If America is ever going
to confirm inclusion and equality, it will not be because people
stand behind a demagogue and chant ...
“Drain the swamp.”
“Lock her up.”
“Build that wall.”
“Love it or leave it.”
“Send her back.”
Elaina Plott, reporter and
editor for The
Atlantic, notes:
“Where the president’s fans once called for a female opponent’s
imprisonment, now they are longing for another woman to be literally
banished from the country.” This latest outburst supports something
many of the faithful simply dismiss as entitled chauvinism.
The content of Donald
Trump's rally cries is racist, xenophobic, and notably misogynistic.
He encourages this offensive sexist cheerleading. Did you ever notice
Trump supporters don't make chants about men? The president claims to
support women when, in reality, he has been widely called out
throughout his life for his objectification of them – he has a
tendency to criticize women for their looks and lower them to means
of his own self-gratification.
From “grabbing their
pussies” to saying no one would vote for his former rival Carly
Fiorina because of her face to suggesting that women should be
"punished" for having abortions and "joking" that
he'd date his daughter … Trump degrades women. And, his adoring
crowd always condones it. Moreover, they loudly parrot his vile
degradation as if his stature entitles him to dominate anything
between their legs.
Trump has long bragged
that he likes “beautiful women,” but this is the same man who
when profiled in the August 2000 issue of Maximum Golf magazine,
told the writer when he saw a young woman enter his Mar-a-Lago club,
“there is nothing in the world like first-rate pussy.” He sees
himself as a noted connoisseur and seasoned inspector of such fare.
This man who sexualizes
his own daughter’s appearance and consistently dehumanizes women is
a confirmed misogynist. Women have long paid the price for Trump’s
bad behavior, and they continue to pay now. He dismisses women who
don't fit his narrow ideal of femininity as “pigs” and “dogs.”
Jill Filipovic reporting on his disgusting dichotomy in Time
wrote: “Mr. Trump sees women: Either as “first-rate pussy” or
“fat” and “ugly.”
Filipovic concludes …
“It’s not just that
Mr. Trump is so gross and sexist he’s unfit to be president (he
is). It’s that he’s a kind of hideous funhouse mirror, reflecting
back at us an engorged, amplified vision of the misogynist norms we
have all enabled and perpetuated. He’s the epitome of a repulsive
chauvinist. But we created a world where he could succeed — all the
way to the presidency.”
No one can deny Trump has
a special propensity to attack women of color – the
representatives of “The Squad” – Ilhan Omar of Minnesota,
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and
Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts; Representavie Maxine Waters;
journalist April Ryan. Just look at his policies of separating
mothers from their babies at the border, mainly because Trump sees
women of color as the people who reproduce children who keep him from
making America white again.
The shamelessness of
Trump’s misogyny is proudly carried by the screaming throngs of
white women at his rallies. Why? They will tell you it's because of
his stand on abortion or because he is good for the economy. Hell,
I've even talked with Trump evangelicals who believe God ordained
Trump to the office to lead us through “dark times.” (No pun
intended)
Rutgers University gender
and Africana studies professor Brittney Cooper called on white
feminists to stop “thanking black women for protecting the nation
from the voting patterns of white people” and begin “organiz[ing]
white women.”
Women’s March co-chair
Tamika Mallory asks if it is even possible for white women to get
their “Becky situation[s] in order”?
Note – the epithet
“Becky” – In 2016 Karsonya Wise Whitehead of Loyola University
Maryland attributed this meaning to the term: "a white woman who
is clueless, who is kind of racist, [and] who makes statements
without knowing what she's saying.”
It seems that the truth of
the matter is that though plenty of women are disgusted by Trump,
they are not committed to a progressive policy to hold him
accountable for his misogynistic views. Social scientists have
pointed out how Trump successfully taps into an evangelical
narrative, based on white American nationalism, of returning
Christians to their rightful place at the center of American life –
of course that means “its rightful (white) Christian heritage.”
How could any woman vote
for a sexist president? Gender is not evidently a deeply felt
identity category for many women. What do these Trump females
consider an “ideal” political woman? An old-fashioned or outdated
Christian, strong but submissive, traditionally pretty, smart but not
too smart, sexy but also chaste, white female. Others need not apply.
“Send them back – they do not 'fit.'”
“Women
do quite well politically when they’re perceived to be, or actually
in service positions. I think women are actually allowed to have
quite a bit of
poweras
long as it’s in service of those who are perceived as entitled to
their feminine-coded services.”
– Philosopher
Kate Manne of Cornell University
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