One time I was hanging out with a friend. We were walking to a park when a cute girl walked past us and my friend said “Ooh, look at that ass!” She scowled and walked away. I was completely disgusted by what he had just said, so I said, “Dood! Not cool.” “What?” he said. I talked to him about it and he seemed genuinely embarrassed by what he had said, but then he made a comment like that again! So, now I don’t really talk to this person because I don’t want to be friends with someone who talks about women as if they don’t have feelings and as if they are some sort of possession. I hope that he thought she was pretty and was trying to impress her in the wrong way, but that probably isn’t true. It came across like he thought of her as lower than him, so he thought he could comment on her body. If people going to change this kind of behavior, we need to show young people that it’s not okay.

Donald Trump’s attitude is impacting our community in ways that we might not be able to fix and his utter embodiment of toxic misogyny is poisonous and has to be eradicated. In 2005, Donald Trump made these comments to Billy Bush while being interviewed for Bush’s show, Access Hollywood. He later said the comments were just, “Locker-room talk,” but, his statements were too awful to take back. “You know I'm automatically attracted to beautiful women...I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait. And when you're a star they let you do it. You can do anything...Grab them by the p***y. You can do anything.” It doesn’t sound like he’s even talking about people. It’s like he’s talking about an object or something that doesn’t have human feelings, and, because he talks about them that way, he can’t take it back. He treats women as if they were a possession, a right, and a object of pleasure. He doesn’t treat them as equals and he has no respect for them. Trump can’t be forgiven. He is doing nothing to stop toxic misogyny, but, he is firing up the country and the world to speak up about their experiences.It's important for victims of sexual assault to stand up; they have the right and the power to make themselves heard. The #MeToo movement is a way for women and men alike to make themselves on social media. It gives them a chance share their stories with people who understand and sympathize. #MeToo creator Tarana Burke says, “The shame is not ours to hold, the shame is on the perpetrator.” When women stand up and share what happened to them, they don’t have to carry that burden anymore. Instead, it is put on the perpetrator. It is good that they stand up because standing up frees them of their shame and isolation. Actor Terry Crews, says, “And I’m telling all the people who stand up, all the people who speak out, you are teaching people how to treat you, and you should not be shamed for that.” I couldn’t agree more. They are saying, I am not okay with this. They are saying, this is how not to treat me. It’s important to teach others how they should treat you because you are a person, not an object, and some people need to be reminded of that. One of those people is the huge misogynist in the White House, who is encouraging sexual assault. It’s up to us to do something about it.

Recently, I’ve hung out with my friend who I mentioned in the opening. Sadly, his behavior has been getting worse. Every time I’ve bring up his actions (which include grabbing a girl’s butt and getting slapped), he gets mad. Maybe his behavior could have been stopped if it had been addressed by an adult earlier on, but it wasn’t. Now, I believe that the only way to help him grow is to show him some of the stories from #metoo and then ask him how he thinks victims feel. He needs to know, his actions can hurt. They will make him no different than our president. Maybe he’s just trying to be cool, maybe he’s mimicking behavior that he saw someone else exhibit. But, toxic misogyny is not cool! It’s up to the people around him to do something about it!