I look at social media as people are responding to the recent surge in violent sexual rhetoric targeting women (and everyone, really) from former President Donald Trump and those in his inner circle. This aspect of Trump’s campaign seems to be the most difficult for people to engage with, and rightfully so.

We haven’t learned enough and haven’t practiced healthy sexual ethics enough to know how to deal with a leader who sexually harasses a nation. Most of the time we are just retraumatized.

Julia Goldie Day

In an interview with Tucker Carlson on Thursday, just days before Election Day, the former president had this to say about Republican Liz Cheney, who has served as vice chair of the Jan. 6 Committee and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president: “It is a radical war. hawk. Let’s set her up with a shotgun, nine barrels shooting at her, okay? Let’s see how she feels about it, you know, with guns pointed in her face.

Tucker Carlson did it himself The following sexually violent comments a week earlier to a cheering Trump rally crowd: “There’s got to be a time when daddy comes home,” he said, to cheers from the crowd. “Dad comes home and he’s upset. He is not vindictive, he loves his children. No matter how disobedient they are, he loves them because they are his children. … And when dad gets home, you know what he says? You were a bad girl. You’ve been a bad little girl and you’re getting hit hard right now. And no, it won’t hurt me more than it hurts you. No, it isn’t. I’m not going to lie. It will hurt you a lot more than it hurts me. And you’ve earned this. You get hit hard for being a bad girl, and that’s the way it should be.”

Then, when Trump comes on stage, the crowd chants “Daddy’s home!”

On TikTok, the new 18-year-old voters are introduced Go to Hollywood tape of Trump bragging about a video of “grabbing women’s pussy” and just kissing them without consent, saying he “lets you do it” when you’re a star. When the disturbing video was leaked before the 2016 election, these first-time voters were too young to be exposed to the explicit content.

Now, many videos show the utter distraught shock on their young faces.

The National Sexual Violence Resource Center says that 81 percent of women and 43 percent of men have experienced some form of sexual harassment or assault in their lifetime. That’s from a 2018 study. I suspect the percentage is much higher in 2024.

“We have to understand that many of us are traumatized by sexual violence.”

The 2018 statistics do not account for unreported harassment and assault, although many experts have estimated the numbers to be much higher than reported. We must understand that many of us are traumatized by sexual violence.

Trump’s recent promise to protect women, even if they don’t want his protection, shows that he doesn’t understand these key facts. He says on stage that he was warned not to tell the women that, but says he doesn’t care. It is the very definition of misogyny: to keep women afraid and less powerful than men and in need of protection. This power dynamic serves its purposes.

Karen Pontius says in response: “The bottom line is that women do not want, nor do we ask, men to protect us. We ask men to stop being that thing we need protection from. I couldn’t be more clear.”

Trump doesn’t listen to women and others when offered this criticism.

In fact, Trump doubled down miming an oral sex performance when he was frustrated by a microphone stand on stage, much to the delight of his crowd.

When we see this type of harassment coupled with knowledge of the former president’s known behavior – this coming from a convicted rapist no less – we see how abuse of power and sex so often work closely together. This abuse of power and sexuality is on full display as the former president feels the indictment of the American people.

You may have seen one of the newest ads for the Harris-Walz campaign, with Julia Roberts’ voice telling women that the ballot box is the only place where women still have the right to vote, even if their husbands vote for Trump. “Your vote, your choice” The ad targets women as the widening gender gap in polls indicates even more conservative white women may be unwilling to vote for Trump.

I have to say that I have immense empathy for those who have convinced themselves that this is the way a strong Bible-believing man behaves, the so-called head of the family holding it together with understandable fear and violence, even sexual violence . You are intimidated into submission; fear holds you in place, giving you a false sense of protection and security. The power these men and people like them wield is undeniable.

“The threat of violence or attack is justified in the hierarchical patriarchal system.”

Threat of violence or assault it is justified in the hierarchical patriarchal system, and Trump and Carlson speak loudly the quiet parts. That’s how abusive power works, and it’s no wonder it’s hard to escape.

We know this is why so many are abused within the traditional evangelical church. Hierarchy itself serves those with less power to those at the top. Trump and Carlson and others like them are merely repeating a pattern they know works, sexually harassing a nation into another presidential term that will test the limits of democracy.

The question is, once we see it, will we allow it? And if we can vote it in submission, how will we heal from this harassment?

Julia Goldie Day is an ordained minister in the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and lives in Memphis, Tenn. She is a painter and the proud mother of Jasper, Barak and Jillian. Learn more from her website or follow her on social media @JuliaGoldieDay.

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