By now everyone has heard of the newest Trump scandal. By now everyone has formed their own opinions about it and no doubt heard more opinions from others than they can count. Yet, I feel obliged to add my own commentary to the flood of similar remarks that already have been made.
While I sat flipping through the endless articles about the scandal, I felt the oddest sense of insecurity welling within me. Already, defenses were springing up. It was a decade ago, it was "just locker room talk," he "apologized." People still rallied behind him in the background of news reports the morning before the second debate, and yet again he seemed to shrug off what would have ruined any other candidate. And all the while that sense of insecurity, that feeling of being trapped beneath an impenetrable ceiling, threatened to overwhelm me.
I've felt this strange degradation several times throughout Trump's campaign, not just with this most recent break, but also through those statements made about his daughter, about his wife, about the wife of the Gold Star Muslim father that spoke at the Democratic National Convention — time and time again I have turned on the TV or scrolled through articles to find comments by him objectifying women, slandering those he doesn't like by judging them on their physical appearances, naming women in numbers, brushing off women's credibility because of their looks, their age, their sex.
I am fortunate enough to be a part of a generation moving toward gender equality. Quite frequently, I am able to forget the added obstacles I face as a young woman. Most days, I walk through life unencumbered. I feel free of the shackles of my gender, and I feel valued in my thoughts, opinions, actions and goals. Of course, this could in part be due to my attendance at a liberal arts school that is predominately female, but still. I feel a part of a modern age, where women are able to do as they wish just as much as men.
Of course, there are those who have disregarded my opinions because of my gender, who have believed it somehow acceptable to wolf-whistle and cry out strangely swine-like comments at me. But they usually are brushed off quite easily, and I am able to hold my head high and move on.
Yet when Trump speaks, and is supported by millions after all of the sexist things he has said, I feel myself sinking. I know many of my peers feel the same: I've seen their posts splattered across social media, crying out for reason. I've heard their discussions. And though their strength in speaking out against such gross sexism reminds me of our strength, it pains me to my core that it is necessary. Because it shouldn't be. "Making America Great Again" should not entail pushing us back to the time when women belonged in the home, looking nice and doing as they were told. It should mean moving forward, toward complete equality or as near it as we can get. Trump does not care about that. If he did, he wouldn't allow a peer to call his daughter a nice "piece of ass," or participate in "locker room talk" while married at the time of his suggested entitlement to sexual assault.
I can't stand to see such behaviors accepted in a society that I had thought was moving forward. I am not an object. I cannot be decided by a number ranking. The shape of my legs and the size of my ass cannot define me. And anyone who believes I can be degraded to such a state is not worth my time or respect, or that of any other woman, or any respectable human being for that matter.
No matter your political views, human rights matter, and the things that consistently come out of Trump's mouth refute these rights. I hate that I and others like myself cannot hide from the offensive things Trump says and the belittlement of the opposite sex that he doles out like candy. I hate that it's all we see, in ads, articles, on the news, amongst conversations, on the signs stuffed into the ground around my neighborhood and throughout the country.
I fully acknowledge that this article will result in a fair amount of eye-rolls and angry window-changing. But if you've read this far, I leave you with this:
I believe in equality — for everyone. And Trump has proven again and again that he is, at best, unconcerned with equality. To me, such disregard for the value of human life because of the size of one's breasts or the shape of one's thighs is not the direction our nation should be moving in. It is a step back from everything we have been working toward and fighting for. I can't tell anyone how to vote, nor would I try. But I will say that I would never support such behavior, from anyone, and on election day, I will be sure to make my way to the polls, defending my rights as a woman and a human being with every fiber of my being.