Contributor: Emilie – Hunter College, CUNY
At the third and final debate in Las Vegas tonight, Trump proved his incompetence in front of the nation. Aside from proving that he has no clear ideas on policy or how to run this country, he also demonstrated (unfortunately, not for the final time) that he is a misogynist. On top of all of his ridiculous comments about women’s bodies, the sexual assault accusations against him and confirmed accounts of walking in on teenagers changing, his most shirking moment came as he called Hillary, “such a nasty woman” with a lowered voice, as she was mid-sentence, in front of the entire country.
In this moment, Trump’s true feelings on women could not have come across any clearer—to him, and men like him, women should be seen and not heard. They should only be seen until he wants to look at them, (I’m guessing for Trump this is from about age 15 to 30) and after this there is no place for women in Trump’s world. They should be discarded, kicked out and replaced—on to the next wife.
As Hillary talked about raising taxes on the wealthy and then empowering women through the Affordable Care Act, Trump attempted to overpower her with aggression, saying, “Such a nasty woman,” in a dejected, snarky tone—on two separate occasions. The comment was uttered in a similar way with which he repeated, “it is so sad” or “so bad” throughout the night, in response to everything from the economy to immigration.
Donald Trump is the Zika mosquito in America’s ear.
His blatant disrespect of women is something we need to keep in check. His brand of misogyny threatens to spill over into policy, taking rights away from all women and setting us back 100 years (when America was “great”). This is the crux of Trump, and why we need to fear all candidates like him. He threatens to take control of a woman’s right to choose with blanket statements and scare tactics, as though abortions happen four days before birth. His followers and the men who think like him are unable to see things beyond black and white, or nasty women and sweet ones.
Unable to compete fairly with Hillary, as he cannot match her record or begin to approach her intellect, Trump reverts to schoolyard bullying tactics, hurling insults that would be considered below the belt in any forum, let alone a national debate. And as he is a disenfranchised male, powerless to his own self-destruction, his only approach is to claim the election is rigged. Woe is Trump.
His other idea? Call Hillary “such a nasty woman” because he cannot match her, because he does not want to have sex with her, and because she is beating him fair and square. Trump is the little boy on the playground, losing to a girl and calling her mean—but not as lighthearted as that. Calling Hillary “such a nasty woman,” not to mention interrupting her mid-sentence, was meant to throw her off her game. That comment was a blatant disrespect of all women, everywhere.
Its digs like this that show—arguably even more than the “pussy grabbing” comments—that he is outwardly hateful of women. Trump is in crisis mode, as he should be. There is no way that American women (and men) are going to stand idly by as his 1940s-style rhetoric of where a woman belongs, or how a woman should behave, goes unchecked. He doesn’t just think Hillary is nasty; he thinks all women not kissing up to him (or letting him kiss them without their consent) are nasty.
The Hillary Clinton camp is not going to let Trump’s insults go quietly. In a genius turn of events, the campaign immediately bought the site nastywomengetshitdone.com, which redirects to Clinton’s official website. By re-appropriating the term “nasty,” Clinton and women everywhere are asserting that casual sexist lingo is not okay; no, Mr. Trump, you cannot call Hillary “nasty,” or insult Ruth Bader Ginsberg because she does not agree with you.
If these are the “nasty” women in America, I’m with them!
