Political Hypocrisy and the Sexual Objectification of Women in Corporate America

Political Hypocrisy and the Sexual Objectification of Women in America

In about 30 days our long national nightmare will be over – or beginning. Who knows.

I’ve debated putting this article on LinkedIn or simply keeping it on my personal website. The reason I opted to put it here is because the sexual objectification of women is alive and well and often thriving in Corporate America. That makes it a more than a societal discussion. It impacts women in the workplace. 

Self-entitlement and Unwanted Sexual Advances Are Not Locker Room Shenanigans 

On Friday, Donald Trump had his October surprise. We learned that Donald Trump, Republican nominee, feels that it’s okay to “Grab them (women) by the p---y.” Because “when you’re a star, they let you do it.” In a video obtained by The Washington Post, Trump boasted in loutish terms about kissing and groping women.

Some goodies include:

Trump: I moved on her actually. You know she was down on Palm Beach. I moved on her and I failed. I’ll admit it. I did try and fuck her. She was married.

Unidentified voice: That’s huge news there.

Trump: And I moved on her very heavily. In fact, I took her out furniture shopping. She wanted to get some furniture. I said, ‘I’ll show you where they have some nice furniture.’ I took her out furniture– I moved on her like a bitch, but I couldn’t get there. And she was married. Then all of a sudden I see her, she’s now got the big phony tits and everything. She’s totally changed her look.

The video captured Trump speaking with Billy Bush, formerly of Access Hollywood, as they were arriving on the set of Days of Our Lives to tape a segment about Trump’s cameo on the soap opera. They were to be met by actress Arianne Zucker. Upon seeing Zucker, their conversation went like this:

Bush: Sheesh, your girl’s hot as shit. In the purple.

Trump: Whoa!

Bush: Yes. Yes, the Donald has scored!

Trump: Whoa!

Bush: Whoa, my man!

Unidentified voice: Wait, wait you’ve got to look at me when you get out and be like ... will you give me the thumbs up? You’ve got to put the thumbs up.

Trump: Yeah, that’s her, with the gold. I’ve got to use some Tic Tacs, just in case I start kissing her. You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. I just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.

Unidentified voice: Whatever you want.

Trump: Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.

Bush: Yeah those legs, all I can see is the legs.

Trump: Oh, it looks good.

Trump: Oh, nice legs, huh?

Bush: Oof, get out of the way, honey. Oh, that’s good legs. Go ahead.

“How about a little hug for the Donald?”

And there was creepy Billy Bush pimping out Arianne Zucker. Bush was acting like a high school boy cheering on his schoolmate and assisting him in his effort to “score” as he said, “How about a little hug for the Donald?”

Ms. Zucker was gracious and had no idea that seconds before they had engaged in words that relegated her to nothing but a sexual object - not a person, just an object.

After the release of the video, media and social media reaction was swift. He’s since apologized and said he’s not that same man. Maybe he is and maybe he isn’t. I don’t know what is in his heart but I do know he’s not the only one who participates in this type of vulgarity. 

Many people reacted with disgust and anger but others have justified his actions by pointing to other bad conduct, because, you know, that always makes it okay.

 “Yeah, well Bill Clinton has been accused of raped and look at what happened between him and Monica Lewinsky in the Oval office.”

“And Hillary was complicit in his actions. She even called Monica Lewinsky a “narcissistic looney tune.”

Why do we insist on justifying bad behavior with other bad behavior? Why can’t we just call it for what it is? And that’s unacceptable. Wrong. This is not a democratic or republican issue. Political hypocrisy has run rampant with the latest Donald Trump news but it also brings forth an important topic – the treatment of women.

I used to work in a place where this type of “friendly banter” was a daily occurrence. I tried to stop it. I took a stand on professionalism and the crude and classless treatment of women at work.

You know what happened? Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

It was swept under the rug and the main person responsible for this degradation was subsequently promoted to Vice President within a few months of my discussions with the CEO and Human Resources. 

Promoted. He was promoted.

How does that happen except in a society where women are seen as objects and to be dominated?

Fortunately my story is mild compared to other women who have who have their stories. Canadian author Kelly Oxford started a Twitter thread Friday night in which she encouraged women to reply with the first time they were ever sexually abused, to show that “they aren’t just stats.”

“I’ll go first,” she tweeted. “Old man on city bus grabs my ‘p----y’ and smiles at me, I’m 12.” 

Have We Finally Become the Jerry Springer Society?

We must teach our young women that this type of treatment is wrong. No man can put their hands on you if you don’t want them to do that. No man can dominate you. No man can disrespect what you bring to the workplace.

"Do not accept this behavior as a new standard and something that we continue to tolerate. Wrong is wrong. Improper is improper."

We must also teach our young men that these actions will not be tolerated. We must teach our young men the meaning of respect. 

We must teach both our young men and young women to say something if you see something.

Whether you have people in power in organizations who treat women like objects, a President in the Oval Office who acts as a sexual predator to a young intern, or someone like Anthony Weiner sexually chatting with a high school girl, unscrupulous conduct shall not be condoned and we must take rapid action when we see this happen. 

And remember this: If you don’t like it with Trump, you shouldn’t like it with anyone else. Political parties be damned.

Note: My apologies for the graphic content in this article but removing it means diminishing what occurred in the conversation. It can't be diminished.