Why misogyny won

[ismnotwasm]

After leaked audio showed Donald Trump bragging in 2005 that he can “grab [women] by the pussy” and kiss them without consent because he’s “a star,” Trump’s campaign seemed done for.

Many Republicans withdrew their endorsements in disgust, and those who didn’t faced intense pressure to follow suit. Trump’s poll numbers plummeted — and kept plummeting after women started coming forward to allege that Trump had sexually assaulted them.

But then, the free fall stopped. Media attention turned back to Hillary Clinton’s emails with a little over a week to go before the election. A new accusation against Trump from a former Miss Finland, and a newly surfaced video that showed Trump grabbing and kissing a former Miss Universe after humiliating her onstage in front of thousands, barely caused a ripple.

And then Americans elected an alleged sexual predator to be their president. They chose a man who has now been accused of sexual assault by 15 women — a man who has promised to sue all of those women in the first 100 days of his presidency — to be the next leader of the free world.

How did this happen?

No one factor can fully explain Trump’s victory. America’s out-of-control political polarization means that many people would vote for Trump no matter what he did, just because he had “Republican” next to his name on the ballot. Trump’s strong support among whites demonstrates how racial resentment played into his victory. His dominance in rural areas suggests a deep anxiety over not just economic security, but the loss of an entire way of life. And the role of voters who support authoritarianism can’t be ignored.

http://www.vox.com/identities/2016/11/15/13571478/trump-president-sexual-assault-sexism-misogyny-won

[duffyduff]

1. The "resentment" is the same bullshit these dudes had over affirmative action.

These idiots are so entitled, they actually think they got jobs because of "merit" rather than the fact they had white skin and dicks. They think they are entitled to make more money--especially compared to women--because they have "families to support" (never mind the wife is usually working so these families can enjoy comfortable lifestyles that they wouldn't have otherwise). The minute the government does the most modest thing to level the playing field for others to at least have a shot at the American dream, these assholes scream bloody murder.

The same mindset is at work regarding illegal immigration. Never mind this exists because of EMPLOYERS HIRING THEM.

There is no fixing these dudes. There is no way to reach them. They have been conditioned from childhood to believe they are better than everybody else because they are white dudes. They have voted the wrong way for decades.

I say to hell with them. Cut them loose and let them wither.,

[ismnotwasm]

2. Problem is--they are everywhere

Whether it's soft, "benevolent" sexism, or the kind that thinks every rape accusation is a ploy, misogyny itself seems to run an actual continuum. I'd love to--and do--either confront or ignore the ones of the extreme end, (actually ignoring them is not longer an option, we got work to do)

I know a woman who has met Trump, spent a little time with him in a social situation. She says "he is very nice" --and I'm sure he is in such situations. I'm sure he would scoff at accusations of actual misogyny and say "I love women"---might even point out his purchase of beauty pageants as proof, not quite realizing the irony. (Although I'm going to state right here, I don't think Trump is unaware to the consequences of any of his actions. I think they have a definite and defined purpose)

He deliberately reached out to the more "extreme" end of the misogyny--not just sexism, but misogyny. Has been doing it for years. The "anti-PC" crowd ate it up--they want permission to be assholes without pushback. Well they got it. The longer I get from the results of the election the less I'm actually surprised. They are many factors that went into Hillary's loss, and sexism, misogyny can be hard to quantify. Then I remember my time in this very group the arguments, right here on DU on what constitutes sexism-and this is on the "left", and I'm left with a very unpleasant conclusion that misogyny may have played a major part--in one way or the other and however it manifested.

[duffyduff]

3. Men on the so-called left will deny they are sexist

but in fact they are worse because they objectify women even worse than those on the right. I lived through the sixties and early seventies, and I know how bad they can be.

The dudes who voted for Trump cannot be reached or reasoned with. They had decades to vote for their economic self-interest and have voted against it every single time. They are in fact unintelligent and easily conned by a demagogue whose joke candidacy was endlessly promoted by media outlets for ratings and ad revenue.

The Democratic Party should not try and help them because they are unreachable.

BTW, the term misogyny is more recent in widespread usage than the term sexism. It has been around longer, but feminists did not use it much. Misogyny refers to sexist attitudes or prejudices against women. I prefer sexism and sexist attitudes to misogyny because the latter is a softer, less blunt term. It sounds more wishy-washy. The term misogyny was not used all that much until well into the 1970s and later. The terms sexist and sexism come right out of the sixties from the women's movement which ran parallel to the civil rights movement. The terms to me convey a more serious tone than misogyny.

Nobody would try to couch the terms racism or racist in less threatening terms.

[ismnotwasm]

4. Exactly

I use the term misogyny softly because I always understood it to mean a hatred of women--a kind of all purpose despising, manifesting in additives like regulating women to various body parts. I think it's possible to be sexist with out being an outright misogynist, which is why the men on the left get their felling hurt, when we call it our-- the men on the right, as you say, simply don't give a shit. Do Not Care.

Sexism can be insidious, but so often it's just in your face blatant.

[MsJaneFuzzyWuzzy]

6. just on the sexism vs misogyny point

Sexism has pretty much always referred to treatment of women: unequal pay and lack of opportunity in public life based on sex, gender-role based expectations in private life.

It is "sexist" to oppose equal pay or maternity leave, for example. Advocating differential treatment of women (discrimination - or treatment that does not recognize and accommodate genuine difference, like pregnancy) can be based on beliefs about the differences between the sexes, rather than contempt for or hatred of or belief in the inferiority of women. (Theoretically; not something one encounters separately from misogny in real life much, IMO.)

It is "misogynist" to sexually assault women, etc. etc. etc.

There has been a similar distinction between "racialist" and "racist" in some times and places, but not much in the US. I think that's one reason for the confusion between sexism and misogyny: "racism" covers both advocating differential treatment and harbouring race-based hatred.