- cross-posted to:
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- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
It’s one outrage in days full of outrageous material.
“Quiet, piggy,” Donald Trump told a female reporter in a press gaggle, pointing his finger at her angrily.
It wasn’t the first time – not even the hundredth time – the US president has attacked the media. And it’s hard for any storyline to break through the administration’s “flood the zone” strategy, much less one like this. Nothing seems to stick. But the “quiet, piggy” clip has taken off, several days after the admonishment occurred on Air Force One last Friday, and without much help from the media itself.
I grew up in the 70s and 80s when it was acceptable for parents to physically beat their children, and when when I saw this clip of Trump it shocked me because the look on his face, the finger pointing, and the sound of his voice was exactly how my father looked and sounded right before he would take off his belt to beat us with it. I can’t be the only one who has these memories.
Also using the word “piggy” is revealing of how he sees people. Pigs are associated with slaughter and murder in nearly all of our stories. We kill and eat pigs. The upper classes see the rest of us as pigs to harvest and slaughter and consume. In their eyes how dare a lowly pig meant for their dinner plates question them and talk back to them. What Trump did and said revealed all this horror.
I agree. But also piggy usually is “fat, ugly” too when referencing a woman.
Of course you’re right, and I would argue that calling a woman a “fat, ugly pig” stems from the associations I point out.
The pig insult is so common, I think we’re all trying to understand why such a common and known insult would be so much more shocking to us. It isn’t just because it comes from a sitting US president. Trump is known for his viscous insults and we’ve all heard them.
Saying, “quiet, piggy” was a mask slip more revealing than many of us can even consciously comprehend.
Oh definitely. It’s how he considers women. Beneath him.
In my case, Trump and my own father might as well have been clones. My father was even a wealthy narcissistic authoritarian who was obsessed with his hair and image and was incapable of telling the truth. He was surrounded by sycophants and the vilest people imaginable who were tripping over each other to fellate him until he ran of money, and was abruptly abandoned by everyone but his debt collectors.
He died (alone, of alcohol poisoning) right about the same time Trump became president. For me, my brain has been scrambled since 2016, I feel like he went from terrorizing my family to running the country, and on some subconscious level I keep thinking I have to go to the White House or something on the holidays and listen to him make rambling nonsense speeches about himself.
Also calling someone a pig is a pretty strong insult in many circumstances. Calling a girl or woman piggy is another level of both insulting and heavily condescending.