The Atlantic - "The Lasting Harm of Trump-Style Sexism"

[TomCADem]

Even if Trump wins, the fact that so many voters passionately supported his hateful message will undoubtedly inspire copy cats in the years to come.

http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/11/how-trump-style-words-hurt/506456/

Where were you when you heard the potential leader of the free world say he feels like he can grab women by the genitals? Or when he interrupted his female opponent during a debate to say she’s “such a nasty woman?”

In this last, grim half of 2016, a trend has emerged: After every debate peppered with interstitial WRONGs and every report brimming with new groping allegations, many women have said Donald Trump’s attitude makes them feel ... well, gross. To him, it’s an offhand remark, but across the internet, there’s a collective shudder. Many of us wondered, “Do men really think like that?” or “Is the moderator going to let him get away with that?” or “Are women really so objectified that we can be described with the same verb—‘grab em!’— that one would use for a tube of Go-Gurt?”

Many of Trump’s female detractors are liberal, true, but this revolted feeling spanned party lines. Victims of trauma have perhaps been most distressed by it all. After the publication of Trump’s 2005 hot-mic moment on Access Hollywood, women tweeted accounts of their molestations at a rate of 50 per minute. Parents used it to teach their kids about respect and boundaries. And after 12 women came forward to allege that Trump groped them just as he bragged, people who had buried their assaults for decades talked openly about them for the first time. One rape victim told Slate’s Michelle Goldberg that her traumatic memories, “really kicked in with this whole conversation about how rape-y he is.” Even women who aren’t sexual-trauma survivors found themselves, as Michelle Obama put it, shaken to the core.

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Even if Trump doesn’t win, Lawless points out, voters who have been energized by his campaign might inspire future candidates to replicate Trump-style rhetoric. Fringe candidates might think, hey, if the people want bullying and bluster, let’s give the people what they want! “That will generally bode poorly for anyone who’s interested in bringing about civility in politics,” she said.