Photo: George Cassidy Payne
George Payne, founder of Gandhi Earth Keepers International.
A graduate of the Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School, George Cassidy Payne is a SUNY Adjunct Humanities Instructor. He serves on the National Council of The Fellowship of Reconciliation, the nation’s oldest peace and justice organization. In 2014 he founded the online educational resource called Gandhi Earth Keepers International.
Use Mother’s Day To Reflect on Trump’s Legacy of Abuse Towards Women
This Mother’s Day I am going to take some time to reflect on the president’s views and comments about women.
In 2013, Trump tweeted that military sexual assault should basically be expected because men and women serve in the military together. Matt Lauer gave Trump an opportunity to restate his comments in a forum hosted by NBC. Trump said. “Well, it is a correct tweet.”
About journalist Megyn Kelly, he said she had “blood coming out of her wherever” after she questioned Trump for having demeaned women as “fat pigs” and “dogs.”
About Carly Fiorina, in an interview with Rolling Stone, he said: “Look at that face!” “Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?!” About reproductive rights, he said, “there has to be some form of punishment” for abortion if it were to ever be banned in the United States — and that punishment should fall on women.
During the debates, Trump mocked Clinton for being a few minutes late returning to the stage during a Democratic debate saying, “I know where she went, it’s disgusting, I don’t want to talk about it.”
After Clinton challenged Trump on his history of criticizing women’s looks and bodies, focusing on the specific example of Alicia Machado, a former Miss Universe who says Trump called her “Miss Piggy” (after she gained some weight) and “Miss Housekeeping” (because she is Latina), Trump defended fat shaming Machado, telling “Fox and Friends” that “she was the worst we ever had.” “She was a winner, and she gained a massive amount of weight, and we had a real problem,” he said. “We had a real problem with her.”
Even more appalling are is the Robert Ailes crimes. The former CEO of Fox News, was accused by many women of sexual harassment, including former news host Gretchen Carlson. But Trump defended Ailes, telling “Meet the Press”: “I can tell you that some of the women that are complaining, I know how much he’s helped them.”
And there is that infamous Access Hollywood video.
Put bluntly, on January 20, the nation collectively witnessed the most public act of domestic violence ever recorded. Trump is an abuser. His words are abusive. His actions are abusive. His policies are abusive. His history with women is marred by abuse. His taking the oath sanctioned this abuse and made women all over the world less safe.
Consequently, the scholarship of domestic violence advocates is more urgent than ever. As Lundy Bancroft once wrote:
The abusive man’s high entitlement leads him to have unfair and unreasonable expectations, so that the relationship revolves around his demands. His attitude is: “You owe me.” For each ounce he gives, he wants a pound in return. He wants his partner to devote herself fully to catering to him, even if it means that her own needs—or her children’s—get neglected. You can pour all your energy into keeping your partner content, but if he has this mind-set, he’ll never be satisfied for long. And he will keep feeling that you are controlling him, because he doesn’t believe that you should set any limits on his conduct or insist that he meet his responsibilities.
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