Unless you've been living under a rock for the past week, you've heard about the leaked Access Hollywood tape that has caused quite the scandal in the presidential race. The 2005 tape featured Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and then-Access Hollywood host Billy Bush having what the Washington Post calls an "extremely lewd conversation." But I would like to amend that: the conversation was not only "extremely lewd," it was objectifying, predatory, and another indicator that Trump is fundamentally unfit to be president.
In the tape, Trump describes making some very forthcoming advances on a married woman: "I did try and f**k her, though she was married. I moved on her like a bitch, but I couldn't get there, and she was married...she's now got the big phony tits and everything." It gets worse. As the bus approaches Arianne Zucker, Trump says "you know, I'm automatically attracted to beautiful - I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet...and when you're a star, they let you do it. They let you do anything. Grab them by the p****y."
Clearly, this is deplorable behavior that should never reflect the values of a presidential candidate. Women and women-aligned people make up half of America, yet they are still demeaned and objectified simply for existing. It is unbelievable how, even now, America could possibly elect a man who has openly boasted about sexually abusing women. Furthermore, Trump's half-hearted apology did not alleviate any of his blatant sexism, having dismissed it as "locker room talk." This seems to be eerily reminiscent of the saying "boys will be boys" to excuse sexual assault, which is unhealthy in itself because it implies that men are slaves to their sex drives and therefore are incapable of being held accountable for their actions.
Because of this debacle, well-known Republicans have been abandoning Trump left and right: Paul Ryan, George W. Bush, John McCain, Condeleeza Rice, John Kasich, and others. My question is, why is this situation the breaking point for Trump and the Republican party?
Evidently, for Republicans, it was acceptable that Trump kicked off his campaign by calling Mexican immigrants rapists and murderers. It was acceptable that he mocked a disabled reporter during one of his conventions. It was acceptable that he called for a shutdown of Muslim travel into the United States. It was acceptable when he made Islamophobic comments towards the grieving parents of a gold star military captain. But the second he says something demeaning towards white cisgender women (which, unsurprisingly, he's done many times before), suddenly he becomes one of the most loathed individuals in American politics.
Male Republican politicians can then easily insert their mothers, wives, sisters and daughters into the equation. They feel urged to defend the sexual purity of white womanhood. When they denounced Trump, men like Mitt Romney and Ted Cruz cited their wives and daughters instead of girls and women; as if women only exist within their relationships to men.
Everything was fine; all of the racist, ableist, Islamophobic, and classist statements made by Trump, until it hit too close to home.
