Donald Trump denied a People magazine journalist’s claim that he sexually assaulted her during an interview. His explanation: She’s not attractive enough.
Trump: I didn’t sexually assault a People magazine reporter, because “look at her”
Trump just can’t stop objectifying women.
On Wednesday, People magazine journalist Natasha Stoynoff alleged that Trump tried to forcibly kiss her while she was on assignment. She wrote that Trump brought her into a room, shut the door, “and within seconds, he was pushing me against the wall, and forcing his tongue down my throat.”
On Thursday, Trump said it wasn’t true. “Look at her,” Trump said during a speech. “Look at her words. You tell me what you think. I don’t think so.”
This kind of objectification is part of a very long pattern for Trump.
As Libby Nelson explained for Vox, Trump seems to only show his feelings about women based on their physical characteristics or sexuality:
Trump is incapable of separating a woman’s value from her physical appearance. He assumes that his intimate commentary on women’s bodies is always welcome, no matter who might be listening — as the leaked audio, in which Trump is having a conversation with an acquaintance in a professional setting, demonstrates.
He apparently never stops to consider how the women he’s subjecting to all of this might feel. In a professional setting, it’s degrading to know that people are paying more attention to your looks than your abilities or achievements. It’s gross for your boss to tell you you’re beautiful, or for a man with more power than you to speculate about what you’re like in bed. It’s dehumanizing to be reduced to a set of breasts and a pretty face.
It is such an inherent part of Trump’s character, apparently, that he can’t even stop himself from doing it when he’s being criticized for it.
Update: The Trump campaign told me that Trump was only asking people to look at Stoynoff’s words, and referred back to Trump’s quote.
