Friday, October 14, 2016

It Starts Early for Girls



It starts early for girls. Most of us have the experience of being grabbed and manhandled by some adult man before we’re old enough to vote. Possibly before we reach puberty. It might be a stranger, or a family friend. It might be a family member. It might happen on the job, especially if that first job is in food service. Restaurants do not pay waitresses. They subcontract that duty out to customers. Young women learn early that they must be pleasing and flirtatious, and tolerate unacceptable behavior with a smile if they want to be paid. It provides excellent early training for young women in what they can expect for the rest of their lives. That early grooming may be one reason we see some women defending Trump.

By now you’ve heard Donald Trump boasting on tape about how celebrity status means you can kiss and grab women, in the crudest of terms, to his giggling, testosterone fueled fratboy buddy, one of the lesser Bushes. Trump was 60 years old at the time. His wife was pregnant. For me the worst part of the whole tape was the way he referred to the actress that he and Fratboy Bush were about to glom onto as “it” - as in “it looks good.” Women aren’t actually people to Trump, they are objects. If they look good, they are objects that Trump is entitled to. If he doesn’t find them attractive, they are objects for public ridicule.

To dismiss this as “locker room talk” is not only insulting to women, it’s insulting to all of the decent men in the world who would never dream of speaking or acting that way. It’s a way of slapping the old “boys will be boys” label on this mess, as if we should tolerate and expect this behavior from boys, even when the boys in question are nearly old enough to collect Social Security.

This has created a big problem for the GOP, who weren’t all that popular with women to begin with. The recent émigrés to the Trump bandwagon are in a real predicament. In February, John Sununu Pere wrote an editorial piece for the Union Leader and urged people not to drink the “Trump Kool-Aid.” Recently we learned he’d been guzzling that particular beverage, presumably in the hopes that his son would be able to ride Trump’s coattails to the governor’s mansion. Chris Sununu isn’t backing down. He’s blithely giving Trump a pass, something his daughter may have a few things to say about in the future.

Speaking of daughters, imagine being one of Trump’s daughters, hearing that tape of their father discussing how he grabs women by the genitals, and “they let him”. The night of the debate, his younger daughter engaged in what appeared to be a very practiced maneuver to avoid being kissed by her father. One of my friends sent me the clip. He’s disgusted that we live in a world where girls learn how to do this.

Since this big revelation, we’ve seen a lot of reactions. Some Republicans have washed their hands of Trump. Senator Kelly Ayotte was engaging in a curious kind of dance, where she said she was supporting Trump but not endorsing him. She wanted to show her support for the GOP ideology without taking any kind of principled stand against Trump. She’s been freed to ditch him. Serial liar Frank Guinta once hoped to ride the Trumptails back to Congress, and now has to contend with not only the withering contempt of the NH Union Leader (the GOP’s statewide newsletter) but also with the fleas he’s picking up from lying down with that particular dog. Guinta also has a daughter. How proud she must be.

There is a certain irony in the fact that Trump started off by demonizing Mexicans, then moved on to all-purpose xenophobia by demonizing all immigrants, Muslims, and mocked a reporter with a disability. By far and away, though, the majority of his contempt throughout the years has been for women. His bizarre obsession with Rosie O’Donnell comes to mind. Once you have a billion dollars, and build yourself a tacky gilded palace complete with gold plated plumbing fixtures, one appears to have a lot of time on one’s hands for celebrity feuds and beauty pageants. The way he spoke about Miss Universe is certainly a lesson in perceived ownership, racism and contempt.

This is what a big chunk of the electorate wants to elevate to the highest office in our land. A morally bankrupt individual who loudly bellows ignorant proclamations, engages in rambling, sniffly speeches, promises to fix things but has no actual plan for anything, other than yonking down a tic-tac and kissing some women and grabbing them. Our country is sick. Trump isn’t the disease, but he’s the loudest and orangest symptom of it.

The disease is the contempt for government that the Republican Party began to nurture during the Reagan administration. They said gummint was the problem, and went on to elect a host of folks who did their level best to prove it. That was further fed by the Citizens United decision that unleashed unrestricted cash in the service of electing more terrible people. Tea Party ideologues have taken root and worked hard to obstruct in Congress, in the US Senate, and in state legislatures throughout the land, including New Hampshire.

This election cycle has cheapened the process so much that I don’t see how we can ever recover. Whatever happens in the general election – the aftermath is going to be ugly.

Trump has provided us with a barometer. Those who are supporting him despite recent revelations have made an illustrative choice. They may say that Trump’s commentary was offensive, give it the locker-room whitewash, and label it a distraction – but the fact that they’ve chosen to continue to support him means that they have just as much contempt for women and even more contempt for the process than their candidate.   


It starts early for girls. There’s no end in sight.



2 comments:

tworavens said...

Indeed, it does start early for us girls. It is appropriate that Trump supporters are called his "base", for base is precisely what they are. His "base" must hate and despise their own nation with such a violent fervor, they are willing to see it implode under the dictatorship of a "leader" with zero business acumen. That he used their taxpayer dollars to build up a fortune is to them of no consequence. This epitomizes how banal and dim witted his "base" really are.

Their equally dim witted leader has already threatened a dictatorship by his complete repudiation of our justice system by threatening to jail a fellow campaigner (who has already been hauled through the system by the FBI and hearings). His low hanging forehead and floppy jowls constantly spewing gender hatred epitomize a Nazi in true form. And his "base" are the proud brownshirts (or perhaps they are all Commie Putin Lovers).

His brownshirts are now flaunting clothing glorifying sexual assault. They are parents. Any young girl or woman in the 1960's and 1970's such as myself experienced this horrible physical battery at the hands of male passersby, while walking the streets of Spain and Italy. I was told it happened in Greece and sometimes France too. It is rape, period!

I wonder how males would feel if random females had the power and strength to grab them by the balls and squeeze, laughing it off as a joke as so much bullying always is. Female "base" supporters, particularly those over 50 years of age, are a disgrace and in my opinion, beyond redemption. They are either dirtied rugs to be walked on by every living creature or possess exceptionally low IQ's. Either way, they have refused freedom of choice to acquire a brain. Their leader has proven that affluence does not equal class and his foul mouth, violent behavior and lack of brains is terrifying.

If we are a God fearing Christian nation as the right loves to brag, I have to wonder what Jesus would think of all this? What I do know, is that this is where Freedom of Hate Speech has gotten us (or not). We have devolved into a nation of hateful, nasty, disgusting perverts. Kelly Ayotte has proved transparent as a woman void of values and morally bankrupt. Any supporter of Trump and anyone like him is an example of that four little word beginning with s and ending in m. His "base" doesn't have the capability of figuring out what it could be. They support Vilis Horribilis.

Resistance to Tyrants, is Obedience to God. Thomas Jefferson.

tworavens said...

I'd like to leave a second comment if I may. I have just read and re-read a letter in todays Sun by Kim Nagy regarding this piece. I assume the author of the letter is female. As I've said in my previous comments, I'm consistently disappointed in the female gender and am appalled that there were no other comments to this piece, other than this one. (I am female). I disagree that Trump has ever been a "private citizen". Anyone in the public eye, demanding publicity, paying for publicity and hosting highly commercial television shows can hardly be deemed "private". Running for President is hardly a "private" endeavor.

No where in the piece written by Susan did I discern any "leftist" slanted opinion. A statistic given by the letter writer on the sexual offences of incarcerated "alien" populations read to me as quite bias, racist and very separatist. ALL incarcerated populations suffer from sexual abuses. No idea what this has to do with a future prospective President being caught red handed, as was Bill Clinton (I don't believe any female with an iota of spine has ever denied that Bill Clinton abused women). Bill Clinton has always had a reputation as a smooth seducer, a "ladies man" and I doubt he ever had to "grab 'em by the pussy" to get some. His affairs appeared to be by consent. Quite a different thing from forcing yourself onto an unwilling woman.

Kim Nagy also demonized Wikileaks which receives its information from informants, i.e. individuals passing to Wikileaks information they have regarding persons/corporations etc. I agree that writing non-fiction is entirely respectable. I have seen and heard on various videos, Trump boasting about disgusting and outrageous behavior. I have seen and heard Bill Clinton lie about having an affair with "that woman". And as a woman with spine, a mind of my own, conservative moral values and dignity, I endorse no bad behavior from any member of the male gender. As for my own gender, I see weak followers, crouching and sheepishly clinging to their male leaders, defending and weakly endorsing their appalling behavior. Which may be why, so many women don't raise themselves to higher standards - perhaps women are indeed dumber than I realized.