For many years, I thought my experiences of sexual assault were normal. But now, thanks to Donald Trump, I can finally admit that they're #notokay.
A lot of statements that Donald Trump has made over the past several months have made me furious. But none, I think, more than his dismissal of the statements he made on that video (the one that by now we've all seen and discussed ad infinitum) as "locker room talk." The moment the words left his mouth, I wanted to scream.
I'm going to get really personal in this one in ways that aren't easy for me, so let's start in a place we can all recognize: the college frat. At Harvard (at the time I was there, at least), we didn't really have fraternities and sororities; our campus social life revolved instead around institutions called "final clubs." They resembled the Greek system in nearly every way, save for the fact that they were only open to men. And the fact that a relatively small group of men held the reins of their university's nightlife had exactly the results you'd expect: they admitted girls to their clubs (or dismissed them) as they saw fit, rejected non-member male students entirely, and essentially behaved however they wanted to, secure in the knowledge that they were protected by decades - even centuries - of tradition (not to mention some extremely deep pockets).
