Trump’s Campaign Was Asked Why He Won’t Release Medical Records. Their Response Is BEYOND HYPOCRITICAL
The Donald Trump campaign has had a field day with the absurd right-wing conspiracy theories regarding Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s health, desperately attempting to spin the narrative to “disqualify” her from the presidency, since none of their other witch-hunts or smear campaigns have come up with anything.
But once again, the Trump campaign has found itself in a very uncomfortable position regarding Trump’s own health records. Trump, who is two years older than Clinton, has announced he will release a health report from the studio of television “doctor” Dr. Oz, because Trump’s entire campaign is more akin to a reality television show than a serious political effort.
Dr. Oz, the scam artist so well respected that real physicians signed a letter condemning him for “an egregious lack of integrity by promoting quack treatments and cures in the interest of personal financial gain,” has announced that he will not be asking Trump any “questions he doesn’t want to have answered.”
When journalists pointed out the double standard of demanding detailed reports from Hillary Clinton while hiding the truth of Trump’s health, campaign manager Kellyanne Conway had this astonishing response.
Conway asked about Trump’s short drs letter: “I don’t know why we need such extensive medical reporting when we all have a right to privacy”
— Eliza Collins (@elizacollins1) September 13, 2016
Apparently that right to privacy only applies to Donald Trump, since he has also refused to release his tax returns (which Hillary has done). The double standard that the media has applied to Hillary and to Trump is just unbelievable, and this issue of health records just goes to show that in America, a woman’s body and her personal medical status is public knowledge while the man has a right to privacy.
How could it not be, when misogynist Republicans clearly believe that the decisions women make about what does and does not grow in their uterus should be up to them, not to the woman whose body it is?
Feminist author Sady Doyle makes another very interesting point on how American society perceives older women in a discussion with Salon‘s Amanda Marcotte.
“It’s very strange to me because we know that campaigns are long and grueling and candidates are working seven days a week. They don’t get a lot of sleep. They’re constantly on airplanes and buses and shaking hands with strangers. We know they get tired. We know they get sick. But with Hillary there is this weird, conspiratorial, possessive attitude. The fact is that Trump is older than her…but she is the one we want to see as this withered up, useless old crone. We want to believe that an older woman is not capable of contributing to the world in any important way. For that reason, people are exaggerating and exaggerating concerns about her age, which is coded as physical fitness.”
Even as a politician of inarguable qualification and decades-long dedication to public service, the American media and public can’t see past Clinton as a woman, obsessing over her body just like we obsesses over women’s bodies in every walk of life. Schools sending home teenage girls for having their collarbones exposed; segments on FOX News featuring crotchety old lechers discussing what they “will” or “won’t” let their daughters wear while a nubile blonde twirls for their appreciation; religious extremists who obsess over whether or not women are allowed to use contraceptives – all levels of society treat women’s bodies like public property, and this is just one more disgusting case of right-wing misogyny at play.
