I watched the first Presidential Debate of 2016 in a liberal college bar, so I wasn’t expecting Trump to be the crowd favorite. I was not wrong; there were plenty of boos, jeers and witty comebacks lobbied at the screen. There was definitely plenty of material for the latter, whether it was Trump's inability to connect with a city unless he has property there, his comments about stop and frisk, or his constant interruptions of Hillary Clinton (to name a few).
As the debate spiraled, with Clinton looking more and more giddy at just how uninformed and buffoonish her opponent came across, I started to laugh -- it was actually kind of funny: Clinton so composed while Trump just wasn’t making any sense.
It was so funny I was almost not paying attention when the bar erupted into the biggest reaction, the most boos, the most disgust, of the night: the reaction over this exchange:
Lester Holt: “Earlier this month, you said she doesn't have the 'presidential look.' She’s standing here right now. What did you mean by that?”
Trump: “She doesn’t have the look. She doesn’t have the stamina. I said she doesn’t have the stamina. And I don’t believe she does have the stamina. To be president of this country, you need tremendous stamina.”
I turned to a friend and joked, “Yeah, because this guy looks so presidential.”
She replied, “It’s because she’s a woman. She doesn’t look like a president because she’s a woman.”
I nod and turn back to the screen.
My response was the easy one. Yes, Trump looks like he mixes Cheetos dust in with his moisturizer, and yes, I have seen more realistic hair on creepy porcelain dolls in antique shops, but that doesn’t really matter, either. Exponentially more offensive than Trump's smarmy appearance is his continual dehumanization of Clinton because of her gender. Even as Trump continued to back-track, leaning away from the “looks” comment, the sickening display got worse. Clinton’s lack of “stamina” could easily be replaced by the statement, “Women -- bless their hearts -- are just not cut out for this commander-in-chief business.”
So what would it mean to be a women during a Trump presidency?
If you're a women of color, it would mean having a president who refuses to disavow David Duke of the KKK, and doesn't like when "black men handle the money stuff."
If you are a woman who needs access to an abortion, then you are out of luck, if running mate Mike Pence has anything to say about it.
If you are an undocumented woman, it would mean no amnesty under any conditions, despite the fact that there are 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S.
If you are a queer woman, it would mean a "First Amendment Defense Act" that validates discrimination toward you because of religious ideology.
If you are a Muslim woman, it would mean more rhetoric that's causing your community to be violently attacked.
If you are a woman during a Trump presidency, it would mean four years of misogyny and sexism, and dealing with his seemingly innocuous statements. It would mean a bully in the White House, picking on whatever group doesn’t have the most leverage. It would mean that the lives, rights, health, and well-being of women would be under constant attack. That’s what a Trump presidency would mean.
We can joke about the optics, about the stupid hair, and the buffoonish way he makes up words, but the reality of a Trump presidency is no joke; the reality of four years of Trump in the oval office are much worse than anyone is anticipating.