Locker room talk. Hilarius, right? in Deplorable thoughts

Okay, I haven’t talked a lot about the elephant,
I mean the gorilla in the room
with any sort of specifics.
I don’t want to and will not
begin a debate about things
that are so incredibly obviously wrong
that they really should go without saying,
about codes of decency that should not have to be discussed,
especially not at the pre-presidential level.

I have to say something now.
I have to say it
because there is no defense for the utterance of what was said.
I have to say it because
there are people espousing the view that it was just “locker room talk,”
that it happened years ago,
that it was for entertainment,
that the speaker has changed his views,
his attitudes,
his actions,
his basic character
in the intervening years.

It’s all bullshit!

That talking about,
bragging about,
joking about
or confessing to
touching a woman without her consent is perfectly fine.
No.
It is wrong,
plain and simple,
Wrong,
Craven
and completely indefensible.

To say it is just locker room banter
is to say that boys will be boys at whatever age,
and no matter what their actual actions,
they’re going to find it funny and laudable
to encourage each other to sexually assault women.

To say it happened years ago
and that it was a private conversation,
is to say that it isn’t an indicator of his basic character,
borne out by many other utterances and actions since.

This episode was not an anomaly,
a random action taken out of context.
It was merely the best evidence of a truth about the man
that he and his have been denying
despite all the blatant proof to the contrary.

To say it was just a character he was playing as an entertainer
is to say that nothing he has ever said or done
can be used as an indicator of what and who he is.
It also says that he agrees that
it’s okay to perpetuate this type of objectification
for entertainment,
that he has endorsed,
hell lived,
doing so, because,
heh, heh,
he’s a manly man
and promoting himself as such is all part
of what made him the (specious) billionaire he is today.

To say, laughingly,
that he can get away with groping a woman
because he is a star,
because he has greater power and influence than your average person,
is to say, unequivocally,
that might makes right,
that because a woman is in an inferior social position,
is literally physically weaker than a man,
he has the right to do with her sexually as he pleases.
It is his right.

And I am physically sickened to hear this utter bullshit.

Maybe it’s because I’m just a woman
and overly sensitive,
obviously without any sense of humour or proportion.
Maybe I’m too emotional,
unable to see the bigger picture
that it’s just a joke,
just words,
and nobody got hurt
(as I’ve heard argued in his defense.)

Or maybe, just maybe,
it’s because a man in my past
who had never met me
who was stronger than me
who had a knife to ensure that fact
felt exactly the same way
that might made right
and because he was
by nature
bigger
stronger
and by his own design
armed,
he could
come into the shop
where I was working alone
and assault me.

I was lucky.
I got away basically unharmed.
because I pretended to be pregnant
and clutched my stomach in actual panic
begging him not to hurt my imaginary baby,
so that
in the end
he only groped me there
(insert complicitory laughter here now, orange man ‘Cause it’s Just So Funny!)
while he satisfied his physical urge on top of me
soiling my skirt,
which was taken for evidence,
and my legs,
which I scrubbed raw,
and my mind
which was changed forever at a fundamental level
over one man’s assumption that might gave him right
over
Me.

Yeah,
So I’m going to say it
Right here
Right now
In my journal
Where I often hold back
So I don’t offend anyone
With my thoughts -

Donald Trump is a misogynistic asshole.
The fact that he has so many mindless followers
Who follow him so indulgently and vociferously
Shakes my faith in the basic civility and goodness of society.

I live in a state where it is a foregone conclusion
That jerk will win by a landslide.
I have never been so ashamed of my place of birth
In my life.

Words matter.
I just want that man
and all his hideous echoers
to Shut Up
And let me attempt
to re-delude myself that
people are basically good.

Last updated November 13, 2016