Once again, Donald Trump's words have made the country awkwardly confront one of the darker corners of its collective subconscious. This time the topic of conversation is sexual assault.
The spot called “It’s Not Ok” made by Humanity for Hillary takes a step back from politics, policy and on one level even the election (not once is the word “vote” used), to make a general statement on what has become dubbed the "Trump Tapes": what he has said and the sexual assault allegations against him cannot be ignored.
The beginning of the ad jumps between women of all ages and races stating the age at which they were harassed or assaulted for the first time, interspersed with clips of Trump making misogynistic comments about groping women, from a 2005 Access Hollywood set. The women in the video then start to go into more detail, giving quotes of what people said to them, while the clips change to newscasters and other commentators that seem to respond directly to them.
“Well first of all, I don’t think this is anything,” Trump surrogate Rudy Giuliani tells CNN's Jake Tapper, right after a few young girls finish describing what horrifying jeers adult men had thrown at them, “this is talk.”
The music stops. It then goes from woman to woman, showing only snippets of sentences describing, almost casually, the most intimate and horrific experiences that women face all too often.
“I think people like Donald Trump will never understand the correlation that women understand between words and actions,” Amber Tamblyn says to the camera, succinctly describing the moment of panic women feel when there is no clear sign that an instance of harassment ends with “just talk.” Tamblyn explains that the position of power and fame that Donald finds himself in normalizes and justifies actions like his to people all over the world, making the dismissal of the #TrumpTapes as “just talk” even more dangerous.
The spot moves onto a clip of Donald Trump outright denying any claims of assault, saying that they’re all lies, which is juxtaposed with the women telling the stories of how people didn’t believe them, dismissed them and claimed, like Donald, that they were lying.
“You’re talking about harassing us like that’s okay,” a young woman states, which sets off a chorus of dozens of women telling Donald, us, and themselves that “it’s not ok.” We see the women who have been telling their stories, and also celebrities like Meryl Streep, Lena Dunham, Amy Schumer, Whoopi Goldberg, Tracee Ellis Ross, and others, all telling us that this time, Trump's words are just "not ok."
The spot called “It’s Not Ok” made by Humanity for Hillary takes a step back from politics, policy and on one level even the election (not once is the word “vote” used), to make a general statement on what has become dubbed the "Trump Tapes": what he has said and the sexual assault allegations against him cannot be ignored.
The beginning of the ad jumps between women of all ages and races stating the age at which they were harassed or assaulted for the first time, interspersed with clips of Trump making misogynistic comments about groping women, from a 2005 Access Hollywood set. The women in the video then start to go into more detail, giving quotes of what people said to them, while the clips change to newscasters and other commentators that seem to respond directly to them.
“Well first of all, I don’t think this is anything,” Trump surrogate Rudy Giuliani tells CNN's Jake Tapper, right after a few young girls finish describing what horrifying jeers adult men had thrown at them, “this is talk.”
The music stops. It then goes from woman to woman, showing only snippets of sentences describing, almost casually, the most intimate and horrific experiences that women face all too often.
“I think people like Donald Trump will never understand the correlation that women understand between words and actions,” Amber Tamblyn says to the camera, succinctly describing the moment of panic women feel when there is no clear sign that an instance of harassment ends with “just talk.” Tamblyn explains that the position of power and fame that Donald finds himself in normalizes and justifies actions like his to people all over the world, making the dismissal of the #TrumpTapes as “just talk” even more dangerous.
The spot moves onto a clip of Donald Trump outright denying any claims of assault, saying that they’re all lies, which is juxtaposed with the women telling the stories of how people didn’t believe them, dismissed them and claimed, like Donald, that they were lying.
“You’re talking about harassing us like that’s okay,” a young woman states, which sets off a chorus of dozens of women telling Donald, us, and themselves that “it’s not ok.” We see the women who have been telling their stories, and also celebrities like Meryl Streep, Lena Dunham, Amy Schumer, Whoopi Goldberg, Tracee Ellis Ross, and others, all telling us that this time, Trump's words are just "not ok."