At the second presidential debate on October 9, presidential candidate Donald J. Trump defended his most recent slew of vulgar comments about women by writing them off as "locker room talk." By Trump logic, comments about grabbing women by their genitals just because he's famous and wants to are entirely acceptable because that's just how men talk. It's the very same "boys will be boys" logic that got a rapist like Brock Turner out of jail after only serving three of his already absurdly short six-month sentence.

Trump then attempted to ignore the things he'd said altogether by turning attention to his desire to defeat ISIS, but deflection aside, one thing remains true: Donald Trump blatantly endorsed sexual assault. While this is particularly disturbing because he is a presidential candidate, it more so points to a larger issue in our country as a whole. We treat sexual assault, particularly toward women though it affects all genders, as something completely blase. Sexual assault happens. It's nothing more than "locker room talk."

Let me tell you a story.

A month ago, I attended a Blink-182 concert with several of my friends. We got separated during the show and afterward, while the few of us who managed to stay together waited to meet up with the rest of our group, some drunken idiot walked up to me and informed me that, quote, my "tits don't lie," and proceeded to invade my personal space. I immediately turned away from him while he laughed and continued to make inappropriate comments about me to his friend before they finally walked away.

I wish I could say that was the first time something like that has ever happened. I wish my best friend and I didn't leave a bar one night only to have two guys on bikes ride past shouting vile things at us and then circle back around to tell us what "bitches" we were because we ignored them. I wish I could pump gas in crop-top on a 90-degree day without a truck full of assholes beeping their horn at me. I wish there weren't people in this world who would try to tell me these instances were my fault because I had either A) been drinking or B) dressed provocatively.

I wish I didn't have to count myself as one of the lucky ones because cat-calling is the worst thing ever to happen to me. Because, unfortunately, some people aren't that lucky.

It's bad enough that we live in a world where a convicted rapist is made to look like a victim because the crime he willingly committed destroyed his dreams of swimming in the Olympics and winning an NCAA championship. It's sad that, according to statistics provided by RAINN, 2 out of every 3 sexual assaults go unreported and, out of 1,000 of those assaults that are reported, only six will result in the rapist being incarcerated.

This is the reality we live in and we have one of our presidential candidates endorsing this kind of behavior?

I don't care that the initial comments by Mr. Trump were made 10 years ago. I don't care because his defense of them being acceptable as "locker room talk" happened a mere half an hour ago.

I'm not going to play the saint here. I'm not going to pretend that I haven't had conversations with my friends that objectified men. Conversations where we talked about how sexually attractive they are or how good looking. I know that men have these conversations about women and women have them about women and men about men. The difference is, when I gossip with my friends about how hot a guy is, I'm never implying that I would do something to him without his consent.

Ah, the 'C' word. Because that's what it comes down to. Donald Trump's comments weren't some innocent conversation in the boys' locker room before football practice about how hot the new cheerleader is. His comments implied touching women without their consent. His comments were blatantly about sexual assault.

I've also, unfortunately, heard several of the men in my life defend Donald Trump's statements by saying that they have had similar conversations. To them, I have only one thing to say.

Imagine your sister or your daughter or your granddaughter or your mother. Imagine someone had said the things to them that have been said to me or countless other women on a dark street late at night or even in public in broad daylight. Imagine someone forcing themselves on her or touching her without her consent. Would you still feel as innocent about the comments your defending? Would it still be OK if that was your family member being assaulted?

This isn't an attack on Donald Trump alone. This goes far beyond the upcoming election and where your political alliances may or may not lie. This is about our greater culture and how we are too willing to let sexual assault, in any of its forms, physical or verbal, slip under the radar as something that just happens. It is our unwillingness to hear victims out without blaming them or making them feel like what happened to them was their fault. It is our inability to properly prosecute rapists and other criminals for the things they have done.

It is a potential leader of our free country deflecting and denying the heinous things he has said.

One way or another these norms have to change. We have to be willing to take part in public discourse that sparks a shift in our collective thinking and really gets to the root of the problem. How many more Donald Trumps of the world have to normalize sexual assault before we stand up and tell them that it is not OK? How many more victims have to suffer before we teach our children that it is not OK to violate a person's rights to their own body?

That is why, and I apologize if you find my comments rude or vulgar, Donald Trump and his locker room talk can go to hell.