How Average, Everyday Americans Are Reacting To Trump’s Sexual Comments Caught On Video

As you may imagine, the reactions to the leaked videos of Trump’s comments about women’s genitalia and sexual bravado on a video made eleven years ago have caused quite a controversy in political realms, but how are average Americans responding to the words? After all, it is average, everyday Americans that are going to be heading to the poll booths in a month, and for most of them, political talk is something they rarely partake in, not an everyday factor in their lives.

MSN said that most men surveyed thought that the comments went “beyond the pale,” meaning that they are more lewd than most men generally talk, but some men said they are still voting for Trump anyway.

Dick DeGuerin, a lawyer in Houston, Texas, is 70 years old, and was socialized in the same generation as Donald Trump. He said he is used to hearing and using graphic talk about women and sex, but he added a caveat to that thought.

“Nobody with any couth whatsoever walks up to a woman and does what Mr. Trump described. Men might talk about beautiful women in a way that’s like, ‘Golly, that gal is really gorgeous’ or ‘I’d like to get in her pants’ or something like that. It’s crude. And it’s not normal. If I caught someone talking about my daughter the way he was talking about these girls … I think I’d go to Fist City with him.”

Michael Kimmel, a sociology professor, could not help but look at Trump’s remarks from a sociological standpoint.

“What’s unusual is not how he talked about women like they’re objects or conquests; we all know there are men who talk like that, even if it’s not most men. It’s his own behavior that he himself describes, and the confidence he has that he can act on it with impunity — that’s what’s rare. He was 59 when those tapes were made. This frat house stuff, Army stuff…You might hear athletes and entertainers, these highly entitled people, talk like this, but most guys age out of it. The relationships they develop with real, live women mitigate against it.”

The video, recorded in 2005, was not long after his marriage to his third and current wife, Melania Trump, who has been silent about her husband’s remarks since the news broke on Friday.

Larry McMurty, 80, is a writer who thinks the tapes have been blown out of proportion and most men talk like that at some point in their lives.

“That’s just the way certain men talk. Wherever there’s guys that are mostly working-class guys sitting around yakking about seduction, basically. It just speaks to the class of men who were talking, which is a low class.”

Women had similar reactions to the words said by Mr. Trump. Some were outraged, but some felt that many men spoke about women that way at some point in their lives and it wasn’t particularly unusual or anything to stop them from voting for Trump, according to The New York Times. Dotann Dunton, 62, a home health aide from New York, said she was not offended at all by what was said, and added that she will still be voting for him in November.

“It was 10 years ago. We all say things 10 years ago that we change our minds about later. It was just men’s talk. Females, we do the same thing. They need to grow up. Big deal already.”

Dolly Ali, a medical billing supervisor, agreed. She said he was just being honest about his experiences.

“He’s honest about a lot of things that people don’t want to bring out to the public. He’s not hiding it. Honesty is very positive. I wasn’t shocked because that’s every day you hear it, from businessmen to kids. It’s men talking and he’s honest about it. He is who he is.”

Other women were outraged about the video saying he would grab a woman “in the p***y” because he was a star and could do anything. Cheryl Dolinger Brown, 64, is a psychotherapist who said she did not believe his words were typical of how most men think, talk or behave.

“I guess there are many guys who talk like this when they’re younger, in the locker room kind of way, to try and make friends. But I certainly think as men grow up that many of them do not speak like this. My husband would never talk about women like that, ever. It’s the opposite of how we want people to behave in our society.”

Readers, what are your reactions to Donald Trump’s words about women?

[Featured Image by Darren Hauck/Getty Images]