Harvard grad as some kind of neanderthal.

The Facebook posting was part of an 11-page statement Sykes sent the St. Louis Post Dispatch last October when he announced his candidacy. He is modeling himself as a loyal Trump Republican and an outsider. Nobody in Missouri Republican politics says they have ever heard of Courtland Sykes, but after this blowup over women’s rights, they undoubtedly will.

Sykes also included some anti-feminist comments:

“I don’t buy into radical feminism’s crazed definition of modern womanhood and I never did. They don’t own that definition — and never did. They made it up to suit their own nasty, snake-filled heads. Modern women can BE anything they want, including traditional women — as millions are and millions are fast becoming. Millennial women voters despised Hillary (Clinton) and cost her the election (and they weren’t Russians). I wonder why they despise her? One reason is they look at her life’s personal wreckage and din’t want to become like her.”

Here is the Facebook post in its entirety:

Over the top? Sure. But the basic premise is shared by millions of men and women across the country. And that brings us to Sykes’ fiance, Chanel Rion, who doesn’t sound like the kind of woman who would like spending her life in the kitchen barefoot and pregnant.

From the candidate’s website:

Chanel Rion is an American author, political illustrator and commentator, who was born in Texas and grew up in Missouri, and overseas—in France and South Korea. Chanel has become widely known as the best political illustrator in the country for constitutional conservative and anti-leftist causes and as President Trump’s most stalwart graphic warrior against leftism. Chanel is also the developer, author, and illustrator of the first three volumes of her traditional girl’s mystery series. Chanel’s mission is to promote the spirit of the traditional family, and the self-reliance, ingenuity, independence, and strength of American girls who believe in traditional homes, in conservative values, in having faith, and in having lives and futures that encourage families to succeed at home.

It’s apparent that Sykes’ critics do not know Ms. Rion and haven’t a clue what she’s all about. Nor can they fathom a woman choosing a traditionalist lifestyle voluntarily. I don’t see how a woman’s life could be richer or more rewarding than Chanel Rion’s life, especially after she is married to the man she loves and is blessed with children. Ms. Rion is not an outlier either. Millions of women voluntarily enter into marriages where they gladly stay at home to raise children and perform other domestic chores. They see this as a calling as much as other women see getting ahead in the corporate world or politics as their calling. Criticism of this calling exposes the deep sickness of leftists and feminists whose stifling conformist views on women are anti-freedom and anti-family.

I don’t like the idea of Sykes lumping all feminists in with the radical nutcases. That simply doesn’t reflect reality. There are plenty of feminists who recognize that freedom for women means freedom to choose, whether that means working full time, part time, or working at home.

But the narrow definition of women’s rights that many feminists espouse runs counter to the richness and variety of women’s lives whatever they choose to do.