Hey Donald. I heard about what you said about women. Actually, I've been hearing what you've said about women. This latest scandal, though, really takes the cake for me. I heard that you felt entitled to grab women "by our pussies," because you're a big star. Originally, I was going to contain my outrage to my personal social media sites. I've been watching this latest debate though, and hearing you refer to your proud conquests of women's bodies as "locker room banter," while in the same sentence claiming that you respect women, is truly a new level of contradiction that I thought couldn't be surpassed by you. I want to tell you why I can't stay private about this. I want to tell you why I'm angry.
I was #GrabbedByThePussy on a campus bus when I was 19. I remember when he grabbed my face and pulled it towards his without my consent. I remember how he got on top of me and pinned me down when I resisted. I can still feel his vile hands on me, when he quite literally grabbed me by the pussy and didn't let go. I remember this with extraordinary vividness, five years later. And believe me when I say, I relived it once more when I heard your comments. By the way, in case you're wondering, no one on the bus intervened. It was just "boys being boys," right? No need to get involved for just a few minutes of action, right?
This is why your "locker room banter" is not excused as such. I'm so tired of this. If this is just your "casual talk about women," society doesn't need you, and certainly not as our president. This is the product of your "lewd" language, and it's not uncommon. If you haven't heard, 1 in 5 girls will be raped at some point in their lives. Even more will experience other forms of sexual violence. Personally, I have more female friends who have been assaulted than female friends who haven't, and every damn time it happens there's at least one (insert expletive here) that blames it on the woman. It's not our fault. It's never our fault. If this is really "just how men talk" then YOU need to take responsibility for your place in society that labels women as nothing more than pussies you can grab.
You normalize our assaults by joking about it. Your words have weight. Your words are actually what everyone is basing your political competency off, since you have no political experience whatsoever.
You normalize our assaults by joking about it. Your words have weight, whether or not you'd like to admit that on national television. Your words are actually what everyone is basing your political competency off, since you have no political experience whatsoever. When you dismiss your admission of sexually assaulting women as "locker room talk," and when the host of a TV show laughs with you about it, you make it okay for predators (such as yourself) to actually commit these crimes. If you have any question about whether or not that's true, just ask my assailant. I'm sure he didn't think it was a huge deal to grab my pussy either, being that he did so in the front of a well-lit bus without interruption. I wonder if he joked about it with his friends when they got home, since they all watched him molest me without protest. If you were there, I wonder if you would have laughed with him too, as you laughed with Billy Bush about the women you've "grabbed." After all, my assailant followed your instructions almost perfectly. He didn't even have to be a big star to get away with it, either.
A vote for you is a vote for a racist. A vote for a tax evader. A vote for a sex predator. Your words say a lot more about you than just your sordid character. They clue us in as to what you would be like as a leader of our country. I would not have expected you to sign the Sexual Assault Survivor's Act, as Obama just did, granting survivors our own "bill of rights" for the first time in history. Legislation allowing victims of sexual violence to request restraining orders against their rapists was just passed in my home state. I would not have expected you, had you been given veto power, to sign your name. And there's so much more about our judicial system that needs to change. I do not trust you, as an admitted sexual predator, to sign future legislation that gives support to victims.
If and when I have a daughter, she will not grow up in a world where jokes about molesting people like her are considered normal. If and when I have a son, he and his sister will both learn that it is never okay to violate another human being. I do believe that our society will reach the point where we're not addressing the issue of sexual violence as a national crisis. But we won't get there by putting people like you in positions of power. Women remember what you've said. Your words have a heavy weight to us. And we're keeping your words in mind at the polling booth. You say you can "grab us by the pussy," but in November we're grabbing back. Us 19th Amendment people have dealt with deplorable men like you all our lives, and we'll be damned if we have to look up to one as president.