I’ve been marveling how Donald Trump’s blatant disrespect toward women never seems to faze his supporters. Whether the billionaire is cyberstalking Megyn Kelly, insulting Carly Fiorina’s looks, mocking (yes) Rosie O’Donnell, boasting about his many adulteries, profiting from a strip club, insulting Heidi Cruz’s looks and threatening to “spill the beans” on her, spreading unfounded libels about Ted Cruz’s alleged “affairs,” or whatever (it’s hard to remember everything), Trump’s misogyny only seems to help his candidacy. NOW remains largely silent; Trump’s cowardly male voters and apologists in the “conservative” media, rather than speaking up, pretty much do likewise, or bleat something about how their man refuses to bow to “political correctness.”
How can Trump continue getting away with this in our post-feminist world? Let me offer a theory. Feminism has told us for decades that men and women are “the same” and that women should be treated “just like men.” Claiming that the old order of deference to female sensibilities was in fact a form of patriarchal “slavery,” women now face a world where old concepts such as chivalry and males as the warrior class no longer apply.
Women now have “the right” to serve in front line combat positions, and the same applies in politics, even for candidates’ wives. Now women such as Heidi Cruz who are “in the arena” are “fair game” for any sleazy attack, just like the men. Donald Trump boasts about bloodying the noses of any who defy him, and the rabble hoot and holler. If women get in his way, well that’s just too bad.
Feminists who have repeated the mantra of male-female sameness are in the awkward position of not being able to speak a word of protest when The Donald takes them at their word.
Image credit: Donkey Hotey
