"Women….
You have to treat them like shit."
– Donald
Trump (1992) to New York Magazine
Donald Trump is a
misogynist. He frequently disrespects women and holds them in low
esteem … except, of course, for those who serve him as adoring
underlings. Trump's view: women who challenge him (like White House
reporters) or who even stand up for themselves aren't women at all,
and they're certainly not to be trusted; the rejection of
subservience is treated as evidence itself of a feminine defect, a
sign of deceitfulness.
Trump seems to have an
especially disturbing distaste for minority lawmakers. Among others,
he has attacked Rep. Maxine Waters – of whom he leveled an
accusation of “said by some to be one of the most corrupt people in
politics” – and Rep. Frederica Wilson – whom he labeled
“wacky.”
Who could forget how Trump
targeting some of the caucus’s best-known freshman women of color:
Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib. and Ayanna
Pressley? Trump (July 2019) said:
“So interesting to
see ‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came
from countries whose governments are a complete and total
catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world
(if they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly and
viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and
most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run.”
“Why don’t they go
back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from
which they came,” Trump added.
And now Trump has turned
his hatred onto Senator Kamala Harris.
When Harris was chosen to
be Joe Biden’s running mate, Trump was quick to lean into
persistent stereotypes of Black women that are seen to undercut their
ambition or assertion of power.
His distaste for Harris,
who identifies as Black and Indian American, stood out as he took
most of his time to assail the senator’s character. Trump said …
"And now, you have
— a sort of — a mad woman, I call her, because she was so angry
and — such hatred with Justice Kavanaugh. I mean, I've never seen
anything like it. She was the angriest of the group and they were all
angry. ... These are seriously ill people."
He was referring to
Harris’ pointed questioning toward Brett Kavanaugh during his 2018
Supreme Court confirmation hearing, after sexual assault allegations
from a professor, Christine Blasey Ford, surfaced.
Trump also called Harris a
“nasty” woman and said she was “probably nastier than even
Pocahontas to Joe Biden” during the Democratic debates, referring
to Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
Amanda Hunter, research
and communications director for the Barbara Lee Family Foundation, a
nonprofit that supports women’s involvement in politics, says …
“Calling a woman
nasty really implies that all women should fall in line and be seen
and not heard. It’s an antiquated attempt to impugn her character.”
The insult has echoes to
the 2016 campaign, when Trump derided Clinton as a “nasty woman”
during a presidential debate.
(Melanie Mason and
Michael Finnegan. “Baseless birther attack on Kamala Harris shows
how Trump is struggling to define her.” Los Angeles Times.
August 13, 2020.)
Tamara Winfrey Harris (no
relation to the senator from California), author of The Sisters
Are Alright: Changing the Broken Narrative of Black Women in America,
said the stereotype is rooted in ideas from slavery and has persisted
to the present day.
Trump’s remarks raised
eyebrows for their depiction of a Black woman as inherently and
irredeemably 'angry,' a trope that encourages people to dismiss the
qualifications of a candidate or the otherwise valid political
criticisms they raise.
According to Tamara Harris
…
“The idea emerged
when Black women in this country were enslaved that we were harder
and heartier than other women. At the time, the idea was that [white]
women are delicate and need to be protected, but Black women were
expected to work in the field alongside men and as hard as men, so
there was this idea that Black women were sturdier and less feminine
than other women.”
(Derrick Clifton.
“Trump deploys the 'angry Black woman' trope against Kamala
Harris.” NBC News. August 17, 2020.)
In addition, Trump has
already amplified a false claim that California-born Kamala Harris
might be ineligible to serve as vice president, a smear that recalls
the racist “birther” campaign he waged against former President
Obama.
“I’m
automatically attracted to beautiful – I just start kissing them.
It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. When you’re a
star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the
pussy. You can do anything.”
– Donald
Trump (2005) Access Hollywood Interview
No one can mistake Trump
as being sensitive to systemic racism. Trump has “long positioned
American identity as something naturally inherited by whites and only
conditionally granted to other races, wielding patriotism and
citizenship as a cudgel to be used against people of color.”
(P.R. Lockhart. “The
racism in Trump’s attacks should be impossible to deny.” Vox.
July 15, 2019.)
As for women? Trump's
evaluation of women reflects his ideology about the superiority of
males on females and how such ideological beliefs are ingrained in
language and are difficult to be changed.
Professors Abbas Degan
Darweesh and Nesaem Mehdi Abdullah found that …
“This (superiority of
males) is embodied in Trump's prejudiced and inequilateral sentence
'I don't frankly have time for total political correctness. And to be
honest with you, this country doesn't have time either.' The sense of
inequality perpetuated in the ideas of masculine power practiced on
females is conspicuous.
“It seems that Trump
has a long history of making sexist, disparaging, and discourteous
comments about women. Trump utilizes a variety of strategies, whether
lexical or rhetorical, to underestimate women. The apparition of
negative lexicalization, insults, and metaphors are the most
excessively used strategies in Trump's degrading utterances
concerning women.”
(Abbas Degan Darweesh
and Nesaem Mehdi Abdullah. “A Critical Discourse Analysis of Donald
Trump's Sexist Ideology.” Journal of Education and Practice,
Vol.7, No.30. 2016.)
The words and actions of a
person define his or her character. Sexism is defined as
“objectifying women; supporting systematic discrimination against
them or using gender stereotypes against them.” By his words and
actions, Trump is guilty of sexism. Misogyny is defined as “dislike
of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against women.” Again, by
his words and actions, Trump is guilty. Add his racist words and
actions, and his contempt for Kamala Harris is just one more link in
his history of bigotry and hatred.
“You
know, it doesn't really matter what [the media] write as long as
you've got a young and beautiful piece of ass."
– Donald
Trump (1991) interview with Esquire Magazine
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