12 Ways Trump Diminishes Sexual Violence

From Cosmopolitan

Donald Trump’s misogyny is upending his campaign. Several prominent Republicans have disavowed their party’s official presidential nominee over a leaked tape from 2005 in which Trump made remarks glorifying sexual assault, and Trump issued a meek, halfhearted apology. His comments reflect how little he knows, and cares to learn, about the prevalence and seriousness of sexual harassment and assault. Here are 12 things Trump clearly doesn’t get about violence against women:

1. He thinks women should just get another job when they experience sexual harassment. When USA Today columnist Kirsten Powers asked Trump about what his daughter Ivanka Trump should do if she were sexually harassed at work, Trump did not say that her hypothetical harasser should be disciplined. Instead, he said that Ivanka should leave her job. "I would like to think she would find another career or find another company if that was the case,” he said. Last year, a Cosmopolitan.com survey found that 1 in 3 women have been sexually harassed at work. Rather than trying to make workplaces less hostile toward women, Trump is sending the message that sexual harassment is totally acceptable, and it’s up to the victim to tolerate it or move on.

2. His instinct is to doubt or mock alleged victims, rather than take their claims seriously. Weeks after former Fox head Roger Ailes was ousted over allegations of sexual harassment, the New York Times announced that Ailes would be prepping Donald Trump for the presidential debates. Clearly, it did not bother Trump at all that his new adviser is accused of harassing multiple women under his employ. In fact, of the allegations wielded against Ailes, Trump told NBC’s Chuck Todd that he was “very sad” that women were “complaining” about Ailes and questioned their motives. “I know how much he’s helped them,” Trump said, “[N]ow, all of a sudden, they’re saying these horrible things about him.” Though he now allies himself with the women who accused Bill Clinton of sexual abuse because it’s politically convenient to do so, in 1998, he called them “terrible people” and “a really unattractive group.”

3. He thinks that if an accuser reaches out to her alleged attacker in a positive way, that’s proof that she was never assaulted. Jill Harth, who pitched work to Trump in the 1990s, alleged that Trump made several unwanted sexual advances on her, including attempted rape. In a New York Times article about Trump’s behavior with women, Trump instead “said it was Ms. Harth who had pursued him, and his office shared email messages in which Ms. Harth, over the past year, thanked Mr. Trump for helping her personally and professionally and expressed support for his presidential candidacy.” But Trump doesn’t understand victim psychology - in fact, due to the severe emotional trauma they experience, it’s a common myth that victims behave exactly as expected. It’s not uncommon for victims to continue to be friendly with the accused, for example, because they fear they might not be believed if they tell the truth. Harth, who is now a makeup artist, told the Guardian that she decided to reach out to Trump in 2015 well after she “moved on” and forgave him. That action on Harth’s part does not negate any of the allegations she waged against him in 1997.

4. Trump blames victims for sexual assault in the military. According to a 2015 survey by the Department of Defense, 22 percent of women - 1 in 5 - and 7 percent of men have been sexually harassed on active duty. Rather than take issue with a culture that enables predators and silences victims, Trump has essentially said predatory behavior is inevitable and women in the military should expect to be assaulted:

Trump defended his 2013 tweet to Matt Lauer in September and said, “There are many people who think that that’s absolutely correct."

5. He uses “locker room talk” as a defense for his comments because he doesn’t understand rape culture. On Friday night, millions of Americans heard an 11-year-old tape of Trump boasting about how stars can "do anything" to women, including grab "them by the pussy." During the second presidential debate, Trump repeatedly defended his comments as “locker room talk,” as if it is normal and acceptable and common for men to talk about violating women. Billy Bush, the man with whom Trump was engaging in this so-called locker room banter, has been suspended indefinitely from his role as Today show co-host. What Trump fails to realize is that when a person with power, like Trump, glorifies violence against women, it further normalizes violence against women. And nearly 1 in 5 women in this country is a victim of sexual assault.

6. He dismisses his degrading comments about women as being politically incorrect or as jokes. In a debate last year, Trump dismissed moderator Megyn Kelly’s question about calling women pigs as simply a matter of political correctness. He has waved off concerns over his sexist language as just him joking “for purposes of entertainment” - because hating women is so darn funny! In a culture where women were once literally considered a man’s property and are still fighting to be treated equally, the only people entertained by Trump’s comments are misogynists who believe women are inferior to men.

7. Trump perpetuates myths that men of color are rapists. Trump has repeatedly characterized Mexican immigrants as rapists. He insists that the five men of color wrongly convicted in the rape of a white woman in Central Park in 1989, are guilty, even though they were exonerated by DNA evidence. Trump is drawing on a deeply entrenched, racist and paternalistic fear that white men need to protect white women from men of color. In reality, most rapists know their victim and are the same race as the victim. As the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence explains, “Portraying men of color as sexually voracious and preying on innocent white women reinforces a cultural obsession with black-on-white stranger rape, at the expense of the vastly more common intra-racial acquaintance rape.”

8. Trump considers his comments - in which he bragged about having sexually assaulted women - as "nothing more than a distraction from the important issues we’re facing today." Trump is really spelling out his bleak views on women for us in this comment: Women, and the issues that are core to their physical safety and everyday lives, are literally a “distraction” to him.

9. He really doesn’t know what sexual assault is. This exchange from the debate is truly mind-boggling:

I don’t think Trump understands what he said. What does he think sexual assault is, then?

10. He assumes that if a victim doesn’t come forward immediately, she is lying about what happened to her. A few days after Trump’s leaked tape was published, People magazine reporter Natasha Stoynoff come forward with her own disturbing allegations that Trump sexually assaulted her when she interviewed him for a story. He accused her of lying:

But most victims of sexual assault don’t come forward, due to fear of retaliation or stigma and shame around abuse. In fact, Stoynoff addressed the point in her piece, writing, "But, like many women, I was ashamed and blamed myself for his transgression. I minimized it (“It’s not like he raped me…”); I doubted my recollection and my reaction. I was afraid that a famous, powerful, wealthy man could and would discredit and destroy me, especially if I got his coveted PEOPLE feature killed."

11. Trump assumes men rape or sexually assault women based on attractiveness. Violence against women is about exerting power over someone else, which has little to do with a woman’s physical appearance. In fact, it’s a common rape myth that a woman’s clothing, appearance, and actions have little to do with an offender’s decision to sexually assault a victim. Instead, attackers look for victims they can intimidate. Trump, however, further degraded Stoynoff by commenting on her looks, as if sexual assault is a prize won by attractive women:

12. He assumes that consent is irrelevant if you’re a porn star. When porn star Jessica Drake accused Trump of kissing her without permission, Trump slut-shamed her. “You know, this one that came out recently, ‘He grabbed me and he grabbed me on the arm.’ Oh, I’m sure she’s never been grabbed before," he said sarcastically of Drake during a radio interview. Here’s the thing: Being a porn star doesn’t mean you’ve given up your human right to reject a sexual advance from any man who wants your body. Sexual advances - including encounters in porn - are only OK if both parties consent.

This post has been updated since publication.

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