Women across the world were ready for an answer. As Donald J. Trump stepped onto the stage of Washington State University during the second debate to address the NSFW remarks that cost him many valuable endorsements from within his party, how would he justify them? Even though we knew he would somehow blame Mexico, China or ISIS for his gaffe, we were not prepared for the phrase he used as an excuse.


According to Donald, his stomach-churning words about women were simply “locker room talk.” No harm, no foul. Trump told us his comments merely reflect the honest way men speak about women when they are not within ear shot. The Republican nominee did not flag his diatribe as an aberration or a mistake. Instead, he let us know that his words represent his actual worldview off the campaign trail. To Donald, women exist to be ogled and fondled by wealthy men, whether they consent or not. And the women he isn’t sexually interested in? Pigs. Fat pigs.

Locker Room Talk, according to Urban Dictionary: The crude, vulgar, offensive and often sexual trade of comments guys pass to each other, usually in high school locker rooms.

Donald J Trump, the world is not a strip club, and neither your money nor your celebrity is enough to make women fall at your feet. Your reign as professional woman judger has ended, as have the days when you could speak about women, African Americans, Latinos, or members of the LGBT community in such sweeping generalizations. Stop being such a fear monger and a separatist. What we need more than ever is unity.

WE KNEW HE WOULD SOMEHOW BLAME MEXICO, CHINA OR ISIS FOR HIS GAFFE.

Donald Trump does not speak like someone who respects women. Period. He is offensive about our looks, he uses rape as a campaign tool, and he blames a woman for her husband’s sexual transgressions. Donald Trump is a man who is easy to write off, easy to hate, but harder to learn from.

Clearly there is so much work to be done. Whether or not we like it, more than 40 percent of Americans will vote for Donald regardless of how he sees and speaks about women.

Obviously, one place to stand up against Trump’s sexism is in the voting booth, but we must also realize that there are people around us each day who are not phased by unbridled misogyny. They didn’t even blink an eye. What does this mean for future generations?

We are here to say judge us by the content of our character, and we can’t believe we have to say that in 2016.

Women today are not the women that exist within Donald’s mind. We are nuanced, we are powerful and we won’t back down to bullies. Despite’s Trump’s oft-repeated message that women should be judged or dismissed because of their looks alone, we are here to say judge us by the content of our character, and we can’t believe we have to say that in 2016.


WRITTEN BY

Belisa Silva