WONDERFUL. I LOVE Erin Gloria Ryan "2016: The Year of the Pussy" "There are still 29 days to go before Election Day, the first moment in 2016 we can hope that this perfect storm of pussy, which crossed over from hilarious to horrible long ago, will even begin to dissipate. Between now and then, it must be some small comfort to fans of irony that after Donald Trump spent years behaving as though his success entitles him to pussy, pussy, in all of its incarnations, is having the last laugh."
MEOW
2016: The Year of the Pussy
We wouldn’t have arrived at Pussygate without a combination of misogyny and cowardice from Donald Trump and the media and politicians who enabled his rise.
Donald Trump’s pussy grab heard ’round the world has all but guaranteed this election season’s grim fate in the history books. 2016 has been the year of the pussy.
Trump may have unleashed the final pussy deluge when 2005 footage of him bragging about grabbing women’s genitalia with Access Hollywood host Billy Bush surfaced Friday afternoon. Even though Trump has a long and well-documented record of saying and doing disgusting things about and to every non-white non-male group imaginable, it was this set of comments that finally turned people off.
After the incident, Trump initially apologized like somebody like Donald Trump might call a pussy, refusing to take responsibility for his actions and dismissing what he said as “locker room talk.” The very act of bragging about sexual assault in private in a way one would never do in public is what one might refer to as a “pussy move.” Bragging about it, and then scurrying away from responsibility is a true achievement in acting like a pussy.
This particular deployment of “pussy” dominated the news cycle through the weekend. Republican commentator Ana Navarro used it on the air on CNN Friday Night. A Trump surrogate scolded her. Navarro fired back that it’s hypocritical to be okay with Trump’s comments and not okay with her repeating them on cable news. A viral clip was born, thus keeping pussy on people’s minds and prompting parents to keep their kids far away from cable news. Or newspapers. Or any media at all.
In the months leading up to Friday’s pussy surge, the media contributed their own brand of pussy to the election cycle: Saturday Night Live offering Trump the host spot even after his comments about policies that would ban Muslims from the U.S. was a classic media pussy move, as was Jimmy Fallon, only weeks ago, laughing like a lunatic as he ruffled Trump’s hair on The Tonight Show. Matt Lauer’s softball performance as moderator of a pre-debate Town Hall was another great achievement in being a pussy. Political talk shows that allowed Trump to call in day after day rather than demanding he actually show up are also guilty of behaving in a manner one might describe as cowardly.
Speaking of pussies, Reince Priebus, the GOP’s perpetually wincing leader, told members of his party on Sunday that they should do what’s best for their own careers when it comes to Trump.
Several Republicans in the House and Senate were way ahead of Priebus and withdrew support even before being given the go-ahead. Some, like House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, are in the awkward position of needing to support the Republican nominee for the good of their party’s chances to maintain majorities in their respective chambers. But this weekend, Ryan’s Trump support started to come apart at the seams, and he banned Trump from a scheduled event in Ryan’s home district. On Monday, the House Speaker announced on a conference call that, while not dis-endorsing Trump, he was no longer going to defend The Donald against The Donald’s own words. Displeased, at least one Republican on the call accused Ryan of being the cowardly one. On its front page Sunday, The Drudge Report called the Wisconsin Republican “Pussy-Whipped.”
Now that months of acting like pussies is coming back to bite them, the only way the GOP can get out out of this pussy-induced mess is by continuing through it. It’s too late to do anything more.
Such is the case with Trump’s running mate Mike Pence, a staunch cultural conservative who was reportedly upset by the video of Trump discussing grabbing women by the pussy. He wasn’t upset enough, however, to remove his name from the Trump ticket, despite the urging of other conservatives. Whatever vile word we can call Trump’s ship, Mike Pence is going down on it.
Last night’s debate featured even more pussy. Trump’s wife Melania made the unfortunate sartorial choice of a very on-trend but unfortunately-named Gucci pussybow blouse. Trump spent much more time making excuses for his “grab them by the pussy” comments than he did apologizing, like a pussy. By using his “locker room talk” dismissal of the seriousness of the comments, he in effect roped all men who would never say anything close to those words in private in with his particular brand of vile, like a pussy. He attacked Hillary Clinton over her husband’s behavior, not necessarily a thing a strong and brave person does when they’ve done something wrong and feel genuinely contrite (his sudden interest in combatting sexual assault comes at a suspiciously politically expedient time). He complained about the moderators letting Clinton speak for too long, even though post-debate analysis shows that Trump actually got half a minute more speaking time than Clinton. Know what sort of person complains about the rules when they’re losing fair and square? Pussies.
There are still 29 days to go before Election Day, the first moment in 2016 we can hope that this perfect storm of pussy, which crossed over from hilarious to horrible long ago, will even begin to dissipate. Between now and then, it must be some small comfort to fans of irony that after Donald Trump spent years behaving as though his success entitles him to pussy, pussy, in all of its incarnations, is having the last laugh.
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