We’re Not Even Pretending to Care Anymore, Are We?
I don’t know if sexual assault allegations have ever mattered in our society in a meaningful way. But as our president-elect goes on a victory tour with an entourage of allegedly abusive men, it’s clear they don’t matter, right now.
Politics
In October 2016, Donald Trump was caught on a hot-mic tape bragging about grabbing women “by the pussy.” The tape sparked enough outrage for him to pretend to issue a solemn apology. Of course, he still won the election. And between his vile misogyny, degradation of survivors, and successful efforts to violate our bodily autonomy, his presidency helped spark and invigorate the MeToo movement. But if any of that ever really mattered in our increasingly anti-feminist society, it doesn’t seem to matter now.
On Saturday night, President-elect Trump—who, in addition to being accused of sexual abuse by over two dozen women, was found civilly liable for sexual abuse in 2023—triumphantly rolled into Madison Square Garden for a UFC event. He was greeted with uproarious cheers, making his entrance alongside an entourage of allegedly abusive dude-bros. Next to him sat Elon Musk, who reportedly paid a $250,000 settlement to a flight attendant he allegedly sexually abused, pressured at least one female subordinate to have children with him, and more recently threatened to impregnate Taylor Swift. Trump was also joined by UFC President Dana White, who hit his wife on video in 2023; Kid Rock, who allegedly assaulted a woman in 2007, grabbing her neck and trying to force her to have sex with him; and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who, in July, seemed to foreshadow that the one, publicly known sexual assault allegation against him may not be the last.
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Even before the skin-crawling UFC jaunt, Trump has been almost smugly embracing allegedly abusive men via his cabinet picks. Matt Gaetz, Trump’s pick for attorney general, is accused of sex trafficking a 17-year-old girl. Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick for defense secretary who’s very publicly criticized the Geneva Conventions and said women don’t belong in combat roles, allegedly paid a woman who accused him of rape to sign an NDA; in college, Hegseth was the publisher of Princeton’s conservative student newspaper and published a column that argued sex with an unconscious woman isn’t rape. Then, there’s RFK Jr., who Trump tapped for health and human services secretary. These are among the most powerful positions in a presidential administration, and sexual assault allegations seem to have been a prerequisite.
We’re living through a blooming renaissance of misogyny. And no one’s even pretending to care anymore.
every single person named in this has sexual violence allegations or in dana white’s case a video https://t.co/8xkNR3YOaM