Donald Trump’s Treatment of Women

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/18/opinion/donald-trumps-treatment-of-women.html

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To the Editor:

Although a confirmed Democrat who is terrified at the prospect of a Donald Trump presidency, I thought your May 15 front-page article “Crossing the Line: Trump’s Private Conduct With Women” more appropriately should have been the cover story in a supermarket tabloid.

With our nation and planet facing a plethora of grave problems, it is indeed tragic that the level of campaign discourse and related media coverage has already sunk so low. It is disturbing, to say the least, to have the rest of the world as well as our own citizens and young people exposed to what promises to be a no-holds-barred, X-rated race to the bottom between now and Election Day.

My modest proposal is that the Clinton and Trump campaigns and their surrogates agree to a moratorium on any further discussion of vixens and bimbos and that the media do likewise.

W. H. LEVIT Jr.

Milwaukee

To the Editor:

Thanks for thoroughly digging into the presumptive Republican nominee’s background. As your article aims to show, misogyny is complicated. Considering women simultaneously as objects of lust and as highly productive professionals appears to harbor a contradiction.

But the simple conclusion is that this has very little to do with women: It’s all about Donald Trump himself. It’s about using every thing and every person around him to his own ego’s advantage, whether for sex, money or power. The painful spectacle of endowing a flaming narcissist with vast resources and public attention does give us an opportunity to witness our culture’s dysfunctions, amplified into a caricature.

The real lesson that could come out of his surreal campaign is that the narcissist is unwittingly holding a mirror in front of the rest of us. May we digest this lesson, or at least get fed up with it, before November.

SASCHA VON MEIER

Oakland, Calif.

To the Editor:

I was disappointed that The Times put this article on Sunday's front page above the fold with a gigantic photo of Donald Trump with Miss USA contestants. I suspect that Mr. Trump, despite his protestations, welcomed this publicity, especially the photos.

I wonder whether Mr. Trump’s views and practices toward beautiful women differ significantly from that of most very powerful men.

More important, with all the real issues — foreign policy, economics, nativism and disregard for truth — that need to be covered about Mr. Trump’s candidacy, The Times is again presenting a “soft” story. Mr. Trump’s most important act as president vis-à-vis women, because of efforts to undo abortion rights, would probably be picking a Supreme Court nominee; that is not mentioned.

In this critical time of a critical presidential campaign, Mr. Trump’s personal acts that have been both demeaning and arguably sometimes supportive of women are a story only if they are related to how he would function as president. There is no such analysis in the article.

CAROLYN L. SIMPSON

New York

To the Editor:

Have we not learned anything from the recent Bill Cosby scandal about how some men use their celebrity as both lure and weapon in the treatment of women, thinking that common decency doesn’t apply to them?

Even when Donald Trump offers career opportunities, from his beauty pageants to his real estate business, there is a steep price for women in his orbit to pay, including crude humiliation and derision. That some of these women have had to seek therapy in an effort to get over their dealings with him is an appalling indictment of his character and value system.

Imagine, then, the arrogance that Mr. Trump would flaunt and what his behavior would be like if he climbs to the highest rung of celebrity and power in the world — the presidency of the United States. Imagine the lives he could, and in all likelihood would, ruin then. And if the past is any indication, he would get away with it.

GREG JOSEPH

Sun City, Ariz.

To the Editor:

Your article about Donald Trump and women is truly laughable. So the man likes pretty women — that is front-page news? Your reporters interviewed dozens of women who had worked with or for Mr. Trump over four decades, and this is what you found: He likes women, promotes them, mentors them and comments on their appearance. Tell us something we did not know!

Too bad there wasn’t an article like this when the Kennedys and Bill Clinton were campaigning for president.

JEANNE HOSINSKI

Stamford, Conn.