Donald Trump is every woman's workplace nightmare: Debate with Hillary Clinton was a crash course in everyday sexism

Donald Trump, conservative pundits and even Chuck Todd exposed some ugly male insecurities last night

By Amanda Marcotte

Senior Writer

Published September 27, 2016 3:45PM (EDT)

Donald Trump; Hillary Clinton at the presidential debate in Hempstead, N.Y., Monday, Sept. 26, 2016.   (Getty/Drew Angerer)
Donald Trump; Hillary Clinton at the presidential debate in Hempstead, N.Y., Monday, Sept. 26, 2016. (Getty/Drew Angerer)

Most voters are women, a fact that only becomes more true every election cycle. Under the circumstances, one would think that the man running for president and his male supporters would be diligent in their efforts to not remind the female voter of every sexist boss, condescending ex-boyfriend and street-harassing chump she's ever encountered.

But apparently, the sexist id is stronger than common sense, as demonstrated by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his legion of piggy defenders. One could nearly hear Kellyanne Conway's teeth grinding as Trump abandoned the pretense of respect and swiftly devolved into the living incarnation of mansplaining — the art of pompously lecturing a woman who is clearly smarter than you — during the debate with Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

It was a performance that culminated in Trump, in a fit of anger, saying, "But you want to know the truth? I was going to say something extremely rough to Hillary, to her family, and I said to myself, 'I can’t do it. I just can’t do it. It’s inappropriate. It’s not nice.'"

It's a classic Trump move, to bring a topic up by claiming that he's above mentioning the thing he just mentioned by claiming he didn't mention it. But in case you didn't get the implication, Trump made it clear backstage that he was talking about former president Bill Clinton's infidelities. Because the best way to prove to female voters that you're not sexist is to blame the wife for a man's infidelities. Women love hearing that men only cheat because their wives are failing to please them. I highly recommend that Trump continue to use this as his outreach strategy to female voters.

Clinton directly accused Trump of being a sexist pig during the debate, noting that he calls "women pigs, slobs and dogs" and bringing up the story of Alicia Machado, a former Miss Universe who claims that Trump called her "Miss Piggy" and "Miss Housekeeping." Rather than deny the charges, Trump went on Fox News Tuesday morning to basically defend his God-given male right to tell ridiculously hot women that they are failing to do enough to please his boner.

But it wasn't just Trump. Watching Clinton kick his ass all over the debate stage last night exposed the raw insecurities of men across this great nation of ours. While Clinton usually gets yelled at by men for not smiling enough, her grinning visage as she watched her male opponent self-immolate caused this pouty reaction from Atlantic editor David Frum:  

Whatever position your mouth is in, it's wrong, ladies! Clearly the only solution is to shut yourself inside your house and cook something and never put yourself in the public eye again. And there's this charmer from Brit Hume:

Conservative polling expert Frank Luntz, at least, sees through the pathetic insecurities of men who cannot handle the thought of a woman being smart, capable, and self-composed:

The dudes at Breitbart are so uptight they appear to have a stopwatch timing how much Clinton is "allowed" to celebrate her own badassness:

But even NBC commentator Chuck Todd, who isn't on the right, wallowed in ugly stereotypes about smart women:

This is what women have to put up with if they believe they have just as much of a right as a man does to be in public, to be ambitious and seek power. And then they have to put up with men scoffing at them and telling them they're imagining how hostile the world is to a woman who truly thinks she is equal. Monday night, however, exposed the ugly truth: Women are not making this up, sexism is real and a lot of men are the worst. And hopefully they will be shown the door come November.


By Amanda Marcotte

Amanda Marcotte is a senior politics writer at Salon and the author of "Troll Nation: How The Right Became Trump-Worshipping Monsters Set On Rat-F*cking Liberals, America, and Truth Itself." Follow her on Bluesky @AmandaMarcotte and sign up for her biweekly politics newsletter, Standing Room Only.

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