By Hannah Schultz, Executive Editor
On the set of Access Hollywood in 2005, Donald Trump told show host Billy Bush that he “just starts kissing [beautiful women]” and that he “doesn’t wait” for permission. A married Trump describes sexually harassing a knowingly married woman. He also says that he could “grab [women] by the” genitals because “when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.”
Trump represents a pervasive problem: this society rationalizes a culture of degrading women through displacement of blame, victim shaming and the normalization of rape culture.
“I don’t think you understood what was said,” Trump said when second debate-host Anderson Cooper asked him whether he understood that he had bragged about sexually assaulting women. “This was locker-room talk.”
Countless people use this excuse to perpetuate rape culture: that’s just how men speak around each other, or you can’t expect a man to control his sexual urges.
It should be painfully clear that these age-old excuses in no way exculpate you. The idea of “locker-room talk” is detrimental: society is teaching women to protect themselves and the men around them by carefully monitoring their behavior and appearance, but it is not teaching men to respect women and control themselves.
Last Monday, a survey was released to campus about Trump and the issues the 2005 tape revealed. Of the 116 female students who responded, 48.72 percent said they had been sexually harassed and a whopping 29.91 percent said they had been both sexually harassed and assaulted. Trump personally affects each and every one of these women as a man who rationalizes and perpetuates a culture of sexual assault and harassment.
[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]society is teaching women to protect themselves and the men around them by carefully monitoring their behavior and appearance, but it is not teaching men to respect women and control themselves.[/perfectpullquote]
Supporters for Trump like to say that what Clinton has done is much worse than what Trump has said. Here is the disconnect: Trump is not merely spewing morally reprehensible garbage out of his mouth — he has done these morally reprehensible things.
It is impossible to believe that Trump has not engaged in the sexual assault and harassment he boasted about. Long before Trump was a presidential nominee, he was accused of sexual assault by three different women, including his ex-wife.
More women have stepped forward after hearing Trump’s televised statements that he never engaged in sexual assault or harassment — eight so far.
Trump refutes these claims by playing right into the trope of a misogynist: he begins to victim-shame.
First, at a rally last Thursday, he implied that one of the victims, People reporter Natasha Stoynoff, isn’t attractive enough for him to have assaulted. Then, he attempted to discredit her as so many other guilty men have for decades: by questioning why she didn’t report it immediately.
If Trump wants to know why many women do not report sexual assault — the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics estimates this includes 65 to 84.2 percent of cases — then he should take a look at his own response to those who have stepped forward: they are disbelieved by many, degraded and shamed by their abuser, and judged by others.
This stigma around sexual assault and harassment is no stranger to our campus.
“It feels more shameful to describe it to a place like Asbury,” one commenter said on the campus-wide survey, unwilling even anonymously to describe their experience.
Others say the sexual harassment was rationalized when they stepped forward.
“I was harassed during a class and informed by a professor that, ‘boys will be boys,’” they said.
Sexual assault and harassment happens, contrary to what Trump asserts as “proof” to vindicate himself, in public places without recourse due to its normalization. My first vivid experience with sexual harassment was at work in front of 20 other people when a man three times my age told me he’d like to stand there and watch me all day while raking his eyes up and down my body. No one batted an eye and some of my coworkers even told me to take it as a compliment.
I am not alone in this experience — some men, especially those with influence who believe they have special privileges, feel entitled to act on their sexual impulses regardless of the location.
“A very well liked man in my community groped me right in front of a very good friend of mine in a coffee shop after I clearly said ‘don’t touch me,’” one female student said.
According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, one in five women will experience sexual assault in college, while one in three experiences sexual harassment. Most women resign themselves to living in fear of men and their own bodies, and this culture has been normalized by men like Donald Trump, who wields his fame and wealth as a mechanism to get whatever he wants: beautiful women, publicity and maybe even the presidency.
“In considering these questions I was struck by the clarity of these memories and the ways that I have personally been affected,” said one student on the survey. “I would say that my experiences are minor and common, which shows the scope of the problem and the importance of having a leader who understands that this is a problem within our society.”
Do not let Trump abuse his power yet again. Do not dismiss Trump’s words and actions as inconsequential. His consistent degradation of women who pose a threat to his desires reveals the kind of man he really is.