In the 1930s, New Yorker writer James Thurber drew cartoons showing an imagined war between men and women. Thurber meant the cartoons to be funny, but, alas, it is no joke today. Along with the devastation Trump has visited upon us, he has armed a war against women, a toxic masculinity that he fuels and inspires others to promote. It is one of his increasingly despicable moves.
Trump’s actions and rhetoric are more than just a threat. Now he is beginning to use his seemingly unrestrained power to penalize women who don’t offer him adequate praise and allegiance. We who thought we were afforded protection by the U.S. Constitution and by the rule of law are awakening to the reality of Trump’s steady escalation of violence against women.
The evidence is stark. It has surfaced in ugly responses when women reporters — merely doing their job — ask him pertinent questions. He snapped at Mary Bruce of ABC News saying, “You ought to go back and learn how to be a reporter. No more questions from you.” He told New York Times reporter Catherine Lucey “you are a terrible person and a terrible reporter.” His response to ABC’s Rachel Scott: “You are obnoxious, a terrible, terrible reporter.” To White House correspondent Kate Rogers, he responded, “Quiet. quiet, piggy.”
After attending Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde’s inauguration last January where she requested mercy for immigrants, Trump accused the cleric of “giving a boring service, making inappropriate statements, and not being good at her job.” Earlier he used crude language to attack Nancy Pelosi whom he called “evil, sick, and crazy.” In a public speech, he said Speaker Pelosi was “a word that I won’t say; but it begins with B.” Trump disparaged Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez saying “this is not even a smart person; she just goes out and yaps.” He similarly attacked Congresswoman Maxine Waters labeling her “an extremely low IQ person.”
As if Trump’s initial sexist attacks weren’t enough, he’s become more aggressive and offensive. After Homeland Security sent thousands of masked ICE operatives into the streets of Minneapolis leading to the death of Renee Good, he was quick to blame the victim. Maligning her in death, he seemingly justified the shooting because she was “very, very disrespectful” to Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who shot and killed her.
Trump’s targeting of women has enabled other male politicians. Republican women complain their party leaders don’t take them seriously. It began with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who before she resigned she alleged, “they want women to go along with whatever they’re doing and basically just stand there, smile and clap with approval.” GOP women in Congress say Speaker Mike Johnson fails to listen to them and won’t engage in conversation on major issues.
So far the public at large has been slow to react over the Republican Party’s naked misogyny. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has purged women from the highest ranks of the military, and Speaker Johnson has attributed school shootings to “amoral society” wrought by “radical feminism.” It’s almost a contest to see who can be the most defiant chauvinist.
Trump’s sexism extends internationally as well as in this country. Speaking at Davos last week, he bragged that he had raised tariffs on Switzerland to 39 percent — higher than for other European nations — simply because Swiss President Karen Keller-Sutter “rubbed me the wrong way.” It wasn’t until Keller-Sutter’s term ended that he reduced Swiss tariffs to the 30 percent level set for other EU nations.
Misogny has become so normalized that there has been little backlash over the Heritage Foundation’s hiring of Boise State Professor Scott Yenor, known for his strident anti-feminist views. Yenor has labeled career-oriented women as “medicated, meddlesome, and quarrelsome.” He wants to legalize paying male employees, so called “breadwinners,” more than females. He advocates making divorce difficult to get and outlawing no-fault divorces. Yenor’s orientation has prompted some to call for rethinking women’s right to vote.
Meanwhile vocal Trump supporters are continuing to demonize the murdered Renee Good, her partner and their allies. GOP commentators have branded her as “very violent,” “a deranged lunatic woman” and “a domestic terrorist.” They’re calling the 37-year-old white mom AWFUL (a recent acronym for an affluent white female urban liberal.) Despite camera evidence to the contrary, they allege that Ms. Good rammed her car into ICE agent Jonathan Ross. They accuse progressive whites of turning violent and say agents have “the right to defend themselves.”
Labels and name-calling by Trump and his loyalists are being echoed by many other right-wing conservatives. They’re vilifying women who demonstrate in the streets, although men are equally involved in peaceful protests.
For the core of Trump followers, branding white middle class women as radicals obstructing mass deportation adds to an earlier obsession with race, gender, and immigration among non-college-educated white males. Those same white men provide the core of Trump’s base and they see their place in society slipping. It is that fixation that provokes their fear and helps advance the war on women.
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I don’t intend to demean Jean’s point, but Donald Trump lowers the level of discussion of everything he touches, not just women. He has the mentality of a dull-witted middle school bully. It doesn’t say much for me when I say I’d like to bust him one in chops when he attacks someone he perceives as lacking privilege. But I’d still like to take a swing at him with a roll of nickels in my fist. I hate it that we have descended into schoolyard brawling, but that is what he deserves.
The war Trump and the Republican Party are waging on women are a series of horrors upon horrors resulting in suffering unique to women. Appointing justices to the Supreme Court whom he knew would overturn Roe v. Wade, denying women access to health care, sneering at female reporters that they are “piggy” or “ugly” or “loud” (the time honored remonstration at a woman, not being quiet enough), Trump’s numerous sexual assaults, and of course, his famous, “grab em by the *****” comment on camera, which didn’t prevent his election as president. The offenses roll on. Women have learned not to expect help from lawmakers, or from the courts, even the U.S. Supreme Court. We don’t need the “not just women” assertion. We know what we’re up against.
Thank you Jean for this excellent column. Sometimes Trump’s war on women gets lost among the ever increasing offenses he commits. Too often even anti-Trump men fail to give the attacks on women enough attention. This is a moment in history where men need to be true allies but as usual it will be women who step up first and speak truth to power.