On Friday, this presidential election—or the Donald Trump campaign, to be more specific—took another nosedive into repulsiveness when a recording leaked out that featured Trump talking about how he can do whatever he wants to women because he’s “a star.” Specifically, the Republican presidential candidate explained that he’s so attracted to beautiful women that he’ll just start kissing them. “I don’t even wait,” he said in the recording, because “when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the pussy.” As the outrage and disgust over these comments began to boil over, Trump dismissed them as “locker room banter” and suggested that this is a normal way that normal people talk. Naturally, this outrageously misogynistic assumption has been picked up and repeated by all of the worst people you’re still friends with on Facebook.
For Amber Tamblyn, though, Trump’s “grab them by the pussy” line stuck out for reasons other than its shocking sexism, and it has prompted her to post a story on Instagram about her own experience with sexual abuse:
Meanwhile, Arianne Zucker—the woman who Trump was talking about in the leaked recording—has released a statement of her own, explaining that she has “grown to learn that the words of others” cannot affect her own self-worth or “define the content of [her] character.” She also notes that there are “too many people in power who abuse their position” and are rewarded for their disregard for “kindness, dignity, and respect.” She closes by saying, “I choose to stand tall with self-respect and use my voice to enrich, inspire, and elevate the best of who we are as people.”
As referenced in Tamblyn’s post, the second debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton will be held tonight.