Dear women who support Donald Trump,
I understand Hillary Clinton wasn’t the perfect candidate for you.
I’d rather “feel the Bern” than “be with her” because I can’t wholeheartedly support a woman whose husband signed the 1994 crime bill, resulting in mass incarnation of poor and working class African Americans. It also doesn’t help that she referred to African American youth as “super predators” in 1996.
On Feburary 2016, activist Ashley Williams at a private fundraiser in Charleston, South Carolina finally confronted Clinton for her comment. Clinton later responded saying she regretted using those words. However, I’m sorry your dislike for Clinton was so strong, you were able to vote for a man who dismissed bragging about grabbing women by their genitals as “locker room talk. “
You may find it surprising, but there are women who don’t find it attractive or flattering to be groped by men. In fact, there’s actually a name for this action. It’s called sexual assault. As of October 2016, 13 women, including his first wife, have come forward and accused Trump of forcibly kissing and inappropriately touching or looking at them. Karena Virginia said Trump grabbed her breasts in 1998 at the U.S Open while she waited for a car.
One reason why women don’t report sexual assault is for fear of being blamed. Questions about what they were wearing, how much they were drinking and who they were with, shifts responsibility for the attack from the perpetrator to the victim.
“I felt ashamed that I was wearing a short dress and heels,” Virginia said. “That feeling of shame stayed with me for a while and it made me disinclined to wear short skirts or heels.”
You probably have never experience sexual assault, but for victims Trump’s comments are triggers that force them to recount the traumatic events that happened to them. It’s a shame you never took your young daughters and nieces into consideration when you were casting your vote for a man who disparages flat chested women as unattractive.
As if going through the awkward phases of adolescence and being bombarded by the media’s standard of beauty wasn’t enough, young girls will be faced with an increased pressure to seek the perfect body and not feeling good enough by their male peers whose misogynist fathers support Trump. And to the 53 percent of white women who voted for Trump, I’m sorry that you thought your position of power as a white person was more important than defending your reproductive rights. Just like your angry fathers and husbands, you bought into Trump’s lies about immigrant rapists and terrorists Muslims.
Some of you may have been called racist for supporting Trump and don’t feel safe, especially on college campuses, to tell people you voted for him. Who you voted for is a decision that should be kept private. If you feel you’ll be harassed for wearing a Make America Great Again hat or having a Trump sticker on your Macbook, simply don’t wear or use those items in public. It’s not like you’re a person of color who can’t change the color of their skin, to avoid being targeted by racists and bigots. Your votes for Trump may have helped potentially overturn Roe v. Wade. The 1973 Supreme Court decision recognized it is a constitutional right to decide whether to continue or terminate a pregnancy.
Trump ran his campaign pledging to appoint “pro-life judges” to the Supreme Court and allow states to outlaw abortion, saying the issue should “go back to the states.” In addition, Vice President and Governor of Indiana, Mike Pence led the national fight to defund Planned Parenthood, a place where many women who are not able to afford health insurance go for birth control, STD testing and examinations. Pence forced so many of the clinics to close in Indiana last year, that he triggered an HIV outbreak in one county.
For all female Trump supporters, you sold out your fellow women, your country and yourselves. You’ll have to face the consequences of your actions by living in a country with limited reproductive rights and the dismissal of sexual assault.
Sincerely,
A young woman who would rather be with her than support him.