Nasty Woman

In her debate on Wednesday with Donald J. Trump, Hillary Clinton for the first time emerged as the clarion-voiced advocate for women whom many liberal women had been longing for — especially the younger voters she had largely left cold throughout the Democratic primaries.
Speaking ardently on abortion rights, a defining issue for an older generation of feminists, Mrs. Clinton dispensed with Democrats’ longstanding caveat that the procedure should be rare, and gave a fierce defense of women’s right to control their own bodies without government interference.
More tellingly, Mrs. Clinton also seemed to speak to a new generation of women — and to many young men — by assailing Mr. Trump over sexual assault and harassment, saying his dismissals of the allegations against him by multiple women showed that he “thinks belittling women makes him bigger.”
“He goes after their dignity, their self-worth,” Mrs. Clinton said firmly. “And I don’t think there is a woman anywhere who doesn’t know what that feels like.”
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Perhaps the biggest boost she received, however, was one that neither she nor any army of political operatives could have engineered: when Mr. Trump interjected, “What a nasty woman,” as Mrs. Clinton was discussing Social Security and taxes.
Overnight, his insult became a battle cry for Mrs. Clinton’s partisans — including many whose passions she had not yet stirred. “Nasty Woman” T-shirts began selling on the internet. Naral Pro-Choice America advertised “NastyWoman” stickers. A New York City man quickly set up an expletive-laced “nasty women” website that redirected visitors to Mrs. Clinton’s campaign page. Streams of Janet Jackson’s 1986 hit “Nasty” increased 250 percent on Spotify after the debate, according to a Spotify spokesman. More than 8,000 people had taken up the phrase on Twitter by midafternoon, wielding it as a badge of honor.
A campaign that a day earlier had taken some ribbing over a leaked email showing that top aides churned through a list of more than 80 potential slogans — many of them plodding and colorless — suddenly seemed to be taking on the vitality of a grass-roots movement.
Even before Wednesday night’s debate, Mrs. Clinton had been beating Mr. Trump by large margins among probable female voters. Sixty percent supported Mrs. Clinton, compared with 24 percent who supported Mr. Trump, according to a CBS poll conducted in October, just days after the release of a tape in which Mr. Trump could be heard boasting about his ability to get away with sexual assault.
But many women seemed motivated as much, or more, by fear of a Trump presidency as by enthusiasm for Mrs. Clinton.
“Donald Trump’s candidacy has just terrified me from the moment he stepped on the stage,” said April Alario, 35, a disabled former pastor in Boston.
“He reminded me of every controlling abusive man I’ve ever encountered,” added Ms. Alario, who said she had voted Republican in every presidential election since 2004.((MSN newsletter))