Any American who is not filthy rich, a racist, or a religious right devotee is aware of the monumental damage Trump has wrought on the country and its citizens in just two years. However, with nonstop reports about Trump’s corrupt administration, his devotion to mother Russia, and deep-seated hatred of everything historically American, it is probably true that few Americans are able to keep abreast of Trump’s never-ending attacks on women - and not just their right to bodily autonomy.
A recent report revealed a troubling sign for America’s women going forward that a few observers believed drove Trump’s supporters to the polls in 2016. Of course economic anxiety was never a factor; that narrative has always been a giant pile of male bovine excrement. However, besides racism and nativism, sexism targeting women inspired misogynists and religious right fanatics to support Trump’s public animus towards women. Since his poorly-attended inauguration, Trump put animus into actions that endanger women across America, including the malcontent women who still support Trump.
Many Americans are aware that the fatal blow to a women's right to choose is within reach of the religious right minority controlling the federal government and judiciary, but there is another danger to all women as a result of a misogynist pig occupying the White House; especially a sinful swine in thrall of the misogynist religious right.
Thus far, eliminating a women’s right to physical safety has been the purview of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. Keeping women terrified and in danger is an integral part of DeVos’ crusade to impose a man’s “religious right” to dominate, abuse, and control women on college campuses. Assisting men to dominate women is crucial to maintain America’s institutionalized patriarchy, as well as further DeVos’ stated goal of using her position to advance the kingdom of god - by forcing women into their biblical roles as subservient to men. DeVos’ crusade is bolstered by white evangelical Republican men serving in Congress, state legislatures, the Supreme Court, governor’s mansions and the White House who ardently believe that the government has a duty to protect abusive men.
It is apropos that some Americans complain about Trump and Republican attacks on Planned Parenthood, and by extension women’s right of self-determination regarding their reproductive health. However, too few Americans are aware that last April during the #meetoo movement’s ascendancy Trump “quietly changed the definitions of domestic violence and sexual assault.” It seems certain that the change’s express purpose was to protect abusive men – cretins like Donald Trump and Brett Kavanaugh among many others. It was a stealthy move that finally came to light late last month and an action that critics rightly assert “has rolled back women’s rights by half a century” where America’s patriarchal leaders believe they belong.
Prior to the covert maneuver against women’s safety, the definition of sexual assault covered what civilized human beings consider reasonable:
“Sexual assault is any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient. Falling under the definition of sexual assault are sexual activities as forced sexual intercourse, forcible sodomy, child molestation, incest, fondling, and attempted rape.” (author bold)
The new definition of sexual assault, one that gives men more control over women, is “non-consensual” sex, and no doubt it fits nicely with Betsy DeVos’ Department of Education rule that puts women victims at the mercy of their abusers and assailants. The male abusers are allowed to interrogate their victims after sexually assaulting them to determine whether there was any sexual assault. One only has to recall the serial liar Brett Kavanaugh’s Senate confirmation hearings and their aftermath to understand that in Trump’s America no matter the circumstances or witness testimony, there is never a case where a man sexually assaults a woman if the man says nothing happened - now it is official Trump administration’s Department of Justice policy.
The move to change the meaning of abuse against women was also a devious ploy to put an end to allegations of abuse, physical or sexual, like those cited by members of the #metoo movement and those leveled at serial liar and current Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, among many, many others including “grab-em-by-the-pussy” braggart Trump. Trump and his allies like Steve Bannon and “concerned” Catholic mothers of “good Catholic boys” complained bitterly that allowing women to report violence and sexual abuse was something that had to end because it is unfair to men. Since evangelical misogynist Betsy DeVos was eliminating the “problem for good men” at the higher education level, something had to be done at the federal level to put women where the evangelical right and Republican men believe they belong – subservient and silent.
The anti-women “amendment” was the work of The Office on Violence against Women (OVW), an office that is part of Trump’s theocratic-minded Department of Justice. It was almost certainly a maneuver to eliminate sexual assault and abuse complaints from women as they regard to criminal justice reporting.
According to the new definition, there is no domestic violence or sexual assault unless there is “physical harm that constitutes a felony.” A loose interpretation of the new rules is that if there is no evidence of bloodshed, there is no abuse or assault. Obviously “grabbing pussy” and attempts at sexual intercourse at fraternity parties do not qualify as sexual assault or abuse – Trump and Kavanaugh are safe under the new rules.
Now, it is remarkable that when it became public in late February that the DOJ really changed the definitions, fact-checking website Snopes queried the OVW for a reason for the covert changes without any DOJ explanation or public announcement. The OVW said it was necessary to align with the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). However, when replying to Snopes the Department of Justice was well aware the VAWA had already expired two months earlier as a result of Trump’s government shutdown over funding for his vanity wall.
Holly Taylor-Dunn is an academic who, besides being a domestic abuse officer for the police, worked in the field of domestic and sexual violence for 17 years. Like any decent human being she was shocked by the Trump move that “turned the clock back on women’s rights 50 years.” Ms. Taylor-Dunn said:
“I was massively surprised and really shocked, It is quite scary how quietly it has happened. It is a massive step backwards. We have literally gone back to the 70s. We have worked so hard since the 60s and 70s to get domestic abuse and sexual violence understood as being about more than physical violence. Changing the definition to take it back to being about physical harm completely undermines what domestic abuse is about. Narrowing the definition will stop victims being able to access the services they need. Prosecutions for domestic and sexual violence will also fall because they are limiting it to the most severe forms of abuse so fewer victims are likely to come forward and seek help.
The move sets a bad example. People look to America to be progressive on issues such as these. If America does it then other countries could quite conceivably think it is an appropriate response.”
A Professor of Law and the Director of the Judge Elmo B. Hunter Legal Center for Victims of Crimes Against Women at Southern Methodist University, Ms. Natalie Nanasi, concurred with Ms. Taylor-Dunn’s assessment. She contended that:
“A domestic violence relationship rarely begins with physical violence, much less violence that rises to the level of a crime. Intimate partner abuse is insidious: Emotional and psychological abuse escalates to physical violence as an abuser’s need and/or ability to exert power and control increases. In the United States today, more than half of female homicide victims are killed by an intimate partner. If we do not acknowledge the ‘small’ things … victims may not realize they are in danger until it is too late.”
It is a very unfortunate fact that for every woman in America it is too late to avoid the real and present danger of living in a patriarchal society ruled by misogynists and anti-women’s rights religious fanatics. The Trump DOJ’s definition changes will result in more than just eliminating a woman’s ability to report all manner of sexual assaults and domestic violence, it will make abusive men more apt to resort to violence against women. That is the case in any society that devalues women by allowing men free rein to claim nothing happened because even an act of sexual abuse and violence against women was consensual – that is no exaggeration, it is Trump’s official Department of Justice policy.