Mes ami·es,
comme vous tou·tes, je suppose, comme tant de gens de par le monde, comme tant de nos ami·es américain·es, je suis depuis ce matin sous le choc. Littéralement sidérée. Anesthésiée. Je ne comprends pas. La nouvelle dépasse mon entendement. J’ai pleuré. Et puis je me suis roulée en boule, et j’ai attendu que la journée passe.
Comment vous parlez aujourd’hui des relations « positives », quand la personnalité de Donald Trump incarne précisément tant l’inverse ? La mauvaise foi, le mensonge, la domination patriarcale, le sexisme, le racisme, la suffisance, le mépris… les mots me manquent. Je suffoque.
Quel modèle donnons-nous à nos enfants quand un tel personnage peut ainsi accéder aux plus hautes fonctions du plus puissant pays du monde ? Que vont-ielles penser ? Qu’on peut impunément mentir, insulter, mépriser les autres ?
Je ne vois rien d’autre à partager avec vous que cette vidéo, et sa transcription, d’un discours de Michelle Obama qui m’a bouleversée il y a quelque temps. Voilà pour moi quelqu’un qui incarne un « role model » de relations positives. Qui nous tire vers le haut. Qui éveille en nous ce qu’on a de plus précieux, de plus riche, de plus militant. Qui nous donne envie d’avancer, de nous battre, d’agir. De changer le monde.
Résistance. Compassion. Combat. Espoir.
Avec amour et bienveillance,
Isabelle
(Traduit en partie en français en-dessous)
« While I’d love nothing more than to pretend like this isn’t happening and come out here and do my normal campaign speech, it would be dishonest and disingenuous to me to just move on to the next thing like this was all just a bad dream. This is not something that we can ignore. It’s not something that we can sweep under the rug as just another disturbing footnote in a sad election season because this was not just a lewd conversation. This wasn’t just « locker room banter. » This was a powerful individual speaking freely and openly about sexually predatory behavior. And actually bragging about kissing and groping women, using language so obscene that many of us worried about our children hearing it when we turned on the TV. And to make matters worse it now seems very clear that this isn’t an isolated incident. It’s one of countless examples of how he has treated women his whole life.
And I have to tell you that I listen to all of this, and I feel it so personally. And I’m sure that many of you do, too, particularly the women. The shameful comments about our bodies, the disrespect of our ambitions and intellect, the belief that you can do anything you want to a woman? It is cruel. It’s frightening. And the truth is, it hurts. It hurts. It’s like that sick, sinking feeling you get when you’re walking down the street, minding your own business, and some guy yells out vulgar words about your body. Or when you see that guy at work that stands just a little too close, stares a little too long, and makes you feel uncomfortable in your own skin. It’s that feeling of terror and violation that too many women have felt when someone has grabbed them or forced himself on them, and they’ve said no, but he didn’t listen. Something that we know happens on college campuses and countless other places every single day. It reminds us of stories we’ve heard from our mothers and grandmothers about how back in their day, the boss could say and do whatever he pleased to the women in the office. And even though they worked so hard, jumped over every hurdle to prove themselves, it was never enough. We thought all of that was ancient history, didn’t we?
And so many have worked for so many years to end this kind of violence and abuse and disrespect but here we are: In 2016 and we’re hearing these exact same things every day of the campaign trail. We are drowning in it. And all of us are doing what women have always done: We’re trying to keep our heads above water. Just trying to get through it, trying to pretend like this doesn’t really bother us. Maybe because we think that admitting how much it hurts makes us as women look weak. Maybe we’re afraid to be that vulnerable. Maybe we’ve grown accustomed to swallowing these emotions and staying quiet because we’ve seen that people often won’t take our word over his. Or maybe we don’t want to believe that there are still people out there who think so little of us as women. Too many are treating this as just another day’s headline, as if our outrage is overblown or unwarranted, as if this is normal. Just politics as usual.
But New Hampshire, be clear: this is not normal. This is not politics as usual. This is disgraceful. It is intolerable, and it doesn’t matter what party you belong to—Democrat, Republican, Independent—no woman deserves to be treated this way. None of us deserve this kind of abuse. And I know it’s a campaign, but this isn’t about politics. It’s about basic human decency. It’s about right and wrong, and we simply cannot endure this or expose our children to this any longer. Not for another minute, let alone for four years. Now is the time for all of us to stand up and say « enough is enough. »
This has got to stop right now because consider this: If all of this is painful to us as grown women, what do you think this is doing to our children? What messages are our little girls hearing about, who they should look like, how they should act? What lessons are they learning about their value as professionals, as human beings? About their dreams and aspirations? And how is this affecting men and boys in this country because I can tell you that the men in my life do not talk about women like this, and I know that my family is not unusual. And to dismiss this as everyday locker room talk is an insult to decent men everywhere. The men that you and I know don’t treat women this way: they are loving fathers who are sickened by the thought of their daughters being exposed to this kind of vicious language about women. They are husbands and brothers and sons who don’t tolerate women being treated and demeaned and disrespected. And, like us, these men are worried about the impact this election is having on our boys who are looking for role models of what it means to be a man.
In fact, someone recently told me a story about their 6-year-old son who one day was watching the news, they were watching the news together, and the little boy out of the blue said, « I think Hillary Clinton will be president. » And his mom said, « well, why do you say that? » And this little 6-year-old said, « because the other guy called someone a piggy. » And he said, « you cannot be president if you call someone a piggy. » So even a 6-year-old knows better. A 6-year-old knows that this is not how adults behave, this is not how decent human beings behave, and this is certainly not how someone who wants to be president of the United States behaves.
Because let’s be very clear: strong men, strong men, men who are truly role models don’t need to put down women to make themselves feel powerful. People who are truly strong lift others up. People who are truly powerful bring others together and that is what we need in our next president. We need someone who is a uniting force in this country. We need someone who will heal the wounds that divide us. Someone who truly cares about us and our children. Someone with strength and compassion to lead this country forward. »
Retrouvez l’intégralité de l’article sur elle.com
Et en français dans le Huffington Post :
« J’aimerais tellement faire comme si rien ne s’était passé, mais ce n’est pas quelque chose que l’on peut ignorer. Ce n’était pas juste des ‘conversations de vestiaire’: c’était une personne de pouvoir parlant ouvertement d’agression sexuelle« , a dénoncé Michelle Obama en référence aux « excuses » de Donald Trump concernant la vidéo de 2005 où il est filmé en train de proférer de propos obscènes.
« Et comme si cela ne suffisait pas, il est maintenant très clair que ce n’était pas un simple accident mais que c’est l’un des innombrables exemples de son comportement avec les femmes« , a-t-elle estimé alors que les témoignages accusateurs contre le candidat républicain pleuvent depuis 48 heures .
« Je ne peux pas arrêter d’y penser. Ces propos m’ont glacée jusqu’à la moelle, m’ont bouleversée à un point que je n’aurais jamais imaginé. J’entends toutes ses remarques et elles me blessent, et je suis sûre qu’elles vous blessent aussi, surtout les femmes: on se sent aussi mal que quand on marche dans la rue et qu’un homme nous lance une remarque vulgaire, ou quand on est au travail et qu’on voit un collègue se tenir un peu trop près ou nous regarder avec insistance », a dénoncé la femme du président, la voix tremblante.
Ça nous rappelle ces histoires que nous ont racontées nos mères et grands-mères sur leur patron qui pouvait faire tout ce qu’il voulait aux femmes du bureau. On pensait que c’était de l’histoire ancienne, mais non, nous y revoilà: on est en 2016 et on entend exactement la même chose au quotidien pendant cette campagne, on s’y noie.
« Soyons très clair, ce n’est pas normal, ce ne sont pas ‘les travers habituels de la politique’. Quel que soit le parti auquel on appartient, démocrate, républicain ou indépendant, aucune femme ne mérite d’être traitée de cette façon. Personne ne mérite ce genre d’injures« , a-t-elle continué.
« Cela doit s’arrêter sur-le-champ. Pensez à ça un instant : si cela blesse des femmes, des adultes, quel effet cela-t-il sur nos enfants ? Qu’est-ce que cela inculque à nos filles ? Quelle idée cela leur donne-t-il de la valeur qu’elles ont ? Et nos garçons ? C’est ça l’exemple que l’on veut leur donner de ce que cela signifie d’être un homme ? »
On ne peut pas exposer nos enfants à cela une minute de plus, et encore moins pendant quatre ans. Le moment est arrivé de prendre les choses en main et de dire que trop, c’est trop.
« Soyons bien clair. Les hommes qui sont confiants, qui sont de vrais modèles, n’ont pas besoin de rabaisser les femmes. Les gens qui sont forts élèvent ceux qui les entourent. Les gens puissants rassemblent les autres. »
