Tom Corbin: Women Are ‘Lesser Cut Of Meat,’ Republican Lawmaker Tells Only Female Colleague

As Valentine’s Day approached last week, a South Carolina lawmaker made his feelings about how men relate to women very clear, in a comment to a female colleague. The remark by Republican South Carolina State Senator Tom Corbin was made at a legislators’ dinner, and addressed to his fellow state senator Katrina Shealy, who is also a Republican — but the only woman in South Carolina’s state senate.

Apparently, coming from Corbin, the remark was not much of a surprise. According to the libertarian blog Fits News, which broke the story of Corbin’s latest derogatory remark directed toward women in general — and Shealy in particular — the 50-year-old Republican legislator from Travelers Rest, South Carolina, has a prolific history of similar remarks.

Corbin has a history of “statements reflecting his belief that women do not belong in the South Carolina General Assembly and should instead be “at home baking cookies” or “barefoot and pregnant,” the blog reported.

So what did Tom Corbin say this time?

Actually, Corbin made a pair of comments directed at the 60-year-old Shealy, who was elected to the South Carolina state senate in 2012, starting with the bizarre remark, “I see it only took me two years to get you wearing shoes.”

Apparently, this was another reference to Corbin’s view that the proper place for women is “barefoot and pregnant.”

One state senate staff member told Fits News that Corbin “makes comments like that all the time.”

But the remark did not sit well with Shealy, who understandably lost her cool and demanded to know how Corbin “got off” with his repeated attacks on the female gender in general.

Corbin replied with what he later characterized as a “joke.”

“Well, you know God created man first,” Corbin told his colleague. “Then he took the rib out of man to make woman. And you know, a rib is a lesser cut of meat.”

Corbin later told a local TV station that he meant no offense.

“We were all joking and laughing,” said Corbin. “We cut up together.”

Shealy didn’t seem to get the “joke” however, telling him, “I’ve worked three times harder than you did to get here. I deserve respect and I’m going to get it.”

The legislator later took to her Twitter account to offer her thoughts on the incident.

I have proven that women can effectively serve in the legislature and one of my colleagues has proven capable of talking like an idiot!

— Katrina Shealy (@KatrinaShealy) February 13, 2015

Corbin later said that Shealy “stuck a knife in my back” because the two differ over provisions of an anti-domestic violence bill that would restrict access to guns for people who are under restraining orders, or who have been convicted of domestic violence.

Shealy supports that provision of the bill, while Tom Corbin has said that just because a person is under a restraining order due to domestic violence, that’s no reason to restrict the individual’s gun rights.