Opinion: How Trump’s Reelection Legitimizes Misogyny and Sexual Violence

Story and graphics by Jade Silva

Donald Trump’s reelection as the 47th U.S. President legitimizes and normalizes misogyny and violence against women.

Not only does it represent a reality where the majority of Americans care more about the price of gas than the women dying at home, in labor, or in hospital parking garages due to a lack of reproductive healthcare, but it is also a triumph of the rape culture that is at the very heart of misogyny.

Rape culture refers to an environment in which sexual violence and abuse are normalized.

What’s more normalizing than reelecting a rapist?

Rape culture ultimately takes women’s ownership of their bodies away from them, putting it in the hands of those who want to harm and control them. The message is this: your body does not belong to you; you don’t get to control what happens to it. (Exactly what anti-reproductive rights movements espouse.)

In a country with a pervasive rape culture, there are endless negative effects One example: perpetrators of sexual violence often receive little to no consequences for their actions. The Department of Justice estimates that 97.5% of perpetrators will not go to jail or prison for their crimes, (a rate exceedingly lower than comparable crime categories). Some may even be found liable for assault and still become president, for example.

What message does this send to the one in five women who have been sexually victimized?

All over social media, I have seen victims talking about how the election has made them feel like their experiences don’t matter and are not taken seriously. They lament seeing a rapist chosen by the majority of voters and question if their rapists would be voted for too if they promise to lower the price of groceries.

“I think what we were all hoping was that [the] truth would come through and the stories would affect people’s vote once they had [them] in front of them.,” Stacey Williams told The Guardian in November. Williams has previously come out and said she met Trump through Jeffrey Epstein and that Trump groped her in 1993.

“Every sexual assault survivor just watched their worst nightmare come true,” a social media user quoted in The Guardian, wrote in 2016.

Eight years later, the hurt remains and compounds into an even harder pill to swallow. After this election, an X user wrote, “Yes I was crying when the election results came out. So worn out from trying to change rape culture when 68 000000 + not caring evidently by voting Trump into power.”

For many, including myself, this has proven that survivor’s stories aren’t important to the majority of people. It is immensely discouraging seeing the lack of consequences a known abuser (who has been found liable in one civil case and accused at least 26 other times) has received, especially on a national level. This can deter other survivors from coming forward because they see it’s very likely nothing will come of it.

The reelection of such a man will continue to have intensely negative effects on survivors, both mentally and materially.

In the days and weeks following the election, Trump's rhetoric has empowered the (radical) right, and attacks against women have surged on social media and in person.

The Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) analyzed social media posts on various platforms before and after the election. They reported that mentions of the phrase “your body my choice” jumped from seven the day before the election to 1,805 the day after. Mentions peaked at 12,238 (not including reposts) on Nov. 8. That’s an increase of almost 1.75 million-fold.

Additionally, we have seen Trump’s emboldened supporters threatening violence against women. ISD “found five posts on X that called for ‘rape squads’ or ‘rape,’ the largest of which had 18,000 views and came with the phrase ‘your body, my choice.’”

One X user posted “women threatening sex strikes like LMAO as if you have a say.” The post has been viewed 86 million times.

Trump has committed violent crimes against women, continually espouses horribly misogynistic rhetoric, and campaigned with men who do the same. With his reelection, these actions and ideologies are legitimized and normalized. Consequently, his supporters feel vindicated, thus free to rebuke women’s rights and threaten them with violence. As ISD put it, these online actors “appear to be using the election results as a permission structure to more overtly and aggressively espouse narratives about curbing women’s rights.”

This rhetoric is not just confined to the ‘manosphere’ (a network of online misogynistic communities), it is manifesting on college campuses and in city streets, as well. The day after the election two men held up signs reading, "Women are property," and "Types of property: Women, slaves, animals, cars, land, etc." at Texas State University.

Even if it was to tell perpetrators not to admit their actions, at least Trump acknowledged the power of allegations. He knew that in the post-MeToo climate, women were more likely to be believed, and people were more aware that there could and should be consequences to sexual abuse.

To me, the reelection undoes a lot of this progress. Allowing a rapist to sit in the highest seat of power in this country signals that allegations and convictions are basically meaningless and that violent, hateful men may continue to do as they please to women with little to no consequences.

I want to note there is some debate about the verbiage that should be used to express Trump’s crime against E. Jean Carrol. In 2023, a New York jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse against her. However, under the very narrow definition of rape in New York law, they could not determine he raped her, even though he forcibly penetrated her with his fingers.

“The finding that Ms. Carroll failed to prove that she was ‘raped’ within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape,’” the judge who presided over the case, Lewis Kaplan, wrote in 2023. He continued, “as the evidence at trial recounted below makes clear, the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that.”

When CBS announced that four men nominated for top cabinet positions had been accused of sexual misconduct, one X user replied, “Has anyone been charged with anything….yeah I thought so.”

If a conviction is so important, how can Trump’s supporters explain away his being found liable by a jury? Well, they cherry-pick between when they care about sexual violence and when they do not.

To defend Congresswoman Nancy Mace’s transphobic bathroom policies, some conservatives emphasize that as a rape survivor, Mace should be allowed to feel safe in the bathroom. They care about victims only when it benefits their agenda, and even then, the support is shallow.

Carroll is not the only woman who has been affected by Trump’s sexual misconduct and violence. Jessica Leeds came forward in 2016, saying that he assaulted her on an airplane in the 1970s. At a rally this year, Trump mocked her, saying to the crowd, "She would not have been the chosen one." The YouTube clip of the video was full of comments following suit. Commenters said “Amazing, after how many years & now she comes forward?????. Its bullshit”
“Its more B S we know how they play.”
“This guy's got the best stories…”
“Who cares. 1979.”

Time passing is not justice. Denial is not proof the accuser is lying. As Williams told The Guardian, “None of it mattered. All he had to do was say: ‘Eh, she’s lying’”

“The election proved once and for all voters, and people in general, don't care about sexual assault,” another X user wrote.

Seeing the lack of care, the ensuing hateful speech, and the message this sends to other perpetrators, is a huge trigger for many survivors. Thus I conclude by asking, please, be gentle with those around you. With such high rates of sexual victimization, there are certainly many people around you who have experienced such events. Seeing a rapist reelected and the ensuing hateful speech. Support those around you in the ways you can and remember, if you have been victimized, help is available. Campus Counseling Services can be contacted at (808) 932-7465 or uhhcouns@hawaii.edu. Additionally, the National Sexual Assault Hotline is available via phone at 800-656-HOPE or through an online chat at their website https://hotline.rainn.org/online.