Dear Donald Trump-
I am a 19-year-old female, and I will not be voting for you. However, unlike many others, it did not take the last comments about “grabbing a p****” for me to decide that you are not worthy to be president of the United States. I decided this months ago when you started to run and the first of your repulsive comments started to come out.
Let me tell you a little bit about what it is like to be a woman in the United States, a country that has far more equality than many in this world. I am constantly subjected to objectifying language. If I don’t hear the word “tits” at least once a week followed by some random guy checking out the body of a woman he doesn’t know, just because she isn’t a person to him, but an object there for his viewing pleasure, then it is a miracle. When I walk down the street, there are times when faceless boys will yell out their windows numbers to every girl, because you can’t walk to class without being graded on your looks. I cannot walk around in sweatpants without guys commenting on how I have “obviously given up,” even if they are currently wearing sweats themselves. Since I am a girl, I cannot be comfortable. That right is left to the guys. When I am in a math class, I am constantly aware of the fact that I am one of the few females and that people do not expect me to do well. This causes me to have to fight harder for my grades, work harder, than the boys in that class because they don’t have to worry about stereotype threat. And at nights? It doesn’t matter if it is only 8:30pm on a Wednesday, I still am constantly checking around me, walking with my key between my fingers and my phone in my other hand, ready to run. Since I am a girl, there is a 1 in 3 chance that I will be sexually assaulted before I leave college. History has shown that if I am that 1, I will not be treated like the victim. Instead, I will be blamed, and my perpetrator will get little to no punishment while my life will be forever changed.
And yet, you don’t care. Sexual assault is just a “locker room joke” to you. Grabbing a woman who doesn’t consent is a right to you because you are rich and famous. Well, guess what: it’s not. Neither is walking into a room of naked women who did not invite you just because no one is going to stop you. The only person who has a right to a woman’s body is herself. Not you.
A woman’s worth is not calculated based on her looks or how willing she is to let you do whatever you want. A woman is much more than just someone’s mother, daughter, aunt, sister, or wife. She is a human being. Let me repeat that to make sure you heard it. A woman is someone. She is a person, and she deserves to be treated that way.
I am only 19, and yet I am already sick and tired of misogynistic people like you who believe that women are second-class citizens. We are not. We are strong, we are smart, we are loving, we are forgiving, but we are also fighters. We fight against men like you who think they are better than us every day. We fight against men like you who think they are smarter than us every day because it doesn’t matter that we may be more qualified than you or know more about a certain subject than you; since we are women we have to prove ourselves every moment of every day.
So no, I won’t be voting for you in November. I will never be able to support you. I am a woman, and I matter, not just because of my body, but because I am a person. It is time for you to step back and realize that women are not just bodies for you to look at. We are people who think for ourselves and are smart. Hopefully smart enough to realize that a vote for you is a vote against women. So you can make up lies all you want, but in the end, it is us, the majority of the population, who you just insulted again. Who you have been insulting for years, and who are sick of it. We are sick of being treated like objects because we aren’t. So good luck, Donald. You are going to need it.
Sincerely,
Erica Boucher