Donald Trumps support among the female population has taken a large hit with all the recent October surprises. However, the decline in his support among women is simply a result from his past rhetoric. The most recent example of this is seen in an article published by The Huffington Post. Trump’s votes among women will continue to decline with the release of another video clip.
The Video
The clip uploaded to this article is from 2007 and shows Donald Trump once again addressing women in an inappropriate manner. In the clip Trump is seen in front of a large audience where he calls all the women “girls.” Not only does this highlight the lack of respect he has for women, but he takes it a step farther by admitting that he refuses to call them women: “The girls– we’re supposed to call them women, but they’re girls to me — the girls…” (Arthur Delaney). The unprofessional language he uses towards women only furthers to contradict with his recent statement, “Nobody has more respect for women than I do” (Bloomberg Politics)
In the video he also makes a comment in regards to all the beautiful women who surrounded him at the workplace. He highlights the lack of control he has as he states, “girls, get off the stage right now. You’ll get me in trouble” (Arthur Delaney) The recent allegations against him in regards to sexual assault is supported by the rhetoric he uses in this video.
Significance
On its own this clip holds no real significance, however Trump has created a rhetorical situation in which this has a negative impact on his own campaign. Since the release of the “locker room talk” video, Trump has continued to claim he has great respect for women. However, the immature and insensitive rhetoric used in this video only continues to prove that he has zero respect for females
Throughout the past few weeks it has become increasingly evident that the female “tribe” is becoming stronger than ever. In the Political Campaign Communication textbook it stated that people don’t experience things through actions, but rather words. Not every woman in American has made an allegation of sexual assault, nonetheless countless women have supported the victims by withdrawing their vote for Trump. The continual release of videos such as this only increases the unity and opposition of women against Trump.
I agree with you that Trump has created a slippery slope through his commentary on women and the continual release of his historical words can’t really be unchanged or made up for. His words do seem contradictory as he continues to try to cover them up. The negative impact all of these have collectively made on the campaign is truly hurtful for his chances of holding office, and I believe it’s made such a strong impact on the millennial generation that it may cost him the election. Your post makes a great emphasis on how directly rhetorically significant his words have been on his vote, and I think you do a great job of backing up your ideas through the book and articles.
I still find it amazing that Trump manages to have any female support at all. Any number of things he said would disqualify other candidates and loose them huge portions of votes. But it seems that with everything released, Trump manages to stay strong. I think that if there is another surprise coming soon, it won’t be any more comments Trump made about women but instead possibly something he has done. There is very little more he could say that could alienate the women who already support him so if the Clinton campaign was smart, they would try and find some thing else while continuing to harp on Trump for all of his comments.