Women Fire Back at Trump’s Comments

American businessman and Republican Party nominee for President of the United States in the 2016 election, Donald Trump has voiced his opinion over women’s attractiveness, as well as their ability to execute work well.

Trump has insulted co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post, Arianna Huffington, calling her “unattractive both inside and out.” He has also stated that American singer and actress Better Midler is an “extremely unattractive woman.”

Each of these comments were stated by Trump via his Twitter account.

“It is disheartening to see that this is still happening. I really thought we were passed the time where objectifying women was seen as acceptable,” Jasmin Tartt, a member of American Association of University Women, said.

Over a month ago, Trump compared his wife with Ted Cruz’s wife in side-by-side photos on his Twitter account. Along with the photos of both women, he wrote, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”

Sinead Maguina, vice president of American Association University of Women at University of Central Oklahoma, responded to Trump’s comments regarding women, “If you can only [give value to] a person by their looks, not only are you a narcissistic person – not only you are selfish – but you are just very ignorant. A person’s attractiveness doesn’t last forever. It does not, but your intelligence does. Your intelligence will be with you until the day that you die.”

The Republican Party presidential candidate is no stranger to grading women on looks, according to multiple sources. Because of these comments, Trump’s campaign has brought with it a lot of conversations over sexism and sexual assault.

During an interview with The New York Times, Trump made comments on model Heidi Klum’s appearance, saying, “Sadly, she’s no longer a ’10.'”

“Being graded based on your look, it’s pretty saddening and can be very hurtful. I’m definitely more empowered than I was in the past. And I’ve spent time in the military, so I’ve been around guys talking like this. But being where I am today, I definitely try to make a point in letting them know it makes me uncomfortable. I feel everyone should be able to feel this way and say something,” Tartt said.

During the first presidential debate, American politician and nominee of the Democratic Party,  Hillary Clinton, called out Trump for his history of misogynistic comments. In particular, she brought to light the former Miss Universe Alicia Machado, who he has called “Miss Piggy.”

Trump also insulted Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski in a Twitter attack, calling her “neurotic.”
“I’m not an object. I don’t dress the way I dress to impress boys. My intelligence is worth more than anything, and so those comments kind of depreciate what a woman is. We are not just a pretty thing you can look at. We are working women, we are mothers, we are CEOs. For him to say that, that’s just saying women are just an object, and that’s not OK. I don’t know who taught him morals,” Maguina said.

Tartt explained that a lot of men use this type of behavior: offending women and covering it up by saying it’s all a joke.

“I think a lot of people try to make excuses for this type of behavior because they play it off as a joke — the ‘boys will be boys’ culture that we live in today. It’s not even just about sexual, explicit things. It’s about what is behind it, because sexual assaults happen every day, and it’s mostly on women,” Tartt said.

“Just because you say some offensive comments and then say it’s a joke, it’s really not [a joke], because you thought about it, and you said it. It’s not funny to me, and it’s not funny to anybody else,” Maguina said.

The New York Post emerged with a videotape displaying Trump bragging about sexually assaulting women. In the video recorded a little over a decade ago, Trump said, “You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful women. I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything … Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.”

Since the leaking of the video, Trump has been accused of harassment and assault by a number of women who came forward to share their stories of alleged misconduct.

“Him commenting that the sexual comments that he made were just locker room talk is basically giving permission to everybody to just mistreat women whether it be physical, or mental or at the work place,” Maguina said about the leaked tape.

When asked how to educate the male population over this touchy topic, Maguina said, “Just say, ‘Hey, you know what, I don’t appreciate that. Can you please not say that again? Because it’s not nice.’ Don’t be afraid to stop them and say, ‘That’s not okay for you to say.’ They don’t have people that tell them that, because some girls just ignore it and go on with their day. I think we just need to be stronger as women,” she added.

Do Women have Sovereignty over Their Bodies?

As a woman in America, I take advantage of my rights and I understand the history of our challenges. Even with previous disadvantages and economic injustice, we have accomplished many rights throughout the last century.

Our grandmothers have fought for our rights, and under American law, women won the right to vote on August 18, 1920, which opened many doors for our future. Instead of being the secretary, we became the boss.

Women in America were expected to stay home with the children, cook for the family, and raise the children to be good citizens. That archetypal concept, however, has drastically changed in the last few decades. Stay-at-home dads became more popular, and mothers received an education and the means to follow a career and be successful in a professional field.

Even though women have faced inequality during the last century—and have fought through it—gender gap still exists in America and throughout the world, especially in the workforce.
Women generally earn 79 cents for every dollar men earn for exercising the same jobs.

According to Women’s Law Center (CWLC), African-American women in 2014 were paid 60 cents for every dollar white men earned, while Hispanic women only earned 55 cents.

Women’s rights have started to progress, but the question remains: Have women taken sovereignty over their bodies?

From my viewpoint, popular media still limits women’s role by including an intense scrutiny and emphasis on their looks. America has oversexualized the female body and praised men for their work ethic, discipline and overall professional attitude.

In a social experiment video on YouTube, two different women were observed. One, a breastfeeding mother, received bad looks and mean comments such as “shame on you” from those passing by her.

The second, a young woman wearing an extremely cleavage-bearing shirt and tight-fitting clothes, was praised by men for how beautiful she looked. She received a positive reaction, even though she exposed the same amount of skin as the mother did, who was sitting quietly and feeding her infant.

Mothers have the right to breastfeed in public and shall be excused from jury duty upon request, according to the Oklahoma State Law.

It’s conflicting to see people shaming mothers for feeding their infants in public while they have the right under the law to do so. The same people that despise women’s right when it comes to breastfeeding, take their children to the mall, and let them see photos of Victoria’s secret models who are often showing more skin.

I long to see the day where women and men will be equally respected and admired by society—a day where women will be admired for her efforts to better the society, instead of her looks and extravagant eyelashes. After all, equal means equal, right?

What guys hate in women

Guys claim they like everything in a girl, but let’s be honest, that’s not how it goes.

With that said, there are many things that guys don’t like in women, and today I’ll explain a couple of them to you.

Guys are simple– too simple if you ask me. They won’t ask you to look like a Victoria’s Secret model or own a mansion, but they do look for certain types of girls.

Men do not like nagging women, and to be fair, nobody does. It really upsets me when somebody is constantly pointing out my mistakes and flaws. Don’t be that complaining person that can do nothing but demand and complain.

If something went wrong today, just move along and keep a positive mindset. Tomorrow might be better. Stop bringing negativity into people’s lives.

If you dropped your ice cream, stop complaining and go get another one. It’s not the end of your life, just move along and smile.

I’ve seen many relationships be torn apart because the woman could not stop nagging, and it literally drove the guy nuts. Please, take things slow. Let your man breathe and have a good life.

The drama-queen is definitely not a good catch either. I’ve heard many of my guy friends complain about how dramatic their girlfriends are.

Little issues can become the end of the world just because the girl is too full of drama and chaos.

A broken nail sucks, and it will take weeks to be perfect again. I get it, we are more sensitive than guys, but there is no need to make a huge deal out of a broken nail.

There will be other problems in your life, bigger problems, and you will have to be able to deal with it.

As a woman, I understand that we do like to expose our feelings and have reassurance, but being overly dramatic about a topic is definitely not the way to go. It will drive people away from you, leaving you with more drama to talk about it.

If you still want to be dramatic, please have your own TV show. I’ll make sure not to watch it.

Guys do not like the overly jealous woman that cannot go a few hours without calling, texting or snap chatting just to ask if the boyfriend is doing well.

You don’t have to know if your man ate tuna salad or a turkey sandwich at this lunch break. A little privacy, please?

If you need to be checking on your man every hour to make sure he is not with another girl, I suggest you leave him and find a better and suitable boyfriend. You do not need this stress in your life.

If you do not trust him, then why be in a relationship with him at all? Don’t be intimidated by his girl friends; he is with you because he wants to be with you. Grow some faith.

The calorie-crazy women will make any guy run in a week, or even less. There’s nothing worse than the food crazy person that cannot stop talking about protein, calories, fat, carbohydrates, etc.

If you want to be crazy about calories, then maybe you should marry a nutritionist, because no guy would be willing to put up with this food craziness.

Guys are simple but expect confidence, intelligence, spontaneousness, playfulness and honesty from his woman.

A version of this article was published at The Vista 

I'm not what the media dictates I am

Society, you are wrong and we are through. We do not want to accept the negative misconceptions about who we are, or who we should be.

Since a young age, we are used to being judged by society and it's not easy.

You were judged by a new game you played on your Game Boy. You were judged by your cool purple shoes with glitter that your grandmother just got you. You are judged by your old backpack that is almost falling into pieces.

You are judged by all you do, and also by what you don't do.

We are often judged by our looks, ethnicity, race, financial status and even our capability of completing a task. It's sad, but true.

The main problem with these misconceptions, is that we embrace the mass of people as an unit and not immediately look at them as individuals.

Not all Asians are bad at speaking English, good at math, look identical or are small in stature.

Not all black men are irresponsible, hyper sexual, good at sports or lazy.

Not all Muslims are terrorists, smelly, extremely wealthy or hateful towards others' beliefs.

Not all women are weak, bossy, emotional or slutty.

Not at Latinos are illegal immigrants, maintenance workers, bilingual or abusive.

Not all gay men have aids, have  a good sense of fashion or are flaming drag queens.

Not all disabled people are helpless, useless, different or sick.

Not all Native Americans are mascots, animals, diseased or alcoholics.

Can we just live the life we want without worrying about others so much? No worrying about how others, the media and society perceives us.

Body Image and Unrealistic Goals

It's easy to get frustrated with unrealistic goals about our body, because every day we see hundreds of images and messages about how we should look. These unrealistic goals can lead to dissatisfaction towards your body and your looks.

Women in particular are targeted to look "delicate, soft and pretty." Even though women nowadays have a bigger role in society, their primary goal is still to look pretty.

I still remember when my friend told m, "If  she is pretty she doesn't have to study. She is pretty, that's her job."

I'm sorry, but this is the world we live in, where our image matters more than our capability. It's sad, but true.

Most teenage girls dream of having a super thin, fashion-model body, but little do they know, only 98 percent of the population in America has that body weight. This unattainable goal, drives women to engage in unhealthy eating habits in order to lose weight.

Many girls try to obtain that perfect thin body, engaging in some unhealthy activity involving calorie restriction and purging. They will go days eating less than the minimum required to survive, lacking many nutrients and vitamins.

Others will eat lots of food in one sitting, and then fast for a very long time. They might also use laxatives or excessive work outs in order to burn all the calories consumed.

Eating disorders are not fun, in fact, they are very dangerous. Health effects of a unbalanced diet include: loss of calcium, lack of menstruation or amenorrhea in women, low blood pressure, low energy, depressed mood, increased risk of infection, abdominal pain, irregular heart rhythms, sore throat and many more.

Some people may engage in activity disorder, where they train for longer periods of time, and feel they are controlling their body, when in fact, they are hurting themselves.

Reports also show that race and ethnicity take a big role in these case.  America for example has a huge impact in body image and looking pretty is a must. In other countries the ideal body image might be more attainable, or people might not put much effort in looking like a magazine ad.

Black women have shown to have a higher body satisfaction and higher self-esteem than white women in America.

It's also important to understand that this images we see everyday have been amended. Lighting, editing, crops and many other effects has been added to the picture to make it look ideal. Is it ideal to have an ad that only covers 2 percent of our nation?

I don't think so.

I believe these unrealistic goals further these diseases, leading more people to be self-conscious about their body. You can choose to ignore them and focus on your health instead.

Accept yourself and embrace your flaws.

4 Essentials every women should carry in her purse

Purses are the greatest invention ever. Let me tell you why: they can carry all the essentials you might need when the time comes. Believe me, it comes. But don’t worry, I’ve got your back.

1. Hand Sanitizer: It is appropriate for situations when washing is required. Hand sanitizer contains ethyl alcohol, also know as ethanol, that is effective to get rid of microbes. It also contains humectants, similar to glycerin, that prevents dryness and helps moisturize your hands. It is a must when you are done eating Cheetos and rushing to go to a class.


2. Aspirin: It works as a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug effective in treating pain, fever and inflammation in the body. Aspirin might be your best friend sometimes. When your head is pounding after reading pages and pages of a boring text book, a travel-sized aspirin might help you end your pain. Let’s be honest, nobody likes to be in pain. Avoid it.


3. Breath Mint or Mint Gum: How much do you hate when somebody has to speak with you right after they ate delicious, stinky tofu? Come on, nobody enjoys bad breath. By keeping mint gum in your purse you will save someone or yourself the embarrassment. Research shows that ingesting mint after meals can help digestion, and avoid gas. The cooling menthol also eases stomach pain.


4- Lipstick or lip-balm:  Don’t let your lips crack. You can go from casual to fancy in a couple seconds by taking care of your skin, especially your lips which are part of the most sensitive skin on your body. Not only does it protect your lips from getting dry but it can also add color. The variations of glosses are endless: translucent, solid, frosted, glittery or just glossy.

 

A version of this was published at The Vista.