I can't tell if the circus that is Donald Trump has any kind of intentional direction to it. Everyday, news breaks about one more fool thing he's said. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to his statements, and I can't imagine his PR team (if he still has one) has had any work/life balance for a while. He seems hell-bent on alienating anyone with dark skin, an accent, a brain, and who identifies as female. It's 2015, and the number one GOP Presidential candidate has made it clear that he bases a significant portion of a woman's value on her sex appeal. If that doesn't enrage you, here are six examples of his sexism.
1. "You're disgusting"
Those are the words Trump uttered in 2007 to an attorney who requested a medical break so she could pump breast milk for her 3 month old. Just as a refresher, for those who weren't aware, breast milk is 100% of a breastfed baby's diet for the first six months of life. It's also 100% natural for women to breastfeed, and 100% rude to tell someone they're disgusting for wanting to pump.
2. "I’ve said if Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her."
His spokespeople said he was making a joke, to which my only response is, "I freaking hope he was." Joke or no, it's still a tasteless and cringeworthy statement to make. I'll be over here shuddering for a little while.
3. "Your fucking doctor has ruined me!"
In 1989, after a visit to his wife Ivana's plastic surgeon went awry, Trump cried the above sentence and began a "violent assault" on his wife that she described as rape. The incident has been in the news again recently after Mike Cohen, an advisor to Trump, declared on July 27th that "you cannot rape your spouse." Since marital rape is, in fact, illegal in this country, Donald has actually done the smart thing and started distancing himself from Cohen. Let's just all not forget that that doesn't make up for violating his wife.
4. “I bet you make a great wife.”
This is just one example of the overt sexism Trump put on display throughout The Apprentice. He also made oral sex jokes about a contestant, and generally showed favoritism and gave off a creepy vibe to all the attractive women on the show. He has made it very clear that he doesn't actually believe a woman's place is in the corner office. As a Mahsa Saeidi-Azcuy noted of her 2010 experience on the show, "so much of the boardroom discussion concerned the appearance of the female contestants—discussing the female contestants' looks—who he found to be hot. He asked the men to rate the women—he went down the line and asked the guys, 'Who's the most beautiful on the women's team?'"
Trump also claimed "all of the women on The Apprentice flirted with me—consciously or unconsciously. That's to be expected."
5. "Rosie O’Donnell is disgusting — both inside and out. If you take a look at her, she’s a slob. How does she even get on television? If I were running The View, I’d fire Rosie. I’d look her right in that fat, ugly face of hers and say, “Rosie, you’re fired.” We’re all a little chubby but Rosie’s just worse than most of us. But it’s not the chubbiness — Rosie is a very unattractive person, both inside and out."
There's really not much more to say about this statement he made about Rosie O'Donnell back in 2006. I just wanted to remind you it happened.
6. The Trump Rule
The Miss USA pageant has an unofficial requirement that all contestants strut their stuff for Trump so he personally can determine who is sexy and who is not. "Many of the girls found this exercise humiliating,” Carrie Prejean wrote in her 2009 book. “Some of the girls were sobbing backstage after [Trump] left, devastated to have failed even before the competition really began . . . even those of us who were among the chosen couldn’t feel very good about it — it was as though we had been stripped bare.” Evidently, The Donald seems to think he is the ultimate decider in terms of female beauty, to the extent that he feels the need to comment on every woman's looks.
