Jonathan P. Baird

I expect that for the next one hundred years historians of all stripes will be analyzing and debating our last presidential election. It was pivotal and it marks a turning point where a plurality of voters decided to move the nation backwards.

While there are many lens through which to view the last election, I wanted to look at the election through the lens of sexual politics. One question that has jumped out: how could so many Americans ignore the reality that the Republican candidate had been credibly accused of sexual misconduct by over two dozen women?

A jury held against Donald Trump in the E. Jean Carroll case both for committing sexual assault and defamation. In a second New York case, he was convicted of 34 felonies, paying hush money to a porn star to cover up an extra-marital affair. Then after winning the presidency for a second time, he nominated others for high office who also faced allegations of sexual impropriety. Having sexual abuse allegations against you appears to be a Trump job qualification. Why didn’t voters care about any of that?

Let me offer an answer: sexism. Sexism is not just an ideology of male supremacy. Historically, it is an institutional practice embedded in laws, business, government and religion. Neither men nor many women want to face the fact of sexist violence against women. It is deeply rooted in sex roles and male supremacy where, until recently, men did not have to answer for piggish or criminal conduct.

The term “domestic violence” (which is an inadequate description for the phenomena) is a relatively recent naming. Before that it was wife-beating. Much violence against women was tolerated and viewed as a private affair, not subject to law. In 1970, marital rape was legal in all fifty states. It was not until 1993 that all states withdrew the spousal exception to rape laws.

The women’s liberation movement had a profound consciousness-raising impact as did #MeToo but in the last few years, #MeToo has receded.

Trump’s behavior reflects the prevailing misogyny that has minimized the importance of violence against women. As he said on the Access Hollywood tape:

“You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful…I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything.”

He has long thought he has the prerogative and can take unwanted and uninvited sexual initiatives and mostly he has gotten away with it.

If you view the allegations of many of the women who have complained about Trump’s sexual harassment, there is a sameness about the charges. They are catalogued in an article by Mariel Padilla in the 19th. Forcibly reaching under skirts, groping breasts and butts, pushing women up against the wall while grasping for erogenous zones, trying to force his tongue down throats and kissing on the lips without consent were the most common forms of assault.

Of course Trump has said all his accusers are “horrible horrible liars” but the Access Hollywood tape is an unrefuted expose. Trump has also said very revealing things. As the owner of beauty pageants he had a practice of unexpectedly walking into contestants’ dressing rooms when they were changing. He would be the only man in the room while women were standing there with no clothes. In a 2005 interview on the Howard Stern show he said, “I sort of get away with things like that”.

Voters may have had other priorities but they gave a pass. They did not see the women victimized as equivalent to their mothers, wives, daughters or sisters. If their family member was a victim, maybe they would have felt differently. Even women, particularly white women voters, let Trump off the hook for his sexual offenses. Psychiatry professor Judith L. Herman has observed:

“Most women do not in fact recognize the degree of male hostility towards them, preferring to view the relations of the sexes as more benign than they are in fact. Similarly women like to believe that they have greater freedom and higher status than they do in reality.”

Domestic violence remains a major public health problem. In the United States, women experience 4.8 million incidents of physical or sexual assault annually. However, the true prevalence of domestic violence is unknown because many victims are afraid to disclose their personal experience of violence. Many abusers get over in perpetrating because of the challenges in holding them accountable and because of fear on the part of the victim in speaking up.

Beyond the ingrained societal sexism which enabled Trump, there is a deeper factor. The Christian right treated this serial sexual harasser and multiply alleged adulterer like he is a deity. They are also promoting a male supremacist world view with the man as the head of the household. The job of the woman is to be a submissive wife, passive and obedient. These women do not leave their abusers, no matter how violent. They learn to swallow their anger.

A part of the reason for why Trump’s history of sexual abuse was overlooked and forgiven is that the religious sector of his base can justify it. Men who are abusers escape accountability. Even worse, the abuse actually gets a nod of religious approval like it is somehow blessed. There is an allowance for men to abuse. Trump is an example of that.

After the election, the phrase “your body, my choice” appeared online and surged across the internet. The slogan was coined by a little Nazi Incel. It was meant to mock the phrase from the women’s movement “my body, my choice”. It has been followed by posts calling for repeal of the 19th Amendment which gave women the right to vote. We are talking a cave man mentality.

For women, Making America Great Again is recreating a 1950’s Stepford Wife movie. Turning the clock back serves neither women nor men. The fact that voters overlooked sexism is not a positive statement about America. It is saying women don’t matter. Predatory behavior like Trump’s should not be excused or rewarded. It will only encourage more of the same.