Letter to the editor: Trump’s ‘locker room banter’

NORA SABIA | Pullman

The “locker room banter” America heard in a 2005 recording of Donald Trump should have surprised us, but it didn’t.

While I am disgusted and incensed by his comments, it’s not the first time I have heard a man strike this tone when speaking about women.

Of course Donald Trump’s comments deserve nothing less than complete and utter repudiation, but the real problem is that we have heard it all before. Trump was sorry if his comments “offended anyone,” when it should have been a given that anyone who heard it was deeply offended.

Other politicians and public figures were quick to say that anyone with a daughter or mother should consider this beyond reproach. But men should not need a blood relative to be offended, or to understand exactly why what Donald Trump said was not OK.

Basic human empathy could inform us that “grabbing” another person by the genitals is not only horrific, but criminal. The sentiments expressed by both Trump and the multitude of public figures that tweeted about their daughters echo a very real problem every woman I know has dealt with.

Just last week while riding the bus I heard a young man my age saying he “f—ed her so hard she pissed the bed.”

Yes, Donald Trump’s comments are revolting, but what stands the hairs up on my neck is the guy next to me on the bus saying similar, or more, repulsive things.

Women in America should not be afraid of the man in the Oval Office, but the man I am truly afraid of is the one right next to me on my ride to class.

What is deeply disturbing is that I am afraid of them both, and enraged by them both, for exactly the same reason.

One in six women in America is the victim of sexual violence. A candidate for president should not perpetuate rape culture. No one should.