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Sexual Abuse
Is Bragging about Sexual Assault “Locker Room Talk"?
Turn the Trump tapes into valuable teen lessons against sexual assault.
Posted October 12, 2016
It's unfortunate that parents and teachers may hesitate to explore our valued democratic process of electing a president with kids this year for fear of subjecting them to harmful, inappropriate sexual content and role modeling. You might find yourself reluctant to talk to your kids about what former Miss Universe pageant owner Donald Trump said about women on an Access Hollywood bus and Howard Stern’s radio show. You may be thinking, “Ugh... do I really have to go there?” Yeah, we think you do, for you and your kids’ sake.
You may fear that bringing it up will make your kids aware of what you hope they don’t know about. You may not want to subject yourself or your kids to the offensive words and phrases uttered. But teens connected to the Internet and social media have most likely heard all about it, so we recommend finding out what they know and turning the news into a valuable teaching opportunity about sexual assault.
First, some brief definitions:
- Sexual assault is any type of sexual contact or behavior without explicit consent. This includes attempted or completed contact of private areas (breasts, genitals, buttocks, upper inner thighs) of a person who doesn’t want it or is unable to consent to it due to young age, disability, or intoxication, etc. It may or may not involve use of authority or force including verbal threats, and can include rape, which is defined by penetration.
- Sexual harassment includes degrading remarks, gestures, and jokes based on gender, being touched, grabbed, pinched, or brushed against in a sexual way, unwelcome sexual advances, and requesting sexual favors as part of employment decisions.
- Sexually predatory behavior includes hunting for people to have sexual contact with, whether they can or do consent or not.
Victims of sexual assault suffer long-term physical and psychological harm, including fear, depression, anger, anxiety, PTSD, and suicidal thoughts and actions. They are much more likely to abuse alcohol and drugs, and are highly vulnerable to being victimized again.
There’s also an underlying dangerous societal trend to be aware of when discussing sexual assault. This is called sexualization. The American Psychological Association's Taskforce on Sexualization of Girls explained that this reflects things like the belief that the value of females is based only on their sexual appeal or behavior and a narrowly defined, unrealistic standard of physical attractiveness, and that females aren’t people but objects (things or body parts) to be evaluated and used by others for sexual purposes. This less commonly applies to boys, particularly when they’re sexually abused. Unfortunately, both boys and girls increasingly believe this dangerous fallacy about females.
What Trump’s statements have to do with sexualization and sexual assault
When Donald said, “I did try and f--- her. She was married... You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful—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 ’em by the p----. You can do anything,” and “Oh, it looks good (referring to the woman standing by the bus door to greet them),” he was bragging about objectifying, preying upon, and harming women by committing sexual assault against them. When Billy Bush laughed and egged him on, it further legitimized and minimized the severity of the acts described.
These words clearly indicate a belief that consent isn’t needed to attempt or engage in sexual acts with women, in opposition to American law. These statements also illustrate the opinion that women aren’t people, but objects to be used for sexual purposes.
When Trump spoke about women over many years on Howard Stern’s show, he did so in terms of breast size and ratings based on body type, again exemplifying a belief that females are sexual objects. When he described his daughter’s body as voluptuous and allowed Stern to call her a "piece of a--," he sexualized his own daughter.
Objectifying women and describing approval of sexual aggression or violence against women are warning signs of being or becoming a sexual perpetrator. Minimizing this language as “locker room banter” attempts to normalize sexually predatory behavior. It also mischaracterizes this language as “boys will be boys,” sending the malicious message that it’s normal for males to commit sexual assault, or to promote and laugh about it.
But this type of predatory talk is not normal—it is amoral and endangers the health and safety of all women and girls. Professional athletes are speaking out to defend their character and denounce the association between their professions and sexually aggressive behavior, saying it is not typical or acceptable “locker room talk.”
Role models including parents, mentors, and presidents greatly influence the behavior of children who look up to them. This unfortunately also applies to boys who look up to and admire men who model aggression against women. Research shows a concerning trend in our young men toward acceptance and commission of sexual violence including assault and rape. Buying into this belief can ruin relationships, jobs, and lives of boys vulnerable to these messages, as well as their victims’ lives.
How to take advantage of these news events to teach and protect your kids
Here are suggestions for turning recorded offensive conversations into teaching moments for your teen and young adult sons and daughters. Use a relaxed approach when they seem to have a few minutes to spare. Say, “Hey, I want to chat for a minute about something. Did you hear about what Trump said on that bus or on the radio about women?” Find out what they know and ask what they think about what they heard.
While discussing Trump’s words with teenagers, you can say “the p-word” or “f-word” if that seems more comfortable, after which you can replace them with more appropriate medical terms like genitals, breasts, and intercourse. For preteens, ask what they know and proceed with a less detailed, brief conversation if they heard something, while saying you’d like to answer any questions or concerns they have.
After listening to what your kids think, discuss what is conveyed in Trump’s words and state your disapproval of what you heard:
- objectifying women by talking about them as objects to be pursued and preyed upon for sexual use
- using degrading terms for their body parts, and
- indicating that consent isn’t necessary for sexual activities including kissing or grabbing private areas, which describes sexual assault.
Then you could summarize with, “These comments objectify women and describe preying upon and sexually assaulting them. This language is very harmful to women and girls because it makes it seem like sexual violence is OK and even funny. Strong and noble men respect women and don’t talk this way about them.” Then say you’d like to answer any questions they have.
Expect and don’t be discouraged by grins, eye-rolls, and even, “Geez, Dad (Mom), I know!” as normal teenage reactions to talking about sex and the uncomfortable subject of sexual violence. Teens, who naturally have immature minds, are allowed to have immature reactions that we don’t expect or accept from adults. Express pride in kids who give any indication of agreeing with what you are saying.
A simple protective message for both boys and girls of all ages is, “It’s never OK for someone to try to touch or touch your private areas without your permission and I want to know if it happens.” For teens, you can expand to disapproving of talking about people as body parts to be used for sex, and of frightening, pressuring, or forcing people into having sex. Also, when someone says no to any sexual activity, it means no, regardless of the circumstances.
As parents, we can also protect our kids from being victims or perpetrators of sexual assault by counteracting sexualization. Research shows that sexualization of women leads boys to feel entitled to sex without consent and to accept that hunting women for sex is normal male behavior.
We can fight sexualization by building our girl’s self-esteem, value, and power based on things other than their physical appearance and sexiness, and by helping our sons and daughters reject sexualized beliefs.
Bragging about sexual predatory behavior and assault isn’t manly, funny, or “locker room talk”—it blatantly challenges freedom of women that comes from equality while promoting violence against them.
For more information and resources to fight sexualization and protect kids from predators and sexual assault, see WARNING SIGNS: How to Protect Your Kids from Becoming Victims or Perpetrators of Violence and Aggression and warningsignsforparents.com.
