Trump Objectifies Women, Says Paper With Semi-Nudes On Front Page

The reality TV personality apologized for his remarks and the hurt they caused, whereas the Yediot Aharonot editorial board has yet to exhibit the necessary self-awareness.

Tel Aviv, October 9 – Israel’s second-most-popular daily reported today on Donald Trump’s recorded remarks referring crudely to his daughter, and women generally, as sex objects, alongside promotional excerpts from other content featuring photographs of women in various states of undress to attract the reader’s attention.

Yediot Aharonot, the sister publication of the news and gossip site ynet, noted the Republican presidential nominee’s braggadocio in a recorded conversation ten years ago in which he boasted that his celebrity status enables him to grope women and face no serious consequences, and a separate radio interview in which he described his daughter Ivanka as a “piece of ass.” In the right-hand column of the same front page, Yediot placed an image of Dakota Johnson in a revealing dress and a line from a story about her in which she declared she has “no problem with nudity.” Beneath that, the publication printed the photo of a model receiving Botox treatment, unnecessarily showing her bare shoulders and top of her torso.

Yediot devoted most of its front page to the Trump revelations, which have caused previously staunch supporters to withdraw their endorsement of his candidacy. The real estate mogul and reality TV personality apologized for his remarks and the hurt they caused, whereas the Yediot Aharonot editorial board has yet to exhibit the self-awareness necessary to notice its behavior in the same realm. Observers do not believe such a change will occur in the near future.

“Donald Trump is notoriously un-self-aware, but at least he has advisers and campaign staff who can steer him,” explained media consultant Bur Amhaaretz. “But Israeli news outlets, and not just Yediot, have been objectifying women for decades, and would never consider themselves as engaging in anything improper. Even Haaretz, the so-called ‘newspaper for thinking people,’ causally uses women as sex objects in its own advertising for subscriptions.”

“It wouldn’t be such a big deal if these publications were up-front about it,” he continued. “There’s nothing wrong with admitting that sex sells, and that they need to please the customer to some degree in order to maintain an audience. But that’s not what they’re doing. Open up the op-eds on any given day and you’ll see moralistic pontifications of the most sanctimonious sort, usually directed at right-wing figures, for sexism and stereotyping. These papers and websites obviously feel they have a claim to some moral authority or clarity, which would be amusing if it weren’t so goddamn tragic.”