Nancy Mace may have unwittingly tattooed herself with one of the gayest literary references imaginable...
PinkNews
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Nancy Mace may have unwittingly tattooed herself with one of the gayest literary references imaginable.
The congresswoman, who lost her bid to run for governor of South Carolina in June and is set to leave Congress when her term ends in January, recently showed off her tattoo sleeves in a photo posted to her X account on 17 August, writing “Thoughts and prayers to all those affected by my sleeves” alongside the photo.
Eagle-eyed users quickly spotted a very recognisable quote inked on the inside of her arm: the famous opening line of Virginia Woolf’s 1925 novel ‘Mrs Dalloway’. “Mrs Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself.”
For anyone unfamiliar with the literary lore, ‘Mrs. Dalloway’ is generally read by scholars as a bisexual or queer story. Woolf herself was married to Leonard Woolf while carrying on a years-long love affair with Vita Sackville-West, another married woman. The novel follows a married woman whose thoughts repeatedly return to a formative romantic relationship with another woman.
It’s also the source material behind ‘The Hours’, the 2002 film starring Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore and Nicole Kidman.
Commenters found the tattoo particularly amusing given Mace’s political record. During her time in Congress, she repeatedly targeted transgender people, including pushing legislation aimed at forcing trans members of Congress and staffers to use bathrooms based on their sex assigned at birth. Her campaign disproportionately targeted Delaware Rep. Sarah McBride, who in 2024 became the first out transgender person elected to Congress.
Mace has also repeatedly used anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and accused queer people and their allies of being “groomers,” as well as calling herself a “proud transphobe” in a July 2025 post on X.
Mace previously told Politico that her tattoos were part of an effort to “reclaim” her body after a difficult period in her personal and professional life.
Perhaps Mace genuinely loves Woolf; maybe she has read ‘Mrs. Dalloway’ and deeply appreciates its exploration of identity, repression, desire and the complicated interior lives of women; maybe she saw the quote by itself somewhere and found it moving. But, to a lot of folks online, the coupling of Mace’s stance on LGBTQ+ issues and a tattoo of a Woolf quote is slightly more than innocuous.
📷 Getty
📷 X: NancyMace
4͏5͏m͏
·
Nancy Mace may have unwittingly tattooed herself with one of the gayest literary references imaginable.
The congresswoman, who lost her bid to run for governor of South Carolina in June and is set to leave Congress when her term ends in January, recently showed off her tattoo sleeves in a photo posted to her X account on 17 August, writing “Thoughts and prayers to all those affected by my sleeves” alongside the photo.
Eagle-eyed users quickly spotted a very recognisable quote inked on the inside of her arm: the famous opening line of Virginia Woolf’s 1925 novel ‘Mrs Dalloway’. “Mrs Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself.”
For anyone unfamiliar with the literary lore, ‘Mrs. Dalloway’ is generally read by scholars as a bisexual or queer story. Woolf herself was married to Leonard Woolf while carrying on a years-long love affair with Vita Sackville-West, another married woman. The novel follows a married woman whose thoughts repeatedly return to a formative romantic relationship with another woman.
It’s also the source material behind ‘The Hours’, the 2002 film starring Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore and Nicole Kidman.
Commenters found the tattoo particularly amusing given Mace’s political record. During her time in Congress, she repeatedly targeted transgender people, including pushing legislation aimed at forcing trans members of Congress and staffers to use bathrooms based on their sex assigned at birth. Her campaign disproportionately targeted Delaware Rep. Sarah McBride, who in 2024 became the first out transgender person elected to Congress.
Mace has also repeatedly used anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and accused queer people and their allies of being “groomers,” as well as calling herself a “proud transphobe” in a July 2025 post on X.
Mace previously told Politico that her tattoos were part of an effort to “reclaim” her body after a difficult period in her personal and professional life.
Perhaps Mace genuinely loves Woolf; maybe she has read ‘Mrs. Dalloway’ and deeply appreciates its exploration of identity, repression, desire and the complicated interior lives of women; maybe she saw the quote by itself somewhere and found it moving. But, to a lot of folks online, the coupling of Mace’s stance on LGBTQ+ issues and a tattoo of a Woolf quote is slightly more than innocuous.
📷 Getty
📷 X: NancyMace
