Dear Mr. Trump,
I want to personally thank you for your comments on the now infamous 2005 tape, in which you proudly bragged about how you use your power to sexually abuse women. Though, of course, this is nothing new from you. You have a long history of accusations of sexual assault, not to mention your objectifying and pejorative comments previously, about women being dogs or pigs.
What is brilliant in this new audio is that, not only do people now really have confirmation on the kind of man you are, you have actually triggered women so much — that they feel compelled to discuss their own histories of sexual assault. It’s sort of funny that it was this story that did you in — there is so much material from your past to pull from, but I think my husband said it best when he said, “After everything he has said and done, he finally made men wake up and worry about the possibility that women and girls in their lives could be the victims of someone like Trump.”
The term “rape culture” has not had as much press as it should. It has been shelved as an idea born by feminists, and we know how feminists are treated… But you have actually given the concept of rape culture form and shape! An abstract idea is now embodied in a way that those who want to protect women’s rights can actually point to.
THANK YOU FOR SHOWING US RAPE CULTURE IN ACTION.
And as a psychologist, your presence in the world is kind of like a behavioral therapy known as “flooding.” I’m not a behaviorist, but I know that this form of therapy exposes victims to reminders of their trauma in such a way that they have to subject themselves to triggers of abuse in order to desensitize. So your presence in the world acts as a kind of exposure therapy because these most recent comments have triggered flashbacks and memories of sexual assault among many victims.
It’s true, women who have been sexually victimized, myself included, are indeed triggered by your comments. It reminds us of every man who has abused his power and saw us as non-human. Comments such as yours take away any pleasure of femininity, of sexuality, because we know that men like you are out there. Waiting to take any opportunity to abuse power.
Thank you, Donald, for reminding us that sexual crimes are only a little about the act of sex. They have to do with men who feel so small in life, they need to abuse women in order to feel big.
We’ve had enough of that. Thank you for allowing us to have a real conversation on rape culture. I hope your disgrace allows every victimized woman to realize she’s not crazy. You are.
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