Donald Trump's apparent disgust with Vice President Kamala Harris' laugh has a direct correlation to his attack on New York writer E. Jean Carroll that a judge later labeled as "rape," prominent feminist journalist Amanda Marcotte argued Thursday.
Noting that Trump failed to make "laughing Kamala" a "thing" before he moved onto "crazy Kamala" and "lying Kamala," Marcotte recalled defamation trial testimony about Carroll teasing the former president.
"During their outing, Carroll teased Trump with jokes about how he should try on lingerie," Marcotte wrote. "It appears that her laughing, which would be light-hearted fun to normal men, instead infuriated Trump so much that he responded with a violent assault."
Marcotte likens this response to MAGA world attacks on Harris.
"Republicans keep shaming Harris for laughing, no matter how weird and joyless that makes them seem," Marcotte wrote. "The main reason for this poor choice appears to be that Trump is downright obsessed. The GOP is a Trump cult now. Republicans cannot help but reflect and parrot the fixations of their leader, no matter how much it unnerves the un-weird."
Trump's "deep-seated loathing for female merriment" was exposed, Marcotte argues, during the two trials during which Carroll testified she replied to Trump's suggestion that she try on lingerie, "You try it on" and "it's your color."
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The writer also reportedly explained, "Laughing is a very good—I use the word weapon—to calm a man down if he has any erotic intention."
Marcotte found this testimony telling.
"I suspect what sets off misogynists like Trump is the way a woman's laughter reminds them that women are autonomous human beings, who have full interior lives," Marcotte wrote. "For such men, they prefer to imagine women as appendages of men, who have no motivations outside of pleasing and serving men."
The exception to the laughter ban, according to Marcotte, is when a man tells a joke.
"You don't see Trump getting mad at the MAGA women who laugh at the faux-stand-up routine that he does at his rallies," Marcotte writes. "But a woman who laughs out of genuine joy aggravates misogynists."
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"Sexist petulance is so childish and self-centered that it's easy to laugh at, but as Carroll's experience shows, that level of male entitlement can get dangerous quickly. Men who feel threatened by a woman can and often do lash out violently."
