By Debralee Santos
Someone call Heidi.
The howls of criticism following comedian Michelle Wolf’s remarks at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner – including the apology from president Margaret Talev – should ring as gales of hollow indignation to the scores of women maligned by Donald Trump.
Disparaged for their appearances, ridiculed for their intelligence or served up as little more than platters for the grabbing, women – friend and foe alike – are grist.
As a mogul about town, Donald Trump gleefully mused aloud about the attributes of women, including his daughter. “She’s actually always been very voluptuous,” observed Trump to pal Howard Stern on the radio in 2006. “If Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her,” he offered the same year on national television.
For years, he stoked his feud with Rosie O’Donnell – with whom he differed on issues ranging from the Miss America pageant to the Iraq war – in terms keenly familiar to those on school yard frontlines. “I look forward to taking lots of money from my nice fat little Rosie,” he remarked when threatening to sue.
As a candidate vying for the electorate’s attention and trust, Donald Trump drew frequently from the mean-girl well. He debased his primary opponent Carly Fiorina – the only woman in the crowded Republican field – as too unattractive for the highest office (“Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?!” he crowed in Rolling Stone).
While the men in his sights have been knocked for a number of sins – mendacity, stupidity, even thirst – none have had their blood flow probed. That he reserved for debate moderator Megyn Kelly when criticizing her aggressive questioning. “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever,” he said afterwards on CNN. “In my opinion, she was off base.”
On such grounds, the comeuppance for women at odds with Trump is to find themselves leveraged as targets – even when collateral damage – and to understand they are, well, up for grabs.
Read more: UPinion: Barbs Away | Manhattan Times
Read more: UPinion: Barbs Away | Manhattan Times
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