By Madeleine Goggin
On January 21, 2017, millions of people across the world gathered in protest of Trump’s inauguration. At the heart of it all was Washington, D.C., and there I was, in a sea of pink, when a man turned to the girl in front of me on the subway and told her, “You have the vote, so what are you fighting for?”
Although at the time many valid answers came to mind—Planned Parenthood and equal pay, to name a few—when I got back to school, the question stayed with me. It wasn’t until my class on Victor Hugo’s novel Les Misérables that I was able to truly sum up my answer to that question. In the novel, Hugo describes progress as movement towards “the future birth…of universal well-being,” and that’s precisely what we’re fighting for.
For many, including myself, the past election was a wakeup call that this future is farther away than we thought. The final tallies show that the 2017 Congress is over 80% male, the first woman nominated for a major party did not get the majority of white female votes, and Donald Trump was elected president after he was quoted saying, “Women, you have to treat them like shit” (Vice.com). In order to progress towards that “universal well-being”, the male-dominated outcome of the 2016 election needs to incite a push for women’s rights.
For women, this election was a step in the wrong direction. The way women were treated throughout the campaign reminded me of Fantine, one of the most trag
ic characters inLes Misérables. When Fantine’s coworkers discovered her illegitimate child, Fantine was fired, regardless of her professional performance. Similarly, Hillary Clinton’s professional integrity was smeared by comments about her all-too-public private life. Trump criticized Clinton in a tweet, asking, “If Hillary Clinton can’t satisfy her husband what makes her think she can satisfy America?” (Huffington Post).
Eventually, Fantine descends into poverty and sells her body piece by piece, since her last asset is her appearance. Leading up to the primaries, Donald Trump reduced Republican candidate Carly Fiorina to her appearance, saying, “Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that?” (CNN.com). When men like Donald Trump disrespect their female peers this way, they undermine the progress that women have made over the centuries since Les Misérables was written. If men revert back to judging a woman’s worth based on her value as an object, then women will once again be left with only the three options that Hugo railed against: a convent, marriage, or prostitution.
However, this backslide will not last forever since, as Hugo points out, “[t]here is no backwards flow of ideas any more than of rivers.” Still, that is not an excuse to wait until this all blows over, because “fettered progress” has “tragic epilepsies.” In Hugo’s case, these epilepsies were the tragic barricades of 1832. Today, these tragedies are subtler but still devastating.
Several weeks after the election, my friend was harassed on her walk home from class. A man followed her in a car and made threatening comments about her body and clothing. After she told him repeatedly to stop, he just replied, “This is Trump’s America.”
At first glance, this man’s comment seems just like an over-simplification of a complex election cycle, as it’s doubtful that most Trump voters were advocating for harassment. However, when a candidate once said that he would, “grab [women] by the pussy,” and was still elected, it’s no surprise that some people see that as a sign that the majority of Americans are okay with threats of sexual assault, or “locker room talk.” This is a dangerous mentality, especially since according to a 2011 study, 1 out of every 5 women will be raped at some point in her life (NSVRC.org). Any excuse for sexual assault could prove devastating, so we need to show the world that even in “Trump’s America” women deserve to be respected and to feel safe.
Now is the time to speak out for women’s rights! The Women’s March on Washington inspired people around the world to stand up and speak, but we must keep fighting. Our window of opportunity is closing since Trump’s many controversial actions make it difficult for the public to keep focused on any singular issue for very long. Fortunately, political events like Equal Pay Day, artistic works like #SignedByTrump (HuffingtonPost.ca), and corporate initiatives like Thompson Chemists’ “Man Tax” (FOXNews.com), have fueled the fighting spirit, but if we want to (peacefully) strike while the iron is hot, we are running out of time. Women deserve respect, and now is the time to speak out. In the words of Hugo’s revolutionary, Enjolras, “progress has no time to lose.”