After listening to the now famous Donald Trump/Billy Bush 2005 conversation on the Access Hollywood bus, that surfaced last week, I am completely disgusted how Trump bragged about his conquests with women. Many people are calling his exploits sexual assaults on women. Granted, the video was from 2005 and he wasn’t in the political arena yet, but he was still a 59 year old man! A few ethically minded men in the Republican Party immediately distanced themselves from him for good reason. Donald Trump’s response during last Monday night’s debate when confronted about the incident was that this was just “locker room talk” among men. He shrugged his shoulders and continued to stick with the “locker room talk” excuse each time the issue was addressed. So someone in his campaign told him that this was the best way to spin the story? Blame it on jocks sitting around in towels trash talking women and bragging about their sexual exploits? In the business world, talk like that would land a person in the Human Resource Department in a split second, but is it okay because a bunch of guys in locker rooms make it somehow acceptable?
Did Donald Trump ever experience a locker room? From what I’ve read, he played baseball, football and one year of soccer in high school while attending The New York Military Academy. Was that where his moral compass was established? Donald Trump spent his last two years of college at The Wharton School of Business, which is one of the top business schools in the country. Seems that instead of mastering public speaking, business etiquette and public relations, Trump minored in how to berate women, threats and violent linguistics, and ow to acquire a superiority complex.
This week I decided to look into this myself, so I asked a couple different athletes from different sports at my school to get a consensus on the issue from men my age. They all agreed that what Trump said was appalling and completely degrading to women, but what I found interesting is the fluctuation of what they have heard in locker rooms over the years. One person did admit that they have heard worse things than what Trump said, “Locker room talk is vulgar and a lot of shit is said that you would not say in front of your mother but there is a difference between stuff said and stuff that you have actually done. [Trump] was bragging about stuff that he had actually done to people. I have heard stuff like that in our locker room but I know that these guys are just fucking around and not assaulting women…. I’ve heard worse stuff than that but I now those people saying it are just joking around to get a reaction from others not trying to impress.” While the other sports claim to not have heard anything remotely horrific, they all agreed that if they ever heard someone say something close they should be corrected. I asked what they would think if they heard their coach, someone they looked up to and respect while looked to for direction, make comments degrading women and promotion inappropriate sexual misconduct what they would do. Most agreed that someone of authority like that should instantly be reported. I can’t help but think how much that speaks on a larger level in this election.
After all of this has come to light in the last week, I can’t help but be a little thankful that the issue is being brought up. Campuses all over the world are starting campaigns to discuss wrongful “locker room talk” and put an end to conversations degrading and sexually abusing women. Our campus has started the #NotOurLockerRoom campaign to raise awareness and start talking, and many others are taking similar steps.
Overall, I can’t imagine after the tapes release last week that Trump still has a chance at the presidency. In my eyes no person, no athlete, no billionair businessman should be able to assault a woman by any means and get away with it by simply saying “it’s just locker room talk”.
