Approximately one week ago, I sat in the Fletcher Library, poorly attempting to do my work, while watching the Presidential Debate. I had low expectations for Trump from the start, so I really wasn’t expecting much. But what I watched was a whole lot worse than I had ever expected. What in the world was that man doing? And how in the world did he make it this far? That thought led me to my main question of the night: What if Trump were a woman? That question is somewhat unfathomable, but lets think about it for a second. How far would a woman make it in a presidential race if she interrupted her opponent, used the grammar of a five-year-old, had decidedly not paid federal taxes for nearly two decades, and had never been in politics before? To my knowledge, no one would let someone like that in the White House. Once that thought crossed my mind, the rest was history. The general issue with the debate was that I could not take my eyes off of Trump. Hillary fell off my radar, despite the fact that she was the only one being presidential in this so-called “presidential” debate.
Trump says some pretty ridiculous things, and by ridiculous, I mean irrational, fictitious, sexist, racist, and everything in between. Yet for some reason, America not only listens to him, but they praise him, and worse than that, they VOTE FOR HIM. So back to my original question: What if he were a woman? My best guess is that a woman of his disposition would be forced to drop out of the race, just out of the pressure of scrutiny and immediate judgement.
So there is a very fine line that Hillary is walking on here. She’s a woman, so there’s that, but she’s a strong woman, but she can’t be too strong or else she’ll come off as cold. Then there’s Trump…and the line he is walking on is much different and not as fine as Hillary’s, because if the rest of the election goes how the debate seemed to go, Trump can get away with saying just about anything as long as he’s not a woman.