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Sexually Harassing a Nation – Baptist News Global

Sexually Harassing a Nation – Baptist News Global

I’ve looked at social media like people respond to the recent uptick in violent sexual rhetoric targeting women (and anyone, really) from former President Donald Trump and those in his inner circle. This aspect of the Trump campaign seems to be the hardest for people to deal with, and rightly so.

We have not unlearned enough or practiced good sexual ethics to know how to deal with a leader who sexually harasses a nation. Most of the time we’re just re-traumatized.

Julia Goldie day

In an interview with Tucker Carlson on Thursday, just days before Election Day, the former president said this about Republican Liz Cheney, who served as vice chair of the Jan. 6 committee and has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president: “She’s a radical war. hawk. Let’s put her there with a gun while nine barrels shoot at her, okay? Let’s see how she feels about, you know, having the guns pointed at her face.

Tucker Carlson himself made a week earlier, the following sexually violent comments were made to a cheering Trump crowd: “There has to be a point where daddy comes home,” he said, to loud cheers from the crowd. ‘Dad comes home and is angry. He is not vengeful, he loves his children. No matter how disobedient they are, he loves them because they are his children. …And when daddy comes home, you know what he says? You’ve been a bad girl. You’ve been a naughty girl and now you’re going to get a good spanking. And no, it won’t hurt me more than it will hurt you. No, it’s not. I’m not gonna lie. It will hurt you much more than it will hurt me. And you earned this. You’re going to get a good spanking for being a bad girl, and it should be that way.”

Then, when Trump takes the stage, the audience shouts, “Daddy’s home!”

On TikTok, new 18-year-old voters are introduced to the Access to Hollywood tape of Trump bragging about a video where he “grabs women by the pussy” and just kisses them without consent, saying they “let you do that” when you’re a star. When the disturbing video leaked before the 2016 election, these new voters were too young to be exposed to the explicit content.

Now many videos are shown the absolute disturbed shock on their young faces.

According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, 81% of women and 43% of men have experienced some form of sexual harassment or assault in their lifetime. That comes from a 2018 study. I suspect that the percentage will be much higher in 2024.

“We need to understand that many of us have been traumatized by sexual violence.”

The 2018 statistics do not include unreported harassment and assault, although many experts estimate the numbers are much higher than reported. We need to understand that many of us have been traumatized by sexual violence.

Trump’s recent promise to protect women even if they don’t want his protection makes it clear that he does not understand these important facts. He says he was warned on stage not to say this to women, but he doesn’t care. It’s the definition of misogyny: keeping women afraid, less powerful than men, and in need of protection. This power dynamic serves its purposes.

Karen Pontius says in response: “The bottom line is that women don’t want to protect us, and we don’t ask for men to protect us. We ask that men no longer be what we need protection from. I can’t make it clearer.”

Trump does not listen to women and others when presented with this criticism.

Trump even doubled down by simulating a performance of oral sex when he became frustrated with a microphone stand on stage, much to the delight of his audience.

When we see this kind of harassment combined with the knowledge of the former president’s well-known behavior – coming from an adjudicated rapist, no less – we see how abuse of power and sex so often work closely together. This abuse of power and sexuality is on full display as the former president feels the indictment mounting against the American people.

He may have seen one of the latest ads for the Harris-Walz campaign, in which Julia Roberts’s voice tells women that the ballot box is the only place where women still have the right to choose, even if their husbands vote for Trump. The “Your vote, your choiceThe ad is aimed at women because the growing gender gap in the polls suggests that even more conservative white women may be unwilling to vote for Trump.

I must say that I have enormous empathy for those who are convinced that this is the way a strong Bible-believing man behaves, the so-called head of a family that holds everything together with understood fear and violence, even sexual violence. You are intimidated into submission; Fear keeps you in place and gives you a false sense of protection and security. The power that these men and men like them possess is undeniable.

“The threat of violence or abuse is justified in the patriarchal hierarchical system.”

The threat of violence or abuse is justified in the patriarchal hierarchical system, and Trump and Carlson say the silent parts out loud. This is how abuse of power works, and it’s no wonder it’s hard to escape.

We know this is why so many are abused in traditional evangelical churches. The hierarchy itself serves those with less power to those at the top. Trump and Carlson and others like them are merely repeating a pattern they know works, sexually harassing a nation for another presidential term that will test the limits of democracy.

The question is: will we allow it once we see it? And whether we can vote it into submission, how can we heal from this intimidation?

Julia Goldie day is an ordained minister in the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and lives in Memphis, Tennessee. She is a painter and proud mother of Jasper, Barak and Jillian. Read more from her website or follow her on socials @JuliaGoldieDay.

Related articles:

Tucker Carlson is a danger to American families | Advice from Mark Wingfield

69 women have accused Trump of sexual misconduct, but he has changed the definition

Denying Trump’s abusive behavior has ‘devastating consequences’, says Russell Moore

Letter to the editor: A vote for Trump is a vote for a rapist