Popular GOP presidential candidate, Donald Trump, has not only demonstrated a lot about himself this election season but has also demonstrated an aspect of the American people: their prejudice toward various ethnic and social groups, though one important group is often overlooked.
“Look at that face!" Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?!” This demonstrates Donald Trump's belief that a woman's rightful place is not as a political leader but rather in a field where she would fulfill her purpose of being aesthetically pleasing.
How could this gem be disregarded? In a New York Times interview with Philip Johnson, this is how Donald Trump responded after he decided to pour wine on a female journalist he disliked. His outright portrayal of gender inequality demonstrates that the American people can expect this man to negatively impact equality's progress, the economy, and plainly and simply the human rights of a huge group in American society.
What does Donald Trump's widespread support mean for the future of The United States ? With the ideology portrayed in this tweet, that men cannot sexually control themselves around women and that they should not be expected to, it can be expected that Donald Trump as president would not respect both genders equally but would rather regress the advances made for women and society thus far, and that Americans, including women, are okay with that.
A natural process disgusting? Something that is scientifically necessary for the human population to be nourished? Yeah, Mr. Trump, you have a great criteria: reprimanding a natural bodily function that the female population possesses and therefore expecting women to be divine beings.
Donald Trump has critized his female opponents, both Carly Fiorina and Hillary Clinton. Here he attacks Hillary Clinton on her potential as a leader and intellectual capacity based off her ability to "satisfy" her husband's needs, in other words demonstrating his belief that a woman should be judged based off her ability to fulfill her duty as as wife by pleasing her husband.
Reporters, politicians, and those in other professions have demonstrated to hold these same beliefs and have not received much attention, demonstrating that traditional gender roles are still embedded in the American people's brains.
Men and women both fall into the lie that men are the only ones who should hold positions of authority and that women should stick to other roles seen throughout history, such as working in the home. Additionally, now-a-days it is a more common belief that women should worry about attaining unrealistic beauty standards as opposed to worrying about increasing their intellectual capacities. Be like these women who get out of the trap!
The popular show Saturday Night Live portrayed why everyday people support Donald Trump. In this gif, a woman who is ironing, or fulfilling some housework traditionally perceived as women's work, is advocating him. It is not likely someone would support their own oppression, therefore demonstrating she is not aware of how women are still oppressed in this country and that Donald Trump would continue this pattern.
Essentially, voting this face into office would hinder certain groups in society, including women, and as citizens with a social responsibility to the progress of this country and the world, we cannot allow it.
Trump: “I mean, we could say politically correct that look doesn’t matter, but the look obviously matters... Like you wouldn’t have your job if you weren’t beautiful.”
Opponent: "Women can succeed by their own merit. Who decided that the reporter wouldn't have her job? You? That's not very credible considering all the hard-working women there are."
Trump: “It’s certainly not groundbreaking news that the early victories by the women on ‘The Apprentice’ were, to a very large extent, dependent on their sex appeal.”
Opponent: "Once again, attacking a woman's ability to achieve something through her own merit? If you're admitting this was the case for your show, then you were the instigator."
Trump: "Rosie O'Donnell is disgusting, I mean both inside and out. You take a look at her, she's a slob. She talks like a truck driver... If I were running The View I'd fire Rosie, I mean, I'd look her right in that fat, ugly face of her's, I would say, 'Rosie, you're fired."
Opponent: "So, you're saying because you don't think she's physically appealing that she shouldn't have a job? First of all, besides that being a completely disrespectful comment toward more than one group, a woman has more value to her than her physical attractiveness and should be able to exercise her intellectual capacities through her work without having to meet a requirement of a certain level of attractiveness."
Trump: "26,000 unreported sexual assults in the military-only 238 convictions. What did these geniuses expect when they put men & women together?"
Opponent: "Uh, maybe for males, as rational beings, to respect a woman's decision to not want to have sex with them. With that comment, you're actually saying it should be expected for men not to control their sexual urges and rather treat women as objects that men can use whenever they desire, whether their consent is given or not. You're also saying that in order to avoid this women should not be put in the military with men, hindering a woman's ability to work in the profession she chooses just because men shouldn't be expected to control their libidos."
Trump: "Well, I just don't respect her as a journalist. I have no respect for her. I don't think she's very good. She starts asking me all sorts of ridiculous questions, and you know, you could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her... wherever."
Opponent: "You don't respect her, and you're saying she was asking you certain questions because she was menstruating? If you did not like the questions she chose to ask you, okay, but it is inaccurate to state women cannot control themselves on during this natural process while saying men who have sexual urges cannot control this and should not be expected to while women should."
Trump: “My favorite part [of ‘Pulp Fiction’] is when Sam has his gun out in the diner and he tells the guy to tell his girlfriend to shut up. Tell that bitch to be cool. Say: ‘Bitch be cool.’ I love those lines.”
Opponent: "This line quite clearly embodies female oppression. No woman should be treated in this inferior manner. If you want to become president, you wouldn't want half of the American population to be oppressed; what would that do to the economy, social progress, your voter support? It is disrespectful toward women, and your love of this line demonstrates you are disrespectful toward women as well."
Click here for potential genres proposal.
Final Genres Proposal
For my final project in ENC2135, one of the genres I will be pursuing will be an array of social media posts. This genre choice will greatly contribute to the message of my project because I will be presenting to young adults in my ENC class, who understand social media is a great modern-day resource to publish information. This is a great genre for my original audience as well, female Trump supporters, because typically women who favor Donald Trump’s ideology adhere to gender roles, which include women being very active and vocal on social media, and would in turn result in reaching them. I will include tweets that Donald Trump has produced and possibly Facebook posts demonstrating Trump’s stance on a woman’s role. The project will be organized in an order of tweets or posts that seem to not be as slanderous because of the gender roles society has been accustomed to, then will end with some of Donald Trump’s social media posts that are alarming. I could utilize Prezi as this would allow me to navigate from tweet to post easily as opposed to utilizing Word to scroll down and expose the next post, though this is still a viable alternative.
The second genre I will utilize for project 3 will be a part of a debate. It could be either a section from a real debate, demonstrating the dialogue between Trump and an opponent on women’s health, for example, or an exchange between him and former GOP candidate, Carly Fiorina, as that would showcase Donald Trump’s attitude toward women. This genre will be productive because it will clearly lay out Donald Trump’s potential treatment of women if he became the new president. This would allow me to gain ground with the female audience, particularly hoping that female Trump supporters would be swayed from supporting their own subordination. This is also effective for my FSU student audience as we have reached the voting age and sometimes seek guidance in analyzing political candidates’ statements in order to find the implications for all peoples, in this case women. I will draw the student audience’s attention by making the debate very flamboyant, reflecting the impact that Donald Trump’s assertive and ridiculous attitude has done to catch the attention of the American people. In order to effectively portray this debate, the use of Word will suffice though adding effects could possibly be more appealing to the audience’s eye.
Artist Statements
Genre 1
When deciding what genres to choose, I decided I wanted one to be more visual whereas the other would be more text-based. I determined that my first genre would be a photo essay with some gifs instead of photos. Typically, the conventions of a photo essay are a good amount of still-frame pictures, include short statements to go along with each image, and be able to communicate a story without having to read the statements. Audiences are typically personas who would be drawn to or can relate to images better than words, such as younger audiences. I took this into account because my audience for project 3 is my college peers. I took this into account not just by following through with a simple photo essay but also by adding in the feature of gifs, as I am aware this is a good outlet for college students, and it would be a good outlet to reach them with my message that Donald Trump disrespects women-yet another reason people should not vote for this man.
Genre 2
For my second genre, I had to decide what to do for a more text-based piece. I decided, considering that Donald Trump is a “politician”, and during election season his and many other candidates’ viewpoints have been revealed through debates, I would transcribe a debate per say. My dilemma with this, however, was how to ensure I would include my own voice. The conventions of this genre for formal debates are typically a back and forth between two people with a central topic and a lengthy statement followed by rebuttals; however, presidential candidate debates do not truly have each person start off with a prepared statement. I was able to portray my own voice and personal genre by taking several statements proclaimed by Donald Trump about women in different instances and adding a response from an “opponent”, known as myself. The typical audience of this genre are intellectuals who are interested in politics. Considering this, I had to ensure this would somehow appeal to a younger group of students who might not all be interested in politics; my genre, however, paired with the utterly ridiculous comments made by Donald Trump, will surely grab their attention, hopefully interest them in future debates, and prove the future of the country is at hand.