When Donald Trump hired Kellyanne Conway to be his new campaign manager, many speculated that the move was meant to improve the GOP nominee’s standing among women. But considering what Conway said as recently as three years ago, that seems highly unlikely to be the result of her joining the campaign.
In 2003, Conway appeared on the PBS show To the Contrary to argue against women serving in combat roles in the United States military. Conway began by saying:
“Women are already making incredible contributions to the United States military and will continue to do so. But the military’s first and primary mission is to win wars and to be as completely as capable and efficient and uber-ready as it can be. But we also don’t want to put our women in harm’s way.”
Some of the other panelists suggested that if a woman can pass the same physical exam as a man, she should be granted the same rights. To that, Conway opined:
“If you are suggesting that physical fitness experts say it’s different, I’ll accept that. Except to say that we should not have the girl’s version and the boy’s version of that physical fitness test.”
Then Conway completely jumped the shark and added:
“But I’ll tell you. If we were physiologically — not mentally, emotionally, professionally — equal to men, if we were physiologically as strong as men, rape would not exist. You would be able to defend yourself and fight him off.”
Apparently Ms. Conway is unaware (or merely doesn’t give a damn) that both men and women are raped on a daily basis not because they aren’t strong enough to fight off their attacker, but because the other person has a gun or other weapon and is threatening to kill them if they don’t do as they’re told. But to perpetuate this myth that strength is what prevents such a heinous crime is pure bullshit.
The Democratic Coalition Against Trump, a super PAC working to defeat Trump had this to say about Conway’s remarks:
“Most people who think like Donald Trump would only express their views in private, because they’re shameful. But not Kellyanne Conway. Not Eric Trump, when he said that Ivanka wouldn’t allow herself to be subject to sexual harassment. And certainly not Donald Trump himself.
“They seem to think it’s acceptable to blame rape victims for their assaults, deny women the right to control their own health care, and downplay sexual harassment in the workplace. It’s not.”
Featured Image Via Gage Skidmore for Flickr available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License
