I wasn’t outraged, I was appalled and I can assure you it was not manufactured. Yes, you can find examples of this kind of behaviour in many places. In each case, you are witnessing a piece of shit who can’t help but objectify and sexualize their own child which only goes to prove that horrible people can be found everywhere. This one wants to be our president.
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I think we disagree on if this is sexualizing ones own children and the word horrible but otherwise I agree that Trump for a myriad of reasons would not make a good POTUS.
So, where do you draw the line? If talking about legs and boobs on your 1 year old daughter isn’t sexualizing her then what would it take for you to reach the point where you would say it’s too far?
Or, to put it another way, can you tell us what town you live in so I can tell my daughter to never visit?
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Well. . . every four years we talk about electing “the best and the brightest”, someone who we judge to be far better than the average person, someone who will honor the position of President. Maybe this isn’t worthy of “outrage” but it is pretty cringe-worthy from someone people seriously want to be President. I’d say it’s worth noting if only because it seems to follow a pattern in Trump’s life of objectifying women, in this case his own baby daughter. If this were the only instance of Trump saying something uncouth we could shrug it off.
“Manufactured outrage” is a lot more like the hype conservatives created over Bill Ayers, or Obama’s birth certificate, stuff that dominated the news cycle for weeks and months, and had no basis in fact.
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If in 2008, FOX found an old tape of Obama chatting about his two daughters – newborn and toddler – in which he said “Well, I think they’ve got legs that’ll be as sexy as Michelle’s, and I hope they have her breasts, too,” they’d be running that tape on a nonstop loop to this day.
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You are free to look at this however you want, but I don’t see it as the sexualization of a child. If anything this was a back handed compliment at Marla Maples, that T&A is the best quality about her…or at least that’s how Donald saw it.
I find it odd that people see the meaning of the statement more despicable than the fact he just blurted it out. The one positive that could be said for Trump is the fact that filter between what’s going on in his mind and what’s coming out of his mouth is small to non-existent. Personally I like people much more like that than ones who filter everything and tell me half truths and what they think I want to hear. Unfortunately the blurters tend to suffer from a great deal of foot-in-mouth disease.
Perhaps I’m just in the minority. If I was married to Cindy Crawford and had a daughter I’d want her to inherit her mom’s looks…and in the same vein as Trump - Kate Upton and her assets (but maybe it’s just worse if I use more slang and vulgar words to describe things.) You can say that makes me a misogynist, but if I find my wife attractive why wouldn’t I want my daughter to resemble her?
Except you’re making our reaction out to be way less visceral than it is, and then pointing to other cultures and claiming it’s somehow within our cultural norms. You can’t have it both ways by saying that cultures differ, but that our being creeped out is somehow manufactured. Unless you’re arguing that all cultures are the same in this regard, which they demonstrably are not. Meanwhile, there is a broader context in which he troublingly sexualizes his daughters far too often for anyone to laugh it off as a one-off remark.
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The one positive that could be said for Trump is the fact that filter between what’s going on in his mind and what’s coming out of his mouth is small to non-existent.
So you’d rather the president of the United States to be an unfiltered boor rather than a thoughtful intelligent well-spoken person?
You can say that makes me a misogynist
It does, if like Mr. Trump, you believe a woman’s value is solely based on her bra size, length of her legs and attractiveness.
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For me, it was how Trump expressed wanting his daughter to inherit the mother’s looks. It’s one thing to say he hopes his daughter grows to be as beautiful as her mother, or he’s happy the daughter inherited the mother’s long fingers or her stunning eyes. It turns really creepy when he sexualizes a one-year old child’s physical characteristics. Sexy legs on a one year child… If someone you were talking to looked at a child and said “Wow, that girl has sexy legs!” I hope you would be completely creeped out.
As for the example provided by Israel_B, that sounds like a crass joke between two people who know each other well. Which is different from a completely serious statement by a man about his very young daughter’s sexy legs made on national television.
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I know someone who is the daughter of a famous beauty. Her mom is usually referred to as a “screen idol.” I really think it’s been a hard load to bear. And unfortunately the daughter did not inherit her mother’s looks, but her father’s, who was a super handsome man but not so much a woman. Maybe when she was little people said stuff like, “I hope she grows up as beautiful as her mom.” Probably. Instead, she grew up to be smart and talented in her own way. Maybe it would be better for parents to say things like, “i am happy she is healthy and hope to have the honor of seeing the adult she grows up to be,” instead of, “I hope she has a great rack like her mom.”
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Somewhere in Tokyo.
Probably so. And that right there is a good reason not to make a huge fuss here since it lowers us all to the FOX News level.
Not what I said, meant or implied. Here you assume that everyone in America is offended but I’m nott sure thats the case at all. Daily Show viewers and BBS commenters are hardly representative of the spectrum of American culture.
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Obama once commented that before he says anything, he turns it over three times in his head to make sure he’s not blurting anything out that he doesn’t genuinely mean or that can be misconstrued badly. Trump should give that a try. Once, even, might help.
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Too bad Obama didnt turn over the “red lines” bit three times. But then hindsight is a nickel a truckload on the CBOE as of close of market.
Sure it is possible that some parents may say questionable things, I have never heard anyone say things like that of their child but whatever. That’s not really the issue. The difference here is that Mr. Trump has had a long history of publicly stating questionable, hateful & demeaning comments regarding women and treating women poorly. He goes to that well a little too often to be simply “shit my dad says”. Since context matters to you I hope you can understand why some of us think this is an issue.
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No I’d rather them be well-spoken and honest, but that isn’t a combination I see come along much. Most of the time we have well-spoken but well filtered and scripted. So if I have to choose I’ll take honest over polished.
I didn’t say that was their only asset. But considering both Crawford and Upton have made a very successful career from their looks it is not a negative to say you would wish that to be passed on. Much like the talent of a successful sports person or actor. Obvioulsy like ChickieD pointed out sometimes it is a huge load to carry just because of your parents being famous and one that can be as much of a burden as a gift.
@ChickieD
I agree. It would be far better stated as growing up to be as beautiful as her mother instead of the way it was presented. This is why I’m more disappointed in the message itself and less so in the meaning.
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I didn’t say that was their only asset.
To be clear I wasn’t trying to call you out. The point I’m making is that Mr. Trump, based on many comments he’s made over the years, does in fact seem to believe that. The comment in the original post is part of a long line of misogyny from this man.
So if I have to choose I’ll take honest over polished.
I’d take intelligent, thoughtful and empathetic over Trump’s brand of “honesty” any day. There’s a difference between honesty and what comes out of Mr. Trump’s mouth - bile and vitriol no matter how honest are still bile and vitriol.
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It wouldn’t just be Fox. There would be a big reaction across the board and story covering it on page one of the Times.
This is Howard Stern level stuff. I don’t really give a rat’s ass one way or another if Trump wants to use the opportunity of a TV interview about his family to make inane tasteless references to his infant daughter’s future boobs. Whatever. But it does disqualify him from being president of the US.
If anything offends me it’s that Trump used that interview to make a dumb self-serving, attention-seeking remark, rather than think of something interesting or insightful to say about his kid.
Anyway, I hope to God that stupid stuff like this continues to charm the Republican rabble and doesn’t blow up in his face. There is no underestimating the damage Trump can do to the GOP with him at the helm of the party from July til November. Please God, please…
As a conservative myself, that right there bothers me but I guess the GOP got no one to blame but themselves for not offering us a good candidate in ages. I hate that its come to this, that we end up talking about Donald Trump of all people as a possible presidential candidate.
Damn shame.
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Don’t worry, you’ll probably get Ted Cruz as the candidate in the end. He’s much better.
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I tried repeating that with a straight face but failed…
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