We in Canada are as stunned as Americans are at the election of Donald Trump. The same pall has fallen over our country, the same wary disbelief. We are gobsmacked, yes, and aghast, and disappointed (how could you do this to yourselves, and to us?? after all, we got rid of Harper, who now pales in his parsimonious, entitled-white-male entrenchment; we used to say worse about him, but now ... not that we want him back, but we see now how much worse it might have been), and we are afraid.
There are the obvious political ramifications of what this might mean for us, such as:
1. that the adorable bromance between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President Barack Obama is to not carry over onto your next president (which would not have been a bromance, technically, but certainly would have been friendly); instead, the new bromance will be between Trump and Putin
2. that our trade deals will be rent asunder, and, regardless of your stance on them, we are each other's biggest trade partner, so it matters how we trade; trade deals also form a basis for immigrating to each other's countries, which brings us to
3. that we will be flooded with American political (and health care) refugees, not that we wouldn't welcome you, but we are still amid settling the 33,700 Syrian refugees we have welcomed in the past year, with more, we hope, to come
And yes, in Canada, there has been and continues to be a lot of horrified discussion about Trump's attitudes towards women. However, one piece of the misogynist analysis which I have not heard discussed is how Trump and the transgenderists are akin.
Both Trump and the transgenderists objectify women, our worth measured only by our appearance and our silent acquiescence. If women dare speak our truths, we are nasty, horrible liars. Although it is okay if he is nasty and a liar. This is a textbook example of projection, by the way, the accusor attributing to another his own disavowed character traits. They both, Trump and the transgenderists, want women to sit down and shut up.
Trump has not identified himself as transgender (although he displays the same narcissism, and, arguably, hair, of an autogynephile), nor has he claimed that many of his best friends are transgendered (to prove how with-it he is); however, make no mistake, their ideologies and agendas are identical: the dismissal and erasure of women.
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