In case you missed it, during the recent Republican Presidential Debate, Fox News debate moderator Megyn Kelly asked candidate Donald Trump
“You’ve called women you don’t like ‘fat pigs,’ ‘dogs,’ ‘slobs,’ and ‘disgusting animals,’
At which point Donald interrupted to say
Only Rosie O’Donnell
For reasons passing my understanding, the crowd cracked up. Because when you are a Presidential candidate who is being specific about which woman you are calling a fat pig, dog, slob, and disgusting animal, it’s suddenly hilarious?
Kelly continued:
Your Twitter account has several disparaging comments about women’s looks. You once told a contestant on The Celebrity Apprentice it would be a ‘pretty picture’ to see her on her knees. Does that sound to you like the temperament of a man we should elect as president? And how will you answer the charge from Hillary Clinton, who was likely to be the Democratic nominee, that you are part of the ‘war on women’?
Donald went right for the common excuse of “Political Correctness”
I think the big problem this country has is being politically correct,” he said. “I’ve been challenged by so many people, and I don’t frankly have time for total political correctness. And to be honest with you, this country doesn’t have time either.
When people use the term “Politically Correct” is this way, it’s typically an attempt to justify their choice to treat people – typically oppressed people – without basic human respect, thus adding to the groups oppression. As if treating people with basic human respect is somehow a massive waste of time and just too difficult to even contemplate. In a fabulous piece about this for Vox, Amanda Taub wrote:
“political correctness” isn’t a real thing. Rather, the term is a sort of catchall charge that’s used against people who ask for more sensitivity to a particular cause than we’re willing to give — a way to dismiss issues as frivolous in order to justify ignoring them. It’s a way to say that their concerns don’t deserve to be voiced, much less addressed.
The fact that this is bullshit can be easily illustrated by replacing “political correctness” with the concept of treating people with respect. Let’s illustrate using Donald’s quote:
I think the big problem this country has is treating people with respect. So many people have pointed out to me that my treatment of people is not respectful, and I don’t frankly have time for treating people with respect. And to be honest with you, this country doesn’t have time to treat people with respect either.
Because as President, Donald will make sure that we live in a country where we are all clear that calling women (including and especially Rosie O’Donnell) fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals is a time-saver that will really help our country be its best. (By the way, after the debate Trump claimed that he never said those things. It will likely not come as a surprise that he was lying.)
The idea that it’s completely acceptable, even Presidential, to get cheap laughs through sexism and sizeism, and then (when people point out how it is disrespectful and oppressive) trying to make the problem the people pointing it out – rather than the people who are being disrespectful, oppressive, bullies – is very seriously screwed up. I think that fighting against the concept of “Political Correctness” as a justification for oppression is an important of part of the overall fight against oppression. I think that we do have time to treat people with respect, and I think that doing so it part of what would really make our country its best.
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