I know in reality it was in 2005 that Donald Trump said the words “grab her by the pussy” in a trailer backstage Access Hollywood, but in light of his recent one year anniversary as president I feel his misogynistic words are still tremendously relevant.
There has been a lot going on in 2018, but two of the most prominent themes in both news and media are women’s rights and sexual assault. The #Metoo movement, for example, has garnered much traction since celebrity Alyssa Milano popularized the hashtag on Twitter back in October, prompting people of all ages and genders to share if they have ever been a victim of sexual harassment or sexual assault. It is this reassuring and compassionate support of victims that has compelled many famous men and women to reveal the toxic sexual abuse so deeply entrenched in the pits of Hollywood via sharing personal stories.
Interestingly, the Women’s March, an event held to both highlight and bemoan the injustices of women, was held on January 20th on the very day Trump celebrated his one year anniversary with the presidency. Of course, he tweeted at the time, saying “Beautiful weather all over our great country, a perfect day for all Women to March. Get out there now to celebrate the historic milestones and unprecedented economic success and wealth creation that has taken place over the last 12 months. Lowest female unemployment in 18 years!” The irony of Trump’s self-gratifying words was that many of these women carried signs specifically calling him out for sexism, including those which said “Grab ‘em by the patriarchy,” “Tiny hands; huge asshole,” and “Super callous fascist racist extra braggadocious.” The Women’s March, Trump failed to realize, was not a celebration, but a protest.
Image by KUOW
Via Flickr
Call me old fashioned, but I believe the president should be someone both men and women can look up to, someone who is well-mannered, poised, moral, and most importantly, not an immature pig. As a young girl, I would never have imagined the future leader of my country would be notorious for objectifying women. I would have thought this sort of travesty belonged to some other era, or to a third world country where women still had practically no rights. Yet, despite my naïve and girlish dreams that my future leaders would be respectable ladies activists, here we are in 2018, stuck with a literal political cartoon: Donald Trump.
Let me recap for anyone who may have gone ostrich and for those too young to remember. In 2005 Donald Trump made a cameo appearance on the soap opera Days of Our Lives in which, acting as himself, he told an attractive and very desperate woman he was not interested in exploiting her sexually for a position in his organization. His words while in character on the show were used during the 2016 presidential campaign as a defense for his off-screen conversation with then host Billy Bush in which Trump says the scandalous phrase “grab her by the pussy.” American businessman, Peter Schiff claims in the video’s description, “Given the nature of this scene, where a women makes sexual advances at Trump, the discussion Trump had with Billy Bush prior to filming it makes more sense.” However, I don’t trust people with bad grammar, and Schiff clearly can’t tell one woman from another.
Photo credit to Chicago Reader
Photo credit to Daily Mail
Via Daily Mail
Photo credit to Democratic Underground
Regarding the authenticity of Trump’s bro to bro conversation with Bush, I’m more apt to agree with the top commenter on Schiff’s video, Scott, who wrote, “I think Trump was in character on the bus.” Donald Trump’s words are simply inexcusable at fifty-nine years old, no matter the context. Babies say stupid shit. Kids say stupid shit. Teenagers definitely say stupid shit. Fifty-nine year old men say things they truly feel and believe. By fifty-nine you are a fully developed adult whose personal character has already been well established for some time.
Even Billy Bush, known for lewd comments himself, acknowledged in an interview that Trump’s flippant defense suggesting his comments were merely “locker room banter” was total bull. “I’m in a lot of locker rooms, I am an athlete, and no, that is not the type of conversation that goes on,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. And rightly so. In fact, I don’t know which is more obscene: Donald Trump’s words, or his lackluster excuses. A mistake is dropping your phone or staying up past your bedtime to watch the new Late Night and being tired in the morning. Objectifying women is usually on purpose.
Photo credit to Daily Kos
Photo credit to NEIU Independent
Anyways, I couldn’t help but notice while scrolling my feed that these were the kinds of articles streaming about the hitched Hollywood pair. One story commanded importance (whether SA supporters are genuine and really helping the cause) and the other, was purely asinine. One comment I read about Biel even claimed that the supposed grey hairs may have been “glints of light.” As if that could be her saving grace for rejecting impossible female beauty standards. I bet she’s somewhere elegant right now, drinking a glamorous glass of wine, and wondering why people are more interested in her hair than the exhausting work she apparently put into the film that won her an invite to the Golden Globes.