Sexual Assault Victims Rally in Response to Lewd Trump Video
Since a decade-old video of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump aired late last week, the public reaction to his lewd and offensive commentary has been loud and visceral. While Trump has seemingly apologized for making the remarks, the effect on the public cannot be so easily set aside. On social media, in particular, women have found Trump’s boasting of his ability to physically assault women because he’s “famous” (among other adjectives) to be painful reminders of their own experiences with sexual assault.
Comedian and writer Kelly Oxford reportedly opened the massive conversation online:
I posted my assault, asked women to share theirs, thinking “if no one discusses I’ll pull it down.” 9.7million later pic.twitter.com/h1y7iIiU7M
— kelly oxford (@kellyoxford) October 9, 2016
Millions of messages have followed suit, gathering around the hashtag #NotOkay
If anything positive can salvaged from the gutter-level conversation captured on that hot microphone from 2005, it could be the very public, unavoidable (unless one chooses to remain ignorant) discourse happening right now about misogyny, sexual assault, and male privilege, not just in politics but in society at large.
women have tweeted me sexual assault stories for 14 hours straight. Minimum 50 per minute. harrowing. do not ignore. #notokay
— kelly oxford (@kellyoxford) October 8, 2016
Many of Trump’s boisterous and belligerent opinions and words have been swept aside and excused in one way or another during the course of this infamous election cycle, but it appears this instance may be the tipping point for the presidential candidate. As the New York Times reflects, this recording cannot be passed by because it was “lasciviousness in its purest and cruelest form.”
Whatever your politics, whatever your stance, it’s clear from the reaction from people everywhere that what the United States needs is a leader who transcends, not one who triggers.
