{"id":110214,"date":"2016-12-06T08:14:33","date_gmt":"2016-12-06T16:14:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=110214"},"modified":"2016-12-06T08:14:33","modified_gmt":"2016-12-06T16:14:33","slug":"is-donald-trump-a-misogynist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=110214","title":{"rendered":"Is Donald Trump a Misogynist?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dennis Prager writes<\/a>: You have to marvel at the ease with which our fellow Americans who call themselves progressive label those with whom they differ as sexist, intolerant, xenophobic, homophobic, Islamophobic, racist and bigoted.
\nI always wonder: Do they believe it? Or do they say it because they lack intellectual arguments?
\nI have come to believe that both are true. As a student of the left since graduate school at the Harriman Institute at Columbia University\u2019s School of International and Public Affairs, I am more aware than most people of how old and ubiquitous this mode of attack is. Since Josef Stalin got away with calling Leon Trotsky a fascist \u2014 Trotsky, the father of the Bolshevik Revolution (along with Vladimir Lenin) and the founder of the Red Army \u2014 the left has relied on defaming its opponents. And whatever it says often enough it comes to believe.
\nMoreover, the libel list never ends. The left may not produce liberty or prosperity, but it does produce labels. We now have \u201cmisogynist\u201d and \u201ctransphobic,\u201d for example. In every single area where the left differs from the right, it assigns a label to the right.
\nThis brings us to the constant charge that President-elect Donald Trump is a misogynist, a hater of women.
\nLike the other charges against him and those who voted for him, it is repeated so often \u2014 by every liberal columnist and commentator; by CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and every other left-wing newspaper; and by all the left-wing Christian and Jewish clergy \u2014 that people just assume it to be so.
\nAmazingly, there is little, if any, evidence to support the charge. The evidence supports charges of insensitivity, boorishness, crassness, immaturity and verbal impulsivity. But not misogyny.
\nTake the most infamous of the alleged proofs of Trump\u2019s misogyny: the 2005 recording of a private conversation between Trump and \u201cAccess Hollywood\u201d host Billy Bush in which Trump said: \u201cI\u2019m automatically attracted to beautiful (women) \u2014 I just start kissing them. It\u2019s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don\u2019t even wait. And when you\u2019re a star they let you do it. You can do anything. \u2026 Grab them by the p\u2014-. You can do anything.\u201d
\nWhy does that demonstrate misogyny? How is that hatred of women?
\nIt\u2019s crass, juvenile, sexually aggressive, improper, etc. But in what way does it demonstrate hatred of women?
\nIt doesn\u2019t.
\nIn fact, in his professional life, as reported during the campaign by the Washington Post, Trump was known for hiring women for the highest positions in the American real estate industry. Read the Post\u2019s Nov. 24, 2015, piece, \u201cDonald Trump, a champion of women? His female employees think so.\u201d
\nOther proofs of Trump\u2019s misogyny are his insulting statements toward women. But for every one of those one can point to insulting comments he made toward men. Remember \u201cLyin\u2019 Ted\u201d and \u201cLittle Marco\u201d and his devastating put-downs of Jeb Bush? And nothing he has said to women is as bad as what he said during the campaign about Dr. Ben Carson, calling him incurably pathological and comparing him to a child molester.
\nSo why do so many women \u2014 and men \u2014 call Trump a misogynist?
\nBecause he has so often described women in sexual terms. Because, as the charge goes, he \u201cobjectifies\u201d women.
\nNow, before responding to that, it is worth noting that this clearly disturbs college-educated women and men far more than it does those who did not attend college, which either means the college-educated are wiser on this matter, or the non-college-educated are wiser.
\nAs in most matters, my position is that college makes most people less wise. You have to go to college to think that men who see women they find attractive as sex objects hate women. Throughout history, women understood that men sexually objectify women, that this is male nature and has nothing \u2014 repeat, nothing \u2014 to do with hatred. Only the well-educated equate sexual objectification with hatred.
\nIf sexually objectifying women makes men haters of women, then gay men hate men, because gay men sexually objectify men exactly the same way heterosexual men objectify women.
\nIf you have a problem with this \u2014 and I can understand why people do \u2014 you need to take it up with God or Charles Darwin. But this is how male sexual nature works: It objectifies the object of its sexual attraction \u2014 male or female.
\nThe good news is that every healthy male is capable of both respecting women and sexually objectifying them. Even Donald Trump.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dennis Prager writes: You have to marvel at the ease with which our fellow Americans who call themselves progressive label those with whom they differ as sexist, intolerant, xenophobic, homophobic, Islamophobic, racist and bigoted. I always wonder: Do they believe … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29752],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-donald-trump"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t