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You probably never thought you’d hear the words pussy and politician uttered in the same breath. Then again, you probably never thought you’d witness a US presidential candidate spewing out blatant misogyny, racism, and all manner of other -isms by the bucketful.
But the year is 2016, and with almost every new day comes a new Trump shocker. Last week, outrage erupted when an audio recording from 2005 was released featuring the mop-haired mogul making vulgar comments about women. “Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything,” he bragged to radio and TV host Billy Bush.
Yet far from taking it lying down, feminists across the globe have snatched his crude words and turned them into a rallying cry of their own. Trump might “grab pussy”, but womankind is vowing to “grab back” come election day. And you guessed it, there’s a hashtag for that: #pussygrabsback
Memes have gone viral depicting the catchcry in all its witty glory, and celebs from Lena Dunham to Amy Schumer and Chelsea Handler have jumped online to give their two cents.
Then there was 18-year-old American high school student Anna Lehane who turned up to a Trump rally wearing a homemade “Grab My Pussy, I Dare You” T-shirt. “You can’t control how I vote by grabbing my whatever,” she told a reporter. Preach, sister.
Meanwhile, sexual assault victims have tweeted their stories en masse to highlight how the politician’s pussy-grabbing jibes contribute to rape culture, while Muslim women have launched their own social media campaign, #CanYouHearUsNow. This comes following Trump’s attack on the mother of a fallen US soldier (he sneered that the grieving Muslim woman’s quiet, stoic appearance on stage at a convention was because she wasn’t allowed to speak).
But fight as we might, here’s the real clanger. While Billy Bush has been suspended indefinitely from the Today show for simply engaging in the lewd comments, Donald Trump, the perpetrator and serial offender, continues his quest to become the most powerful man in the world.
Can Tweets, T-shirts and a good dose of girl power take down Trump? Bring on election day.
