Women are justifiably angry. If Nate Silver’s polling is any indication, women especially, of all stripes and beliefs, genders, color, ethnicity, will deliver the election for Hillary Clinton. What is so remarkable about this emphatic rejection of Donald Trump is the insistence among women that we tell our stories of the constant sexual assault, harassment, insult, shaming—telling those stories loud and clear. In public. So men cannot ignore it. So women who defend these men cannot ignore it. So that women able to think can join together and say “Enough is Enough.”
This week’s report on the War on Women is focused on the reactions to the tape of Donald Trump delighting in his “ability” to sexually harass any woman in his reach—married, unmarried, hot, attractive, anyone he deems worth . Most of the reactions were revulsion. But the small group of Trump supporters made their presence known by standing armed, outside Democratic candidate sites and their ongoing online presence insulting women, Hillary Clinton, and praising sexual predator Donald Trump. More below the line.
So let’s start with the Nate Silver polling. Part of this story started with Trump, Jr. tweeting the Nate Silver map of electoral votes based on current polling.
Great. Trump Jr. says women who can’t handle sexual harassment should teach kindergarten. Ugh. This in Brendan Gauthier Salon article.
What Nate Silver actually posted, the map in question, was if only men voted —
After finding out what Nate Silver had posted, Trump supporters decided that women should not vote. LA Times reporter Seema Mehta writes on Trump voters who want to repeal the 19th Amendment, the amendment enlarging the franchise to include women.
The link below is to the map with voting by men only is red. The map with women only voting is quite different.
Almost all blue—but a handful of Southern states, three mountain states—Idaho, Utah and Wyoming, and North Dakota. 458 Electorial Votes.
Beautiful. Hope it holds. Because more of us vote in percentage terms. We need to show up.
So let me move to the important reactions of women.
Story for NPR by Camila Domonoske on the Twitter outburst of stories of sexual assault.
On Saturday, Oxford said that over the course of a single evening, a million women had responded to her call-out.
The flood of stories still hasn't ended. More than 13,000 tweets were directed at Oxford on Sunday and Monday alone, mostly from women and men recounting assaults; still other stories were shared under the hashtag #NotOkay, or posted on Facebook.
The vast majority of responses, including Arington's, do not mention Trump by name. They stand as a rebuke not only to the candidate, but to something much larger: a culture of complicit silence.
In a Chicago Tribute article by Dahleen Glanton, she relates her own story and closes with
Michelle Obama spoke for many women Thursday when she said the Trump allegations had "shaken" her to the core in a way she couldn't have predicted.
It is frightening to realize how close we have come to electing a president who dismisses predatory behavior as merely locker room banter. It's depressing to think that America could have a man at its helm who views women as a piece of meat. It is hurtful to hear him talk about being able to do whatever he wants to a woman.
Such a mindset has no place in our society, and those words certainly shouldn't have come out of the mouth of a presidential contender.
That's why we are breaking our silence. Because every woman in America deserves better than this.
Quite apart from the deplorable video of Billy Bush and Donald Trump discuss assaulting women, here are several other descriptions of Trump’s attitudes toward women. In Rolling Stones special report on Trump, Matt Taibbi on Trump’s violent reactions to women who challenge him.
Summer Fields’ ABC story on how Trump uses Twitter to attack women.
Fields includes some of his notable tweets about women in the media, his usual target.
Sarah O from Crooks and Liars writes on the reaction to Trump disclosure by women.
The “witness” Trump uses to say that the Leeds flight sexual harassment it didn’t happen in fact confirms that he was on that flight. Ye, Gods!
Another story about Trump and sexual assault, this one compiling a list of the accusers.
Claire Cohen’s compilation of Trump’s offensive comments about women.
Here’s an example from the Cohen article about about women and architecture:
2007: When he compared women to architecture
This appears in his bible of business wisdom Trump 101: The Way to Success:
"Beauty and elegance, whether in a woman, a building, or a work of art, is not just superficial or something pretty to see."
At least our beauty isn’t superficial, eh ladies?
An article in McClatcheyDC by Anita Kuman and Lesley Clark about differences and similarities between Clinton and Trump as politicians with sexual scandals.
Here are the kinds of comments by Trump supporters--Good Lord!!
Four people who lost their law licenses, one pedophile and serial rapist, one corrupt former US Secretary who sold out her office and got 4 Americans killed in Benghazi, one closeted homosexual black former "community organizer" a.k.a. Al Sharpten with a deeper voice, and finally, one First Tranny in a dress masqurading as a first "Lady", are trying to moralize with the rest of us? Bullshlt! www.google.com/...
Come on now! Give Bill a break. I think that a man married to Hillary has got some type of Constitutional Right to stray from the marital bed. Bill is only human and being forced to be in a monogamus relationship with Hillary would test even the strongest of men. Plus Bill is so smooth with it. I think it is the eyes. You know he is lying and he knows you know that he is lying but yet you want to forgive him because his lies are so sincere. Bill is a hero to men who cannot get away with it like he can. Bill is world-class.
ALL the comments seem to be in this vein. God help us.
And to go along with these appalling comments, here is Rush Limbaugh, as reported by MediaMatters:
A Legacy of Musical Responses
Over the years, popular music has conveyed a number of responses to situations in which women have had enough. So here are several for your Saturday listening pleasure.
Though most of these are about surviving rotten heterosexual relations, the fierceness of the sentiments rings true for this moment. Here’s Gloria Gaynor.
And a nice list hitting some high spots for fierce feminist attitudes:
And a good old sixties song to close this section.
And in other news . . .
This section includes a brief set of other news stories. I hope that readers will add news stories they found interesting in the comments as I haven’t been able too include all the worthwhile stories recommended for this week.
Events
Economic Policy Institute, October 26th, 11:30 am. Panel, Wage Gap, Washington DC
October 11th was the International Day of the Girl. This Planned Parenthood AZ article remind us all that the real experts about girls are girls themselves.
International News
CNN story by Stephanie Busari, Jason Hanna and Faith Karini about the release of 21 Chibok schools girls in Nigeria. Their names are listed in the article. Just under 200 girls remain in capitivity or whose whereabouts are unknown. #BringBackOurGirls
Nigeria again. While the President meets with European leaders including Angela Merkel, his wife indicates there are policy problems for women in recent actions. He wants to send her back to the kitchen.
Breeanna Hare writes a CNN article on the five worst countries in which to be a girl.
Health
Article from Mosaic, a fascinating interdisciplinary journal, on the importance of microbiotic health for women’s genitals.
This story about the African American doctor on a flight from Detroit being totally dissed and rejected by the flight attendant, who apparently couldn’t believe that this young woman was a real physician is astonishing.
Apparently Delta “reprimanded” her. She should have been fired for endangering the life of a passenger. This shows one of the real costs of racism. As disgusting as Trump.
Fetal Remains law reviewed in report by Nation’s Rebecca Grant.
www.womenshealthpolicyreport.org/…
Action
Vote
Encourage others to vote.
Call voters.
Help voters get to the polls.
UltraViolet has a new petition up to remove Jeff Sessions from the Judiciary Committee in the Senate.
Another petition admonishing judge for change of sentence to child rapist. Read the story. This is awful.
As always, thanks to the mighty members of group writing This Week in the War on Women: officebss, ramara, Eyesbright, Besame, Tara the Antisocial Social Worker, elenacarlena. Hope I haven’t forgotten anyone. You’re all terrific. Thank you especially ramara for teaching me how to embed a YouTube video!
