This election cycle has been fuelled by scandal on both sides. Hillary Clinton’s emails, Donald Trump’s ban on Muslims and the tape that recorded Trump and Billy Bush bragging about their non-consensual contact with women, have become regular talking points in debates and in the media.
Every week it feels like another scandal raises new issues, and raises all new issues for both candidates. In recent weeks especially, Trump surrogates have had to defend a new allegation or obscene comment every other day.
These past few weeks are no different, except for the fact that supporters are causing almost as much scandal as the nominees. Following a poll showing who each demographic would elect, Trump supporters took to twitter with the hashtag #repealthe19th. The hashtag was used as a call to appeal the amendment that gave women the right to vote in the United States in 1920.
The trending hashtag erupted after Nate Silver, editor-in-chief for FiveThirtyEight, posted a picture based on FiveThirtyEights active polling system of how the election would proceed if only women voted, as well as if only men voted. The findings indicate that if men voted, Trump would win the majority of electoral votes. However, if only women voted, Trump would only acquire 80 electoral votes and Clinton, by comparison, would win 458 electoral votes.
https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/785972580301742080
The response from some of his supporters? The trending #repealthe19th emerged, criticizing women’s knowledge of politics and their qualification in terms of deciding who will be the next president of the United States. Tweets using this hashtag featured negative stereotypes about women’s emotional instability, intelligence and vanity.
https://twitter.com/Civis_Silas/status/791375276215336961
https://twitter.com/mmaier2112/status/786298000301694979
In addition, those who popularized this hashtag weren’t exclusively males. According to the Los Angeles Times, Twitter users perpetuating this hashtag included both men and women.
https://twitter.com/HollyAnswers/status/785980058586406912
The hashtag #repealthe19th was followed by another offensive hashtag #NextFakeVictim, which was used by many Trump supporters following the emergence of numerous sexual assault allegations filed against the presidential nominee. Many of his supporters denounced these allegations as unlikely, strategically timed and without evidence.
https://twitter.com/UltimateUndadog/status/786470441749581825
In response to these Twitter trends, many men and women took to twitter to denounce these disturbing movements. The backlash was widespread, and included comments against the Trump campaign as well as the bigotry of supporters. Many were outraged by the victim-blaming and the lack of respect for the constitutional rights of women.
https://twitter.com/BethR_27516/status/789900395162337280
https://twitter.com/OhNoSheTwitnt/status/786515530941366272
https://twitter.com/KamalaHarris/status/786354919351521281
New York Times best-selling author Kelly Oxford started #NotOkay, and urged women to share their stories of sexual assault in response to the 2005 tapes and increasingly sexist twitter posts. According to CNN, Oxford tweeted that more than 30 million people had read or contributed to the #NotOkay hashtag by October 12th, with more support continuing to pour in.
https://twitter.com/kellyoxford/status/784497359115788288
https://twitter.com/kellyoxford/status/784543694770806785
The recent accusations of sexual assault, the history of Trump’s description of women as ugly, slobs, pigs and other derogatory terms, as well as the controversial tape of his “locker room talk” with Billy Bush, have painted the presidential nominee in a negative light in terms of respect for women. However, with new inquiry into the Clinton email scandal, the race is far from over.
To follow the FiveThirtyEight polling system, click the link here
< http://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-election-forecast/?ex_cid=rrpromo >