There was quite a bit to see in the first Presidential debate between Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Trump sniffled and snorted his was through meandering non-answers while Hillary smiled and gave substantive answers to the questions she was asked.
But as PBS Newshour reported, anyone who listened to the debate should have picked up on a very unsettling Trump tactic: interruption.
Or as many women have grown to recognize it: “manterrupution.”
Men interrupting women is sadly a tactic that many women recognize from professional settings where misogyny is sometimes covert. But make no mistake, the tactic is the mark of a true misogynist.
According to the report, in the course of the debate, Trump interrupted Clinton 51 times, while she interrupted him 17 times.
The piece set the tone for what the rest of us clearly recognized as blatant condescension:
“For many women, the presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump was a case study in deja vu. For more than 90 minutes on a national stage, they said Tuesday, Trump subjected the first female presidential candidate from a major party to indignities they experience from men daily, in the workplace and beyond.”
The report went on to quote among others, Dr. Janet Scarborough Civitelli, a vocational psychologist in Austin, Texas, who said:
“Many women watching Trump’s treatment of Clinton feel a sickening sense of familiarity with patronizing behavior directed at them during every work day. Women become exhausted by the experience that no matter how much they accomplish or how hard they work, a man with a fraction of their knowledge and achievements stands ready to critique them.”
Even when Trump is trying not to be the colossal misogynist that he is, he manages to prove that once again, his brain is trapped in an Archie Bunker past where women are expected to get in line behind men. It’s deplorable.
Watch a video of Trump “manteruppting” Mrs. Clinton throughout the debate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihxwP3bopTo
Featured image via YouTube screengrab.
