Who would you rather have running the country? The most qualified presidential candidate ever to run for office who happens to be a woman… or (check all that apply):
__ a racist.
__ a bigot.
__ a misogynist.
__ a tax dodger.
__ a billionaire who’s declared bankruptcy multiple times.
__ a man who has never held public office.
__a man who makes fun of disabled people.
__ a man who “grabs women by the pussy.”
__ a man who might not be able to read.
__ all of the above.
Anyone but a fucking woman, said America. Anyone. Literally anyone.
Of course, racism has as much to do with the outcome of this election as sexism. But many women were proxies for misogyny directed at Hillary Clinton. They encountered it firsthand—lectured by mansplaining “friends” on Facebook about what a bitch she was, told what a liar she was despite the fact that her e-mail scandal amounted to nothing. Women listened patiently to false equivalencies: “They are both terrible,” family members would say, not grasping that equating a liar, a con man, a bigot, a racist, a tax dodger with a woman who had a private e-mail server was the result of centuries of baked-in sexism and misogyny.