On Oct. 16, President Trump posted a tweet calling Stormy Daniels a “horeseface." This was in response to the recent ruling in favor of Trump in the Stormy Daniels case.
It seems like Trump can’t go a single day without insulting the appearance of a woman who disagrees with him. This is not a new trend. He said in 2012 that Ariana Huffington, editor and co-founder of the Huffington Post, is “unattractive both inside and out." In 2015, he commented on his rival for presidential candidacy, Carly Fiona, saying, “Look at that face. Would anyone vote for that?” Later in 2015, he called Ariana Huffington “unattractive” once again.
After a difficult line of questioning by Megyn Kelly, the host of a 2015 Republican debate, he said there was “blood coming out of her wherever." I could go on, but there are already plenty of articles devoted to cataloguing all of Trump’s sexist comments.
Every time Trump is faced with a woman he disagrees with, he results to insults. He doesn’t debate, and he doesn’t explain why he thinks they’re wrong. Instead, he regresses to crude name-calling to invalidate his opponents. The insults often mock the appearance of these women.
As any woman who has ever tried to disagree with a man knows, this tactic is commonly used by men who feel threatened when a woman knows more than they do. It makes them feel less masculine when they are shown to be wrong by a woman, so instead of either admitting they are wrong or debating the point, they try to make the woman look stupid or inferior so people don’t listen to them.
The President of the United States, for better or worse, sets an example for the people of the country. People take note of what they see in the news, and boys and young men see Trump saying these horrible things about women with which he disagrees. This is not the example we want set for the children of our nation.
If the most powerful man in the country goes on Twitter and degrades women left and right, the young, impressionable boys will see this and think it’s okay. He normalizes and perpetuates this horrible behavior and increases the chances that the next generation will follow in his footsteps. As the spokesman for the United States, Trump needs to learn to at least pretend to respect people who aren’t straight, white, cisgender men, or risk, yet again, setting a bad example for all males and making the country look foolish.
