Donald Trump is like Old Faithful for stupid comments. Inevitably, he says something dumb or sexist or racist or any other kind of -ist you can think of, every day. He revels in it. So it’s no surprise that he’s done it again.
At a campaign stop in Watertown, New York on Saturday, Trump rolled out a new nickname for Hillary Clinton. He called her, “Crooked Hillary.” Wow, That must have taxed his orange brain cells, coming up with that. He did try calling her “Incompetent Hillary,” but that had too many syllables for Trump’s remedial followers.
Trump likes to nickname his rivals. He calls Ted Cruz, “Lyin’ Ted,” something that can’t exactly be refuted. He called Marco Rubio, “Little Marco.” Note the diminutive adjective, there. He also called Rubio, “Lightweight Choker,” but, since that one needs to be explained, his minions didn’t understand. Trump knows that he needs to keep it simple for his sheeple to pick it up and repeat it. So, “Crooked Hillary.”
Nicknaming others is a way to control how they are viewed. Look at how George W. Bush would nickname everyone around him. Calling Dick Cheney, “Big Time” said a whole lot about their relationship. On the other hand, “Pootie Poot” is a lot less intimidating than “Putin.”
Jessica Valenti of The Guardian notes that when men start to use nicknames when debating women, they are waving a white flag, whether they know it or not. When a sexist uses a diminutive of a woman’s name (like “Jessie”), they have run out of arguments. Sometimes, these men will use “Missy” or “Girlie” or some other name that boils down to, “You’re just a girl, what do you know?”
The good news is that no matter what they call women – bitch, slut or ‘Jessie’ – name-calling is all sexists have in a debate. Calling us something other than what we are does not make us less right, and it won’t make them more just. When misogynists resort to name-calling, they’re labeling themselves more than they ever could disprove us.
In labeling Hillary with a nickname that insinuates that she’s not who she says she is, Trump has, instead, labeled himself. He has labeled himself as a misogynist. Again.
Featured Image: Getty Images
