Donald Trump and Miss Universe
In Monday’s Presidential debate, Donald Trump was again called out for his treatment of former Miss Universe, Alicia Machado. He reportedly called her sexist names like “Miss Piggy,” “Miss Housekeeping,” and “Miss Eating Machine.” See this video to watch Alicia Machado’s perspective on his actions. Hillary Clinton brought up the controversial issue, playing on the fact that the college-educated female vote is a group on which Trump should be focused during this election.
The Female Vote in 2016
According to Brookings, “white college-educated women could be Trump’s Achilles heel.” He depends on them so much that “even a supersized turnout of working-class white men would not be nearly enough for Trump to win the election.” We have discussed in class lecture that throughout history, there has always been a targeted group of voters on which candidates rely. For 2016, this is both African Americans and college-educated women. After his performance in this week’s debate, it’s not looking like Trump is going to gain the support he needs from college-educated women. The media backlash of more women speaking on how Trump has treated them surely doesn’t help his case. Alicia Machado has even reported that she has not be paid by the Clinton Administration to speak against Trump, which adds even more validity to her experience.
Mr. Piggy
As evidence from his actions toward women who participate in pageants like Alicia Machado and his treatment of other women on numerous occasions, it’s obvious that Donald Trump isn’t trying to gain women as a part of his voter base. Rather than his name for Mrs. Machado, it’s looking like we should refer to him as Mr. Piggy. For a presidential candidate who needs the support of college-educated women 
to win the election, Mr. Trump has failed to value the contributions of women in this country, including his experienced opponent Secretary Hillary Clinton. After repeatedly interrupting her throughout the entire debate, but especially while she discussed the issue here, Trump confirmed women’s beliefs that he does not value them as individuals worthy of respect and dignity.
-Kristen LaFevers
I think Hillary is not doing enough to demonstrate the values difference between her and Trump in terms of women’s rights. When she attacks him for saying these things about women, she does it as a politician and not as a women. She has run ads recently (http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/09/hillary-clinton-ad-donald-trump-mock-women) depicting how young girls feel about Donald’s comments. But what I think would be more effective is if she were to take it personally. Going back to his treatment of Alicia Machado, Mrs. Machado took to television to personally go after Trump. If Hillary could muster the same kind of response on behalf of all women, I think she could sway a large portion of women who are still undecided and win a key demographic. Trump on the other hand just keeps digging his own grave. Just yesterday he stated that all the comments he made about women in the past were just for “entertainment”. I’m not really sure who was entertained by that but this could be a devastating blow if it gets spun to make it look like Trump only talks about women’s issues for entertainment.