I’ve never been a supporter of the creature that is Donald Trump. His complete disrespect for every person who isn’t a white, upper class, heterosexual, cisgender male is frightfully problematic. A sexist, racist, homophobic (the list can go on) bigot should not be the face of the United States, a country that strives to be a melting pot. After watching “Mirrors,” a viral ad sponsored by Hillary Clinton, I can envision how Donald Trump would make so many women like me feel if he were to be elected president. In this video, he’s shown saying awful things about women’s bodies. It’s not just one or two insults; it’s clip after clip of the candidate repeatedly body shaming women all throughout his life. Take a look:
This behavior is awfully questionable in a person, let alone the potential future President of the United States. Coming from someone with a history of an eating disorder, the comments Donald Trump has made, and continue to make, are extremely unsettling. We live in a society where women’s bodies are criticized no matter what they look like, whether a girl is too skinny, too chubby, too curvy, or too muscular. It’s no surprise that an estimated 14% of adolescent females struggle with an eating disorder. We cannot have a president who openly shames women for their outward appearances, especially with a growing number of diagnosed eating disorders each year. Eating disorders are a serious problem. I know that it’s very unlikely that Donald Trump has ever experienced self-hatred while looking in the mirror, but I would like him to just think for one moment how it feels to be a woman in America, to put himself into the shoes of so many women who are extremely sick. Would he ever say that someone had a “fat and ugly face” if he knew what people with eating disorders go through when they’re trying to lose weight? Would he call someone a pig if he knew that all she’s eaten this week is half of a banana? Would he say that someone who consistently purges after every meal had a fat ass? What about the people who have a binge eating disorder? How would he make them feel if he knew how guilty they felt after a binge episode? Honestly, I don’t think he would feel any remorse for his hurtful words and would more than likely insult the next woman he sees walk down the street or attacks via tweet.
Trump’s hateful rhetoric is problematic for another reason. He’s normalizing the disrespect of women by using these degrading phrases. He even laughs in the video when the interviewer asks if he respects women. By calling a woman fat and ugly, he’s conveying that this is an acceptable way to talk about women. He’s sending a message to other men that it’s okay to criticize the appearance of women, or body shame their girlfriends, a behavior that can lead to emotional abuse in a relationship. While in the midst of dealing with my eating disorder, I was dating someone who wasn’t afraid to express his negative opinions on my body. At first, it was so hard to believe that another person could say such hurtful things. After three years of constant abuse, this language towards me became normal, just an everyday type of expression. I barely flinched when my ex would call me fat or say that I looked disgusting. I, and so many women who’ve experienced relationship violence, shouldn’t be reminded of our abusive exes through the words of Donald Trump. We shouldn’t have chills at how similar Trump and our abusers talk. We shouldn’t be reminded of the person we’ve tried so hard to forget by someone who could potentially be our next president. Our President should be held to a higher standard than that of Donald Trump. We simply cannot have the president of the United States be such an abusive person. He’s setting the tone for the whole country. If it’s normal for the president to insult and body shame, then it’s certainly acceptable for other men to do the same. We’d create a toxic environment of people disregarding how others feel.
I don’t want to turn on the television and hear about Donald Trump commenting on a woman’s body ever again. I feel sick just thinking about how many women he has hurt by being an abusive and narcissistic scumbag. You know how you can make America great again, Mr. Trump? You can start off with apologizing to all of the women you’ve said such horrible things to. And then you can apologize to women as a whole for completely disrespecting us and trying to make us feel inferior to sexist and shameless animal like yourself.