I used to be a woman, now I’ve become a host

Quote of the week: “I understand that they feel like that is their body. I feel like it is a separate — what I call them is, is you’re a ‘host’.”

Ignoring this casual murder of the English language, let us reflect for a moment on the actual meaning. Who is speaking, and what is it about? Perhaps some further dystopian development in factory farming, involving even worse mass abuse of lady cattle and their baby cows? Or more positively, maybe a breakthrough in medical research? What are we talking about here – bacteria? Fungus?

Women, actually. Lady humans. The unintelligible sentence was uttered not by some rabid internet loon, but by an Oklahoma state legislator. A public servant with legal power. Republican Justin Humphrey — a man who wears a Stetson — suggests that if women are “irresponsible” enough to get pregnant, their bodies no longer belong to them. They are “hosts.” Like John Hurt in Alien, but with less legal rights.