Over the past couple of weeks, the Republican Party has been dealing with the fallout of Donald Trump’s now infamous leaked audio from 2005. Since the release of the footage, several women have come forward and accused Trump of sexual harassment and sexual assault.
In the days following these events, several Republican leaders have come forward and denounced him, saying they will not be voting for him. Most of them have used a similar speech pattern when doing so, saying they can’t support Trump because they are fathers to daughters, sons of mothers, or brothers to sisters. While I commend these leaders for sticking to their morals and denouncing Trump’s actions, the language in which many of them are doing this in reinforces the party’s problem when it comes to women.
All these men may have women in their lives that they love, but the fact that they happen to have female relatives should not be the reason they are denouncing these actions. They should be denouncing these actions because women are people deserving of basic respect. When they denounce these actions only because of their relationships with the women in their lives and not because they believe all people, including women, are entitled to basic respect, they are contributing to a rhetoric that women are not their equals and somehow lesser people than men. This same rhetoric of viewing women as lesser is present in many of the party’s platforms; from not allowing women to make their own choices about their body and health care, to not supporting legislature enforcing equal pay, to saying sexual assault is a woman’s fault and rape is part of God’s plan.
If the Republican Party seems to still be viewing women as a minority voting demographic, when, in fact, they make up more than half the population. If they want to say they care about women they shouldn’t do so by saying their relation to their mothers and daughters is the only reason. They should say it’s because no human being should have to deal with assault and discrimination. They need to stop caring about women with words only and pass legislature to make sure they receive equal treatment under the law and are entitled to rights that ensure their health and quality of life.
This is about more than just Trump and his words. If the Republican Party wants to say they support women, it needs to fundamentally change the platform. It’s rather ironic that it took Trump’s “grab them by the pussy” comment for a party that wants to constantly control women’s bodies to finally denounce him.
