This week every other article or news report in the media was about presidential nominee Donald Trump and his objectification of women. Hearing all of his misogynistic comments about young girls and women made me realize that he is an advocate for social beauty standards.Trump not only sexualizes women he also judges and classifies women based on their physical appearance.
Trump like many other people in society prefer to hire someone who is considered “attractive” rather then someone who has the qualifications for a specific job. In a 2007 appearance in San Fransisco Donal Trump said, ” She’s so beautiful. And my people came and she said, “Mr. Trump, she has no experience.” So I interviewed her anyway because she was so pretty. And I said, “Let me ask you, do you have any experience?” She goes, “No, sir.” I say, “When can you start?,” this in regards to a seventeen/eighteen year old woman. This is not the only time that Trump has used someones “level of attractiveness” to convey whether or not they are capable of working for him. According to an article on CNN Trump, wanted to fire female employees he thought of as unattractive and replace them with better-looking women at a golf resort he owned. It is reported that Trumps standard for beauty made management rotate scheduling so that the most “attractive” employees would work when Mr. Trump would come around. His value for beauty among female employees caused managers to value appearance over skill when making hiring and staffing decisions.
Until recently Donald Trump was the owner of the Miss Universe beauty pageant. In this beauty pageant women represent their home country and compete for the prestigious title of Miss Universe. In the year 1996 Alicia Machado, representative of Venezuela was crowned the most beautiful women in the world however her dream of being Miss Universe soon came to an assailing halt because of Donald Trump. Alicia states in an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper that Trump called her “Miss Piggy” and that he was very cruel and mean to her. Donal Trump defends himself by saying that “She was the winner and you know, she gained a massive amount of weight and it was a real problem. We had a real problem.” Alicia says that this caused her to have negative body issues and resulted in her developing serious eating disorders.
Donald Trump has a social platform that many people would kill for. However his views on beauty standards are only creating a larger barrier between realistic beauty standards and his cloud nine standards. What society (including Mr.Trump) doesn’t understand when it comes to beauty standards is that every person is built differently. Setting up beauty standards for society in which it conveys our capabilities upon anything is wrong. How do you tell a child that depending on their physical appearance they may or may not be able to be or do what they want. How do you tell someone that their voice will only matter if they are “pretty” enough. In a land where we are suppose to be free we are being enslaved to the conception of a standard that is said to be conceptualized in the eye of the beholder. If Mr. Trump becomes president to this already great nation we will no longer ask for resumes but for head shots.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/09/trump-youre-hired/502136/
http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/29/politics/donald-trump-golf-club-lawsuit-female-employees/