Politics

Election Results Are Sending a Harrowing Message to Sexual Assault Survivors

November 9th 2016

President-elect Donald Trump's projected election victory ignited outcries from women on social media, who warn the election results send an unsettling message about sexual violence.

In a series of tweets, Cosmopolitan reporter Prachi Gupta shared an encounter with a street vendor on election night.

Gupta's tweet prompted other women to respond with accounts of similarly troubling experiences.

Since the now-infamous 2005 recording of Trump bragging about being able to grope women surfaced, numerous women have come forward to accuse the candidate of similar behavior to that is described in the audio clip. Trump called remarks "locker room talk" and issued an apology video. 

You can read a full list of the accusations made against Trump on The Cut. Trump has vehemently denied all of the allegations.

Trump's words captured in the 2005 recording speak volumes.

Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) both invoked the words "sexual assault" in their responses to the tape's release.

Like many survivors of sexual assault, I was profoundly disturbed by the recording and the stories of women who came forward in the weeks that followed.

For better or for worse, I do not recall "what happened to me" the night I was raped. Someone slipped something in my drink. The next morning, I woke up in a strange neighborhood in Ireland and was chased out of my attackers' apartment as he called out, "you're such a fucking tease." I painstakingly recounted this experience to two pharmacy employees in order to buy Plan B and struggled to explain why it was not a matter of a condom breaking.

I thought, repeatedly, "I would not have to deal with this shit in America." This now feels naive.

At campaign rallies, Donald Trump dismissed women's sexual assault allegations by insulting their physical appearances.

He defended a tweet suggesting that sexual assault is inevitable when men and women serve together in the armed forces in a September town hall.

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