My daughter started dancing before going to school and still performs. Her dance school competed with the ‘Dance Moms’ girls, and her friends and teachers have joined professional dance groups including some famous ballet companies, so she’s seen the pressure up close.
I told my daughter to be healthy, active and strong, instead of worrying about her weight. We do not believe that dancers should be chosen by body type, and we told her how deadly body-image eating disorders are. (Full disclosure: I’m overweight.) We are proud of her talent, and she’s a strong young woman now.
As a feminist studying psychology, she made up her own mind. But she’s told us stories. Teachers who smoke to keep low weight. Parents who body shame their children (and other children), and parents who control every aspect of their child’s life to live up to an idealized image and achieve professional success a decade before they’re old enough to work legally. Young, beautiful and impressionable dancers who throw up in the bathroom, who obsess and eat unhealthily, who injure themselves, and who exercise for more hours every single day than I work. And I worry about them and the psychiatric bills they’ll be paying in the future.
So when we watched the debate together, and Hillary told that hateful, ignorant, over-privileged braggart about Alicia Machado, we cheered together! Donald Trump doesn’t care about how he made her suffer, he doesn’t care about women, he doesn’t care about people of color, he doesn’t care about immigrants, and I doubt he ever knew her name. To him, she’s just “Miss Piggy” or “Miss Housekeeping”. He treated her shamefully. And when he went on TV the next morning to blame her again for gaining so much weight, he did it again, without knowing her name.
My daughter grew up believing that she could be President (although she won’t be first), and she has spent some time looking in the mirror and dreaming. Because all over the world, there are little girls who look in the mirror and try to imagine their future. Many of them wish they could be prettier, and they admire the beautiful, talented, graceful and intelligent women who become successful. And yes, some even wish they could win a beauty contest to become famous and rich.
When Donald insulted Alicia, publicly humiliated her, mistreated her, and didn’t even pay her what she earned working for him, he also hurt women everywhere. Alicia Machado competed, won and became Miss Universe, the envy of many young women around the world, and Donald stomped on her. Donald stomped all over the dreams of little girls who wanted to win. He stomped on their self-image and self-esteem. He made them feel cheap, like his property, undeserving and lowly.
Donald Trump is unqualified, unprepared, unbalanced, unethical and uncaring. Hillary cares about girls, women, boys, men, students, workers, parents, the sick, the poor, the elderly, including people of color, including all faiths, and including all human love. Everyone needs to make the right choice for our future. Together we’re stronger. Vote. Please.
Who are we?
“America is great, because America is good”—Hillary Clinton
