Category Archives: Feminism

Former Miss Arizona: Trump ‘just came strolling right in’ on naked contestants – The Washington Post

Tasha Dixon, she only confirmed what Trump told Howard Stern, except with detail. She described to the Los Angeles TV station her experience with Trump as a contestant in 2001 in a dressing room where she and others were changing into bikinis: He just came strolling right in. There was no second to put a robe on or any sort of clothing or anything. Some girls were topless. Others girls were naked. Our first introduction to him was when we were at the dress rehearsal and half naked changing into our bikinis. To have the owner come waltzing in, when we’re naked, or half naked, in a very physically vulnerable position and then to have the pressure of the people that worked for him telling us to go fawn all over him, go walk up to him, talk to him, get his attention.

Source: Former Miss Arizona: Trump ‘just came strolling right in’ on naked contestants – The Washington Post

Trump is a sexual predator. I know it, you know it, we all know it.

Women and marginalized folks who have been a target of his incessant racism and bigotry know this, and they are taking action to demand better from our political system. On Tuesday of this week, dozens of young women and femmes with AllofUs2016 risked arrest by occupying the Republican National Committee’s headquarters in D.C., demanding that party chairman Reince Priebus and House Speaker Paul Ryan unendorse their nominee.“As a survivor of sexual assault, the idea that we actually have someone who’s a sexual predator who could be just a second away from being president is absolutely disgusting to me,” organizer Natalie Green told Think Progress. Both Green and Ambar Pinto, an undocumented immigrant, spoke about their serious concern with a man who has targeted so many aspects of their identities.The next day, 60 more activists formed a human chain around Trump Towers in New York City, calling on elected officials to withdraw their support for the nominee. Participants chanted “Trump thinks he runs this town, pussy came to shut it down,” and held signs saying “Pussies in formation.”Yesterday Reina reminded us that “either you believe that every single human being has a fundamental right to live free from violence, or you’re full of crap.” I think we know the side on which this man falls.Trump, this is where you get off. The party is over, you are done. People with pussies, immigrants, Black people, Muslims, and people with disabilities are grabbing it back.

Source: Trump is a sexual predator. I know it, you know it, we all know it.

With ‘Tweet Me Your First Assaults,’ a Protest Movement Is Born – The New York Times

But to many victims of sexual assault, Mr. Trump’s words struck a particular nerve. It was not simply that he is the Republican presidential nominee, and that a hot microphone had captured him speaking unguardedly. It was his casual tone, the manner in which he and the television personality Billy Bush appeared to be speaking a common language, many women said, that gave Mr. Trump’s boasts a special resonance.What he said and how he said it seemed to say as much about the broader environment toward women — an environment that had kept many of these women silent for so long — as they did about the candidate. And Mr. Trump’s dismissal of his actions as “locker room talk” only underscored the point.“This is RAPE CULTURE — the cultural conditioning of men and boys to feel entitled to treat women as objects,” Jill Gallenstein, 40, a retail executive in Los Angeles, wrote on Facebook. “It’s women and girls questioning what they have done to provoke such behavior. It’s the dismissing of this behavior because ‘it’s the way it has always been.’ It’s justifying the behavior because other powerful men have done it too. ‘Locker room talk’ normalizes this behavior — what we say matters.”That locker room talk also seemed to create its own momentum online.“I’ve never really thought about these moments cumulatively before,” Julie Oppenheimer of Chicago wrote on Facebook, after listing a few episodes of her own, including being kissed on the mouth by the janitor at her synagogue when she was 13. “In part, because they seem so ‘small’ compared to what many have experienced — not worthy of consideration. That’s because all of us already live in Trump’s world, where these behaviors are commonplace.”Laura Sabransky was one of many women who added to Ms. Oppenheimer’s thread, writing that she had been given date-rape drugs three times between high school and college. “I call Trump a walking trigger alert,” she said in an interview. “He is triggering anxiety and PTSD-like reactions in women, me included.”

Source: With ‘Tweet Me Your First Assaults,’ a Protest Movement Is Born – The New York Times

Hillary Came to Debate. Trump Came to Hate | Dame Magazine

So it was abundantly clear that the GOP candidate didn’t care to discuss policies or issues with a single undecided voter at the town hall last night; he far was more obsessed with settling scores with the Clintons, mostly imaginary, and to exonerate himself (by his own standards). He eagerly brought the tenor of the debate down to the sleazy, smirking level of one of his many Howard Stern show appearances. Trump frequently gaslighted Clinton, called her “a liar” (at least nine times according to CBS News) and “the Devil,” and at one point sputtered that she had “hate in her heart.” He seemed unaware of how Congress actually worked, accusing former New York Senator Clinton for not having the magical ability to pass laws or enact legislation by herself, as if by royal decree or fairy dust. He was a hot mess of aggressive body language, crossing repeatedly into Clinton’s personal space, especially when she passed to his side of the stage to address a question posed by one of the town hall participants. He seethed and scowled over her shoulder, a furious, hulking manchild accustomed to intimidating women by proximity.

Source: Hillary Came to Debate. Trump Came to Hate | Dame Magazine

Is There a Silver Lining to Trump’s Vile Comments About Women? | Dame Magazine

Like many survivors, I am enraged beyond reason by Donald Trump’s “hot mic” remarks that “when you’re a star” you can declare hunting season on women; his winking aside to Access Hollywood host Billy Bush that it was aces to “grab [women] by the pussy.” But I’m also grateful. I’m grateful that Donald Trump’s unfathomable uncouthness has taken its teeth to the Republican jugular, exposing the hot, black blood of the GOP’s entrenched misogyny, and its perpetuation of rape culture.Trump may joke about sexual assault with a boys-will-be-boys glibness, but GOP darlings like his running mate, Mike Pence, who many rank-and-file Republicans are ballyhooing for 2020, are deadly serious about forcing women to carry their rapists’ fetuses to term—even going so far as to try and redefine rape in order to effectively end reproductive choice in this country. In Pence’s America, the rapist is the masked marauder in the back-alley—not a teacher or a coach; a father or a friend; and certainly not that nice young man on the swim team or the boy next door—a figure who is mostly mythological, given the actual statistics around sexual assault. Make no mistake: The Republican party’s legislative terrorism on choice is, like sexual abuse, about stripping women and girls of their bodily autonomy.

Source: Is There a Silver Lining to Trump’s Vile Comments About Women? | Dame Magazine

Donald Trump’s ‘sickening’ Access Hollywood comments spark flood of sexual assault stories – US election 2016 – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Following the release of an off-camera recording of Mr Trump speaking in vulgar terms about trying to have sex with women, US author Kelly Oxford asked women to Tweet their “first assaults”.”Women: tweet me your first assaults. they aren’t just stats,” she posted.Ms Oxford said she received 1,000 replies in the first hour, and later said 1 million women had described their assaults to her.Warning: The following contains descriptions of sexual assault that some readers might find disturbing.Women recounted memories of being abused, groped, fondled and violently attacked by relatives, teachers, friends, boyfriends and strangers.For many, there was not just one account to share, but numerous examples of sexual assault spanning their lifetimes. Some said their memories were triggered by hearing Mr Trump’s comments.

Source: Donald Trump’s ‘sickening’ Access Hollywood comments spark flood of sexual assault stories – US election 2016 – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Listen to These Ladies Make Fun of Making America Great Again – The Ladies FingerThe Ladies Finger

On a day when US presidential candidate Donald Trump defends even more (imagine, even more) misogyny as just locker-room talk, this firmly anti-nostalgia song might be the thing to watch.

Source: Listen to These Ladies Make Fun of Making America Great Again – The Ladies FingerThe Ladies Finger

The GOP’s Outrage Over #TrumpTapes Tells Us Everything We Need to Know About Them | Dame Magazine

So why are Republican leaders suddenly shrieking in horror, as if they’ve suddenly realized that this man, this Trump, is well and truly their nominee? What’s different this time around? When Trump crapped all over White Womanhood on tape, making it nearly impossible to spin, he didn’t just demean white women but insulted his entire base. Because White Womanhood is not about women as autonomous and fully human beings, but the white institutions run by men invested in protecting the virtue of “their” women as the receptacles and gatekeepers of purest ideals and morals. Many white women are equally (if unselfconsciously) protective of those institutions for the social  privileges it gives them. As a result, you get interesting fireworks when a White Woman of the ‘hood faces down a woman of color who is sick and tired of gibberish passing for journalism. On CNN, Trump surrogate Scottie Neil Hughes (whose name is fascinating on its own), professed to being offended by Trump’s predatory attitudes towards women, but she was even more offended by Ana Navarro’s saying “pussy” when quoting Trump’s own words.“Please stop saying that word, my daughter is listening,” Hughes huffed, yanking the white lady virtue chain in order to show that she was a delicate flower in need of rescuing from the mean brown person who refused to acquiesce to her orders.Navarro was not having any of it. “Don’t act outraged and offended when I say the word, [pussy],” Navarro responded indignantly, pointing out that Hughes is a Trump surrogate who still supports the man who said it in first place.In case it’s not obvious, Hughes’ rhetorical strategy attempted to project Trump’s failings onto Navarro, casting her as the repulsive vulgarian for refusing to whitewash the misogyny of Trump’s own words. Doubtless, Hughes’ feint worked on many home viewers. That Latina lady may have had a point, but did she have to be so mean? That’s the power of White Womanhood. That’s why the thing that gets not one but two ‘apologies’ out of Trump is the tears of white women,” author Heidi Heilig observed. Because Trump has well and truly shown that he obeys no authority but the impulses of his own ego, and exposed his entire party’s leadership as toothless opportunists. The annals of history will record: “Grab them by the pussy” is this election year’s version of “binders full of women.” And so, here we are, the entire country wallowing in unprintable filth. O, how the mighty have fallen.

Source: The GOP’s Outrage Over #TrumpTapes Tells Us Everything We Need to Know About Them | Dame Magazine

I Was Sick Of Not Seeing Women Running Outdoors Till It Hit Me I Was Part Of The Problem – The Ladies Finger

I, despite being a staunch feminist, was very much part of the problem. All the while that I’d been blaming others for alienating women in public spaces, I’d made sure I made myself invisible every time I stepped out of the house. I’d stopped taking buses and local trains a long time ago. My excuses ranged from “It’s too hot” to “It’s too polluted” to “I’m running late” to “People sweat too much in a bus”. I’d stopped wearing sleeveless clothes so as to not stand out on Chennai roads. A quick visit to the mom and pop store around the corner would see me kick-starting my bike. Even when I walked, it was never a walk. It was always a stride. With purpose. In one direction. Fast.Refusing to perpetuate and give in to the same fear and alienation that haunts most Indian women, I chose the beach as my place of penitence. For the first time ever, I started running to repent and to reclaim. On the first day, it was unsettling but for every person who looked my way, I’d tell myself, “This space, the beach, the breeze, the right to be is as much yours as it’s theirs.” I stopped hunching my shoulders. I stopped making myself smaller. I started taking full breaths. My chest rising and falling with every step I took. It was a liberation I had never felt before. As I ran, people watched. I never made eye contact. As the days went by, people still watched as I ran. But I smiled.I ran for myself and the lady shyly jogging on the other side of the track. I ran because I have every right to. I also ran for a future where my daughter never has to feel like she doesn’t belong. I ran for a playground that will have both girls and boys kicking up dust. I ran for a time when girls can walk down roads whenever they want, wherever they want, wearing whatever they want. And, I will continue to run till that day comes. It’s one of the many small, only seemingly inconsequential things I can do till the day no woman feels the need to write an article like this. Till then I will run. And, you can watch. Or…

Source: I Was Sick Of Not Seeing Women Running Outdoors Till It Hit Me I Was Part Of The Problem – The Ladies FingerThe Ladies Finger

Trump says ‘I was wrong and I apologize,’ then calls uproar over lewd comments a distraction – Chicago Tribune “never really apologize and claim that others are worse than you are?”

caught on tape making shockingly crude comments about a married woman he tried to seduce, Donald Trump declared in a midnight video, “I was wrong and I apologize.”Yet he claimed the astonishing revelations amounted to “nothing more than a distraction” and argued his words were not nearly as egregious as former President Bill Clinton’s marital affairs.

Source: Trump says ‘I was wrong and I apologize,’ then calls uproar over lewd comments a distraction – Chicago Tribune