Alright, I usually don’t discuss politics, but I got to say something. I’m not a Clinton fan. For most of this election cycle, I wanted to vote Republican for either Marco Rubio or John Kasich. I identify as a centrist, not a member of either party. As such, right now, I think we are a little bit screwed when it comes to who the future leader of our country will be.
However, after the release of that despicable audio tape, I do not know how any woman could actually put her support behind Donald Trump. If a man said he wanted to “grab me by the p*ssy” and that he could do “whatever he wanted with me,” I would whoop his ass straight back to Mars. We wouldn’t be okay with any man in our life saying that, so how the heck can we be okay with the President of the United States saying it?
But I don’t want to talk about that. What I want to talk about it the reaction of some folks to the release of Trump’s tape. Yesterday, I woke up to the hashtag #BillClintonIsARapist trending on Twitter. And I was pissed off. Throughout this entire election, I constantly find myself wondering “okay, are we electing Hillary or Bill Clinton to the White House?” Since the beginning of the debates, every candidate, every news outlet questions Hillary on Bill. There cannot be one debate with someone (see: Trump) screaming about how awful Bill Clinton is. Now I understand that the spouse of the President also represents the country. But really? Clinton’s spouse is disproportionately discussed in comparison to spouses of other candidates. (Except when Trump attacked the appearance of Heidi Cruz, but would we except anything less from the Drumpf?)
Now, one could argue “oh well it’s because he was the President before” and yes, that’s probably part of it. But more of it comes from the fact that Hillary is a woman. For some reason, our country still holds the archaic notion that a woman is an extension of her husband. We saw it during the Olympics, when a gold medalist Corey Cogdell was referred to in new outlets as a football player’s wife, and we are seeing it now. Once upon a time, women were considered the property of their husband, but this isn’t the 1700s people. For nearly 100 years, women have been able to vote. In fact, in 2008, a higher percentage of women voted than men. But, yet still, somehow our identities are still somehow linked to our male partners. And if we consider Trump’s partner, Melania Trump fully embodies the stereotype of a trophy wife—at least through Trump’s eyes. The way he discusses his own wife (and daughters) is almost as deplorable as how he talks about other women. I think Trump’s time is up and I certainly don’t think Mike Pence is the person to replace him. The RNC needs to pick someone with values that can actually represent their party in a moral, democratic way that matches the values of the 21st century. (Re: no bogus anti-LGBT discrimination laws. What is this?? 1980??) In electing the President, we are also electing someone to take the place of Michelle Obama, arguably the coolest person to ever be in the White House. (Have you seen her rapping with Missy Elliott?) And when it comes down to it, I would rather have a former President with some skeletons in their closet than one who is a flagrant symbol of the patriarchy.
Image Credit: National Review, Mackenna Goodrich (via Twitter), Forbes, In Style