Just this past week alone I have heard a myriad of reasons both for and against Donald Trump as America’s next president. In fact I could probably spend my entire day going back and forth arguing them. However for the sake of this article I would like to put all those aside and focus on Mr. Trump’s views on women and gender issues. Notice I do not merely say “women’s issues” because news flash, societal problems such as rape and abortion rights affect us all.
I would like to start by referencing Donald’s tweet regarding rape in the military. For those of you yet to hear it, it reads as follows “26,000 unreported assaults in the military-only 238 convictions. What did these geniuses expect when they put men & women together?” This tweet is disgusting and disrespectful for women, but also to men. It blatantly implies that men and women can’t be in the same space with out resisting the urge to take sexual advantage of one another.
It also completely diminishes the pain felt by the victims by brushing it off as something that should have been expected from the beginning. As if 26,000 lives are something to sweep under the rug with a casual “what did you expect.”
Secondly let’s address how Mr. Trump’s stance on abortion doesn’t add up. In many instances, Trump has stated that he is pro life with the exceptions of rape, incest, and mother’s life. Let me just interject that this now forces all those victims who are too threatened, ashamed, and out right scared to go through the grueling process our court system puts them through in order to now prove themselves eligible for abortion.
On top of this fact Donald has also shared his stance on planned parenthood. This being as he has so eloquently put it on NBC’s Meet the Press, “Look, Planned Parenthood has to stop with the abortions”. So if Planned Parenthood “stops with the abortions” where should women who are the “exceptions” supposed to be receiving them? Also that one question in the back of all of our minds, why does a man get to decide what we do to our bodies?
We should also probably address the recently leaked conversation occurring between Mr. Trump and Billy Bush. In case you are one of the few people yet to hear it, I encourage you to give it a listen.
By the way, he’s married while this conversation is occurring.
Why should we elect someone who thinks it’s okay to grab women’s genitals without consent for the sole reason because he is wealthy? Don’t worry, he justifies it as “typical locker room banter”, that counts for something right? Wrong. The answer is we should not elect someone that perpetuates rape culture, then attempts to justify it as typical guy talk.