Why President Trump's Misogyny Matters

By Max Furigay ’19
News Section Editor

We can work with President Trump on a variety of issues. I truly believe that his policy choices will not spell the end of America, or anything as dramatic as what I’ve been hearing around campus. Despite his terrifying plan to (not) combat climate change, I believe that, somehow, as a globe, we can prevail. There’s one issue, however, that is pressing, immediate, and salient to our campus. And that’s Donald Trump’s attitude towards women.
One in five women are sexually assaulted in college. Of these women, eighty percent of them are assaulted while intoxicated, and seventy-five percent are first year students. Think about this. A man (because yes, ninety-nine percent of the time, it’s a male) has assaulted one out of every five women on our campus, specifically targeting women made vulnerable by alcohol or by youth. This is predatory. And this sort of entitlement towards women is what Mr. Trump stands for.
Mr. Trump’s comment that “when you’re famous, you’re allowed to do whatever you want,” is entitlement culture at its purest. He represents the idea that being in a position of power over someone means that one is entitled to that person. He treats women like objects, making claims that a women’s worth depends on her physical appearance. He acts like a pigheaded misogynist. It even sounds like he’s groped, kissed, and even raped women, although these allegations remain untested in court. Whether he holds the beliefs that he professes, he is a symbol to every misguided male looking for action, eyeing a first-year female student who’s had too much to drink.
Don’t tell me this doesn’t happen here. If one more person tells me that sexual assault is not a problem at Trinity, I think that I’m going to be sick.
These are experiences that are traumatic, life changing, terrifying, and fundamentally evil. The women who get raped are our friends, our classmates, our teammates, and are the people who we are closest to. They are hurting and scared to address the toxic situation that permeates our campus just as it permeates all college campuses.
I am terrified at what President Trump means for women on our campus, and terrified for women everywhere. We can run all the mandatory bystander intervention programs we want, but our country looked person boasting about how he can “grab women by the pussy” and get away with it because he’s famous, and then elected him president. There’s not a lot more to say after that.
I pray that we can come together as a community to prove that Mr. Trump is wrong. I suppose we’ll see.