Donald Trump Is President – When Will Girls Matter?

This text references rape and sexual abuse.

No, this isn’t a foul dream: Donald Trump will probably be President of the USA, once more. Am I shocked? Vaguely. Within the run-up to election day, many males in my life shared their predictions of a Trump win with me. They weren’t gleeful about it; they have been matter-of-fact. Not like me, they did not have hope; they did not want it. They do not have pores and skin within the sport.

On my commute this morning, I noticed two males speaking and laughing with one another. They seemed like they have been speaking about work. I assumed, ‘How dare they?’ I seemed round me. Most girls within the carriage have been silent – besides for 2 having a brief dialog in a low, assertive tone. I caught sight of my reflection within the grainy window. I seem like I have been up all night time, however I have not. Hope had lulled me to sleep. Hope – that factor that ladies can by no means shake – had failed us as soon as once more.

I do know that Kamala Harris is much from the proper candidate; the ramifications of Biden-Harris’s insurance policies within the Center East are proof sufficient. However I foolishly thought that if she was elected president, American ladies might foyer Harris to do higher. Trump, alternatively, famously doesn’t take heed to anybody – least of all ladies.

I am conscious that Trump has gained honest and sq. by a democratic course of during which many ladies voted for him. However absolutely his presidential hopes ought to have been over when a video emerged in 2016 of him bragging in regards to the perks of being well-known: “They allow you to do it. You are able to do something. Seize ’em by the pussy.”

His plans for a second stint within the White Home ought to have gone up in smoke final 12 months when a New York civil court docket discovered him responsible of sexually abusing E Jean Carroll in a division retailer altering room 28 years in the past.

Or what about when Trump chosen JD Vance – who decries ladies with out youngsters as “childless cat girls” – as his operating mate for the 2024 election?

If we lived in a society that genuinely cared about ladies, Trump’s presidential bid would have ended the second he first uttered his plan out loud. However we do not, so it did not.

There are too many examples of Trump’s misogny and biogotry to listing. It hurts to maintain reeling them off, understanding it would not make a distinction – understanding it is a part of the rationale why he gained so many American votes.

Over the previous 5 or so years, Trump’s return to energy has been enabled by macho bootlickers with puffed-out chests and violent ideologies. These males (and the ladies who wish to impress them) chase proximity to energy by the overt domination of ladies and minorities. Donald Trump is the frequent thread that runs all through the current surge of ‘trad wives’, Andrew Tate’s fanboys, and pro-lifers – all of whom consider within the necessity of legal guidelines to enshrine ladies’s inherent inferiority.

America has voted to maintain ladies down on their knees, whether or not they’re dying on the border or in childbirth, whether or not they’re suffocated by disgrace or silence as their abusers climb the ranks of energy, whether or not they’re kicking and screaming or pretending to admire the view.

For each man who’s upset in regards to the end result, there are ten extra who inform me {that a} Trump presidency was inevitable. I wish to scream, ‘Don’t we matter to you? Do not ladies matter?’ However, as I’ve written earlier than, I am uninterested in begging individuals to care in regards to the ongoing destruction of ladies’s rights and livelihoods internationally. I am uninterested in asking you to provide a rattling.

For girls and marginalised individuals (together with individuals of color, the LGBT+ neighborhood, and migrants), this is not only a information story we are able to scroll previous. It is our lives. And sure, they matter.

For extra details about reporting and recovering from rape and sexual abuse, you may contact Rape Disaster on 0808 500 2222.

In case you have been sexually assaulted, you could find your nearest Sexual Assault Referral Centre right here. You can too discover help at your native GP, voluntary organisations comparable to Rape Disaster, Girls’s Support, and Sufferer Assist, and you’ll report it to the police (in case you select) right here.

For extra from Glamour UK’s Lucy Morgan, observe her on Instagram @lucyalexxandra.