Donald Trump has said so many inflammatory things this past year that it's hard to keep track of them all. Yet, as divisive as The Donald's public comments have been, it was the word he thought he was saying in private that raised the hackles of a local activist group. The now-famous Access Hollywood tape that emerged recently in which the phrase “grab them by the pussy” was uttered by the current Republican Presidential nominee some 11 years ago has brought American politics to a new low. But here in the epicenter of the most crucial of swing states, a litter of self-described pussies is having more fun with the whole thing than a kitten with a ball of string.
Amanda Patton, owner of prochoicecats.com, saw an opportunity to poke a little fun at Trump and send a message at the same time. That message can now be seen on billboards in downtown Columbus. “We all saw the video of Trump bragging about how he ‘grabs’ women ‘by the pussy’ and it became crystal clear that Trump’s disdain for women’s rights, bodily autonomy and pussies intersect in a horrifyingly organic way,” she says. A cat lover and enthusiastic champion of reproductive rights, Patton brought her two passions together to form Pro Choice Cats. The group advocates for reproductive rights and access in Central Ohio, and last year raised funds to purchase billboards downtown promoting pro-choice messages.
To raise money for the ad campaign, the group sold t-shirts, buttons, stickers and other merchandise with messages like “Leave my pussy alone,” and “My Pussy, My Choice.” One of the more interesting hot-sellers was a crocheted, catnip-stuffed cat toy resembling a bloody tampon (“Cats love them,” says Patton). Local artists and volunteers designed and made the merchandise, which was sold to hundreds of like-minded supporters in Ohio and several other states.
But Patton was just getting started. The success of last year's campaign inspired her to do an encore. The theme of this year's billboard campaign is “Pussies Against Trump,” playing off the most infamous locker-room conversation in American political history. “I knew for a really long time that I wanted this year’s billboards to focus on the upcoming election,” says Patton, “because access to abortion and comprehensive reproductive healthcare are under attack in Ohio and things will only get worse if Donald Trump and the Republican Party gain control of the country. I was disgusted by how cavalierly Trump boasted about kissing and groping women without their consent…but I can’t say I was surprised. Such behavior is to be expected of a man who has very publicly referred to women as pigs, dogs and pieces of ass. Trump once said on TV that ‘putting a wife to work is a very dangerous thing.’ He claims to be pro-life, yet he has described breastfeeding as ‘disgusting’ and has bragged about refusing to change diapers. Trump is a by-product of the Republican Party’s ideology that women are nothing more than trophy wives and walking baby incubators. Even the Republicans who chastised Trump for his pussy-grabbing comments kept referring to the women victimized by Trump as 'someone’s daughter, someone’s mother, someone’s sister, someone’s wife'...as if the humiliation of a woman is only relatable when you think about her relationship to the men in her life. To Donald Trump and the Republican Party, if you’re a woman, you’re not really an autonomous person...you don’t get ownership of your sexuality, your fertility or even your own god damn uterus.”
“After Trump received the nomination, I decided the billboards would focus on a cat version of Trump but I was worried that some people wouldn’t get the combination of Donald Trump and Angry Pussies. But then we all saw the video,” she says. “How could we not dedicate these pussy billboards to the sinking ship of misogyny that is Donald Trump and the Republican Party?”
The electronic billboards can be seen downtown at the corner of 3rd and Spring through October 31st.
