Just like “fetch”, Erika Harold, former Miss America and the GOP AG candidate in Illinois, is never going to happen. Here is why: she’s a mean girl who would be dangerous for women and families.  

The Associated Press reported this week that Harold once said that many victims of sexual harassment “become very promiscuous” as a result, and may be to blame.

In September 2002, Harold spoke at a news conference in Washington, D.C., where she wanted to talk about sexual abstinence, but she was instead asked to speak about bullying. This is what Harold said:

“Many victims of sexual harassment believe what is said about them, and they become very promiscuous. When they’re called a whore, when they’re called a slut, they think, ‘That’s what I want to be,’ and so they engage in a pattern of self-destruction that can be very detrimental to their lives.”

“That’s what I want to be?” That’s victim-blaming, full stop.

Neena Chaudhry, general counsel at the National Women’s Law Center, agrees. Chaudhry noted that her “deep concern is this is the kind of blaming and shaming that keeps young people from coming forward and reporting sexual harassment and sexual violence,” and that comments like this “feed into stereotypes.”

This isn’t the first time Erika Harold has stumbled when it comes to convincing voters she’s a champion for women. Earlier this cycle, she came out with an ad tied the #MeToo movement that talked about her experience in high school with bullying and sexual harassment, but just a few days later, she confirmed for the Chicago Tribune that she supported the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Not to mention, Harold and the Republican Attorneys General Association, the GOP-group backing her, have been silent about the sexual misconduct allegations against neighboring state Indiana’s AG Curtis Hill.

Harold’s alarming smoke and mirrors approach which only gives lip service support for women is in addition to Harold’s hateful comments about the LGBTQ community. Harold said she would rather place a child into the care of a heterosexual couple who were known child abuser than a loving gay couple, and refuses to say whether she supports marriage equality.

On November 6, voters will go to the polls to elect the next Attorney General of Illinois. To voters everywhere—in the paraphrase of the prolific, albeit fictional, Gretchen Wieners—“[victim-blaming] is off limits to anyone. That’s just like, the rules of feminism.”