Magnum Trumpus

[Content Note: Misogyny; rape culture; racism; abortion stigma.]

I've got a new essay up at Blue Nation Review about Donald Trump, his incendiary misogynist rhetoric, and how it doesn't exist in a vacuum:

One of the most frustrating aspects of the public conversation, such as it is, around Trump and misogyny is the pretense that it's something specific to him. Oh, that's just how Trump is. Even people who ardently disagree with his opinions on women tend to be more forgiving, or indifferent, because he's regarded as some sort of outlier, uniquely terrible.

But Trump does not exist in a vacuum. His sexism, including his language borrowing from rape apologia, isn't even unique to his party. And it's certainly not unique to the populace as a whole, where in every corner of the culture, from pop culture to the halls of Congress, there is to be found plethoric evidence that feminism is still necessary.

Trump is not an exception in the US, but a Pokémon final form of gross sexism—an exemplary product of a culture in which even female presidential candidates are subjected to a steady stream of gender bias.

He did not emerge from a vacuum, and he does not disgorge his sexism into one.

To the contrary, he speaks this stuff into a landscape where many men share his toxic views, and whose own sinister attitudes toward women are empowered by a leading presidential contender elevating them to unprecedented conspicuousness.

I'm especially proud of this one, and I hope you'll head over to read the whole thing.