A little over a week ago, the presidential election took another frightening and sad turn when a tape from 2005 of Republican nominee, Donald Trump, bragging about non-consensual groping, kissing, and attempting to have sex with women was made available to the public. In the video, Trump boasted that “when you're a star, they just let you do it.” The video alone was jarring, but more disgusting has been the aftermath.
Trump’s response to the video? A half-baked apology deflecting the blame to former President Bill Clinton, topped off with the infamous phrase, “I’m sorry to anyone who was offended.” I've said it before and I'll say it again - this is not a real apology. There was no accountability, remorse, or responsibility taken in this video. And since Trump’s half-hearted apology video, he has done nothing but deflect, deflect, deflect.
In the days following the release of the video, several women have come forward about their own experiences with Donald Trump, dating back as far as the 1980s. Former employees, beauty pageant contestants, and even Trump’s first wife Ivana, have reported being felt up, kissed, watched, and used. In response to these allegations, Trump has accused each of these women of lying and even tried to blame the accusations on Hillary Clinton’s campaign as a smear tactic. Many of his supporters proclaimed that despite the leaked video and the accusers, they still have no qualms about standing by him. Plenty questioned the validity of the stories of the women coming forward. Others just didn’t care. While their reactions are disturbing, it is indicative of a much larger issue.
As a society, we need to start talking about the way we treat women who speak up about their sexual assaults. Those who ask why more women don't report their assaults, look at the way the women accusing Trump are being treated. The women who have come forward have been subjected to belittling from both Trump and his supporters, being called liars, unattractive, disgusting, and horrible. His behavior towards the allegations says even more about his treatment of women than the actual accusations even do. Furthermore, Trump referring to his comments in the tape as “locker room talk” is a sorry understatement for a crime that deserves a much more serious conversation. Dozens of women have experienced his abuse over the years and so many of them recall feeling that his behavior must have been normal because of his stardom. Many of these women kept their stories to themselves for years because the abusive behavior of powerful men in the industry has been normalized. Trump tried to pass his comments off as “locker room talk”, but it is important that we do not let ourselves fall for the false belief that groping and forcing women to do things they are uncomfortable with is never a casual topic. Michelle Obama said it best last week in her campaign speech: “This is not normal. This is not politics as usual. This is disgraceful. This is intolerable.” In 2016, we should not need to keep being reminded of this.
