Since Donald Trump has announced his presidency, his rise to fame has increased due to his disturbing and outrageous comments that have degraded women, racial minorities, and the disabled. People can make their arguments that despite how Trump has addressed his views on these individuals, that he "tells it like it is," or should be honored for speaking his mind. However, after the discovery of his disturbing comments on justifying sexual assault, there can be serious consequences to him becoming president. While his remarks alone are enough to believe he shouldn't become president, justifying sexual assault alone can create more problems to a crime that has been difficult to convict perpetrators of for decades.
In America, a person is raped every 2 minute with an average of 288,820 victims per year over the age of 12. The discussion and importance of consent has been addressed throughout college campuses to clarify the definition of consent and that no means no. Vice President Joe Biden created the It's On Us, a non-profit organization dedicated to educating individuals that sexual violence should not be tolerated and resources should be given to victims to combat it. He also addressed the importance for bystanders to stand up against sexual violence because it is on us as a population to stop it when it happens as opposed to ignoring the problem. Rape is not a crime against women, although they tend to be the majority. 1 in 33 American men are victims of sexual violence. If you are familiar with these statistics, then it should be no surprise that this continues to be a crime that affects a vast majority of individuals and yet is taken very lightly.
Donald Trump is simply one voice that supports his acts of sexual harassment, but if he becomes president, his decisions will be deemed acceptable alongside the degrading comments he has made towards other groups of individuals. It's On Us has worked so hard to create a view of sexual violence as an act that should not be tolerated across the country and even bring it to the classroom so consent is taught in school. All new forms of education will lose their value if the president is a man who openly admits to the same crimes students are being told not to do. Children look at the presidency as a pinnacle of success, responsibility, and leadership. They believe that running a country makes you someone to look up to because so many people depend on you to make their lives safe and secure. But if the president is justifying a crime that is already being dealt with poorly and one of the ways to prevent it is to teach people that it's wrong from the start, then It's On Us will dismantled and we can only see sexual violence increasing. Making jokes about how women are obliged to conform to men's sexual needs is not what this country needs. We need a leader that will create positive change that will make us safer. One of the ways that sexual violence is fueled is rape culture which consists of people supporting stereotypes and sexist remarks that women are merely sexual instruments of pleasure for men to devour. Instead of making America great again, he will be making it worse than it already has been.
