The sexist bully and blowhard we saw in the first presidential debate is someone whom many of us have encountered. He might have called you Miss Piggy, or he may have scolded you for getting pregnant when still a student. He could even remark your miscarriages were a way of postponing tenure decisions, or he may have gone in for lighter teasing about your clothes, hair, and boyfriends.
A number of women have expressed their recognition of Trump’s behavior in this week’s news papers. Th NYT starts:
The direct confrontation between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton over Mr. Trump’s treatment of women didn’t come until the final moments of Monday night’s debate. But in many ways, the entire event played out as a big-screen version of what women encounter every day.
There were plenty of aha moments for any woman who is the sole female member of her company’s management team, a female sportscaster, bartender, cop, construction worker, law partner or, yes, a beauty queen. And maybe for the sole female presidential candidate, too.
It occurs to me that we might have a teaching opportunity here. If you have a colleague who goes in for this obnoxious behavior while insisting it is just good fun, tell him that he is behaving like Trump, and that he makes too many of us feel shocked and even ill.
Feminist Philosophers 