The feminist movement is built in large part around a woman’s right to be seen and heard as more than property. Therefore, when audio was released of Donald Trump bragging about using his status as a wealthy male to sexually assault women, the fair expectation became that women nationwide would rally together in support of Hillary Clinton. If for no other reason, not voting for Donald Trump would send the message that chauvinism, especially his brand of it, would not be tolerated.
Something went horribly wrong, though. Instead of banding together to denounce Donald Trump’s disgusting disrespect for women, tens of thousands of them voted for him. To be exact, 53 percent of white women who voted, voted for the sexist pig who boasted about grabbing vaginas without consent, and when called out about it, remained unbothered, unapologetic, and unashamed.
That makes absolutely no sense.
The very movement founded by white women, for white women, failed all women on that fateful day back in November. The mere notion that admitting to an illegal act, being recorded making that admission, and having that recording leaked didn’t preclude Trump from being elected by the very group he boasted about violating, says a lot about the level at which white women [have always] enable(d) toxic white masculinity.
Nobody really wants to talk about that, though.
To discuss that manner of enabling would likely feel like admitting that the very movement that allowed the likes of Hillary Clinton to be able to run for President Of the United States, and set the tone for little girls across the country to be molested, raped, and otherwise assaulted, but receive no justice. To that end, it looks like the Trump administration may very well be moving in the direction of denigrating rape, sexual assault, etc., to little to nothing the same way everyone who voted for Trump did.
In fact, the Trump administration appears to have erased any reference to research past administrations have done regarding sexual violence. Alexandra Brodsky, a civil rights attorney and Co-Founder of KnowYourIX states that while looking for the Rape And Sexual Assault: Renewed Call To Action report, she realized that the reason she couldn’t find it was because the Trump administration has removed it.
“I went looking for it because I’m working on briefing for a client who’s a survivor and was looking for some literature about the impact of sexual violence and that’s been a really helpful resource for that kind of research. But it was no longer on the White House website. It’s not anywhere on the White House website.”
So disappointed in what she learned, Brodsky took to Twitter to share her findings:
https://twitter.com/azbrodsky/status/902867062946660352
https://twitter.com/azbrodsky/status/902867457899102208
The White House declined to comment on the removal of the report, but did issue the following statement:
“At the conclusion of a Presidential Administration, web content from that Administration is archived by NARA and typically made available on an archived website. The policy, process, and extent of archiving of Obama Administration content was determined by the Obama Administration, in consultation with NARA and other stakeholders.”
Doesn’t it seem mighty ironic that the White House would remove and “archive” such valuable information just as Trump’s minion Betsy DeVos is taking steps to further enable the perpetrator behavior of Trump and others with her convenient interpretation of Title IX? Things that make you go, hmmm.
Featured Image screengrab via YouTube.
