I don't know how to say this, but I'm going to try.

[ShazzieB]

30. And yet many of them will insist that they just "love" women. 🙄

Last edited Wed Jan 15, 2025, 12:57 AM - Edit history (1)

Trump is one of those. I saw a clip of him before the election, from some rally or other, where he said "I LOOOVE women!" and he managed to make it sound so lascivious that it made my skin crawl. That's because men like him don't love women as people, but as a source of things that give them pleasure, particularly sexual pleasure.

Men like Trump "love" certain things about some women (those they find attractive), but they don't see any woman as their equal or as someone with feelings and needs that are worthy of respect. They see the ones theyre attracted to as something akin to a sex doll, and the others as simply beneath their notice. If a woman they find attractive has actual skills and abilities, they may be impressed the way they'd be impressed by a trained animal being put through its paces.... as long as she's not so smart and talented to make them feel threatened!

I'm describing the most extreme type of straight male sexism, of which Trump is a prime example, but it's a continuum, on which he just happens to be at the farthest end. I believe that men who sexually harass women and treat them as "less than" in every respect other than the sexual are somewhere on that continuum.

Fortunately, there are also high quality men out there who relate to women as fully equal fellow human beings rather than pretty toys. I know this for a fact, because I've known quite a few of them. I'm married to one, and there are lots of such quality men right here at DU. To any such man who may be reading this, please know that I see you, I appreciate you, and I was not talking about you in the earlier part of this post. 😀