What Hillary Clinton's defeat truly exposed



I woke up that day, truly excited to follow up on the results of the US election. From the beginning, I was very mesmerized by the whole process-the primaries, the building up before the debates, the debates themselves- this whole democratic process happening in the most powerful country on the planet captured our attention, invigorated our interest in politics, made us engage in conversations on race and gender. But Idigress. So when I woke up that day, I was excited to know the outcome of all these months of fighting, hurtling propaganda left and right and the blatant smear campaigns. But I didn't expect the stereotypical villain to emerge victorious.



'How did a guy like this win?' I said to myself as I read the news off my smartphone. I leaned over and swiped several times to make sure the news I was getting was legitimate and ultimately I was flabbergasted. I was on the buson my way home from school and I couldn't, for the life of me, fathom the enormity of this tragedy. An openly sexist man against an experienced poised woman? How did this happen? When I watched the movie 'Idiocracy', prophetic as it was, I didn't expect to see the events unravel this soon in the history of the Earth. But boy was I wrong!



But as I was mulling over this catastrophe, it occurred to me that no matter how qualified or educated you are, to a faction of people you will still be the woman who is controlled by her hormones, who is feisty and 'bitchy'. Although Hillary Clinton's campaign was plagued by minor scandals such as benign emails exposing literally nothing worthy of mention, throughout her whole runshe was subjected to ad hominem attacks based on her gender and perceived lack of 'warmth' or 'relatable' traits.



Why is it that only men reserve the right to be stoic and assertive? Hillary Clinton was attacked for not being able to connect with the people (when in essence her plans were more humanistic and geared towards equality), she was attacked for being too boring (she wasn't running for best comedian), basically, she was attacked for not being able to make men feel proud of being men (in their mind, the superior sex). Some people openly admitted that they wouldn't vote for a woman while some people would disguise their misogyny under the cloak of 'religious beliefs', but sexism had a huge role to play in how the fate of the most powerful country on earth would fall in the tiny hands of a bigoted person.



Of course, it goes without saying that sexism isn't the only factor that came into play during these elections-racism, classism, the media- all those had a significant importance in shaping these elections. But what truly shocked me,a 21 year old female, was how nonchalantly claims of sexual abuse were tossed aside. You have it on tape-an elderly man bragging about 'grabbing women by their pussies', objectifying his own infant daughter, telling Howard Stern that he wouldn't mind if the latter described Ivanka Trump as a 'piece of ass'. The fact that women even voted for this man is infuriating and truly redolent of the culture of women in sexist countries who blindly follow tradition and condone acts of honor killing against their own! You would think years of evolution would imbue logic and common sense in some people, but it's 2016 and people in the first world are still reveling in their bigotry, how can we expect countries like Pakistan and India to stop discriminating against women when it's now considered the norm in civilized society? I'm truly aghast.



Elections
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