‘WE WERE FEMINISTS ONCE’
Wednesday, November 9th 2016
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Post-election, the previous article appears just to be the glossy surface of America’s attitudes towards women. A projection of the educated millennials mindset, which rests unsteadily atop a pile of deep-rooted resentment belonging to the majority of the electorate. The US election dug deeper under that surface and revealed the true, ugly nature of the nations thoughts to the tune of Donald Trump smugly accepting his new position as President of the United States.
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The glass ceiling of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City became the perfectly ironic setting where thousands of dreams of hailing first female President of the United States were shattered on the night of November 8th. Hillary accepted her loss with the same grace and dignity that had defined her 18-month campaign, and delivered a heartbreaking speech to re-inspire her disillusioned supporters. She acknowledged, “we have still not shattered that highest and hardest glass ceiling, but some day someone will and hopefully sooner than we might think right now”. The most poignant and re-blogged statement was addressed to, “all the little girls who are watching this, never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world to pursue and achieve your own dreams.”
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What was it that persuaded America to elect Trump over arguably the most qualified individual ever to run for office? Was it him bragging about grabbing Jill Harth ‘by the pussy’? Was it him announcing women should be punished for exercising their right to free will? Or was it him vowing to ban Muslims from entering America? Why were these events forgotten in polling stations whilst the fact that Clinton was a former Senate and Secretary of State who had stood strong for her country during two wars cast aside? Why were Trumps bigoted, sexist and xenophobic views dismissed because Hillary was ‘an untrustworthy warmonger who couldn’t use email’?
"To all the little girls who are watching this, never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world to pursue and achieve your own dreams."
- Hillary Clinton
Trump’s campaign found its ground in the quietly resentful thoughts of the individual who watched an immigrant ‘take their job’, and in the locker rooms where talk of grabbing women ‘by the pussy’ was considered nothing more than a joke. Whilst we as a society consider ourselves progressive, and these instances nothing more than anomalies which existed in the realms of the uneducated and underdeveloped, we overlooked the fact that these individuals make up a considerable group of the electorate. A considerable group who panicked at the thought of a woman stepping into their carefully cultivated, all-white male territory, and voted for a racist, xenophobic and misogynistic billionaire who resides in a gold-plated tower as the 45th President of the United States.
Human beings are emotional creatures; and in the face of fear they act without rationality or logical thought, caring not for the consequences that will become the harsh slap of reality when their conscious brains eventually kick in. All it takes is a ruthless demagogue to recognise and exploit this fear, and ride its wave to victory; and this is what the electorate found in Donald Trump.
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This article was written for FEMMEHOOD magazine, view the full publication here​