It is no secret that Donald Trump is not a fan of women, due to his history of referring to them as “pigs” and saying they “must be bleeding from somewhere.”

 This type of chauvinistic flippancy towards women is dangerous to young girls, women and men alike—it is unacceptable as a presidential mindset, because it is diminishing to women as a whole, and encourages the same sort of chauvinism in men. 

Alternet recently shared an article about Donald Trump lashing-out at former Miss Universe Alicia Machado. The article stated that Trump called her “Miss Housekeeping” because she is a Latina woman. Hillary Clinton stated that she has a name, fought for her citizenship and will be voting this year. 

The article also stated that Machado, an avid Clinton supporter, has long been dealing with the controversy surrounding her weight gain during her time as Miss Universe.  According to the article, 20 years ago, Trump told her, “When you win a beauty pageant… you really have an obligation to stay in a perfect physical state.”

While I can understand being concerned about someone gaining a dangerous amount of weight is understandable, I am unable to wrap my mind around the idea of shaming a woman, or anyone for that matter, because they gained a few pounds. The danger in these types of comments by Trump is they teach the masses that women are objects and physical appearance is the most important thing. 

As a society, we have to be able to recognize the dangers in Trump’s cruel commentary on women and recognize this as a reason that he should not be the leader of men and women alike in the free world. 

Refinery 29 published an article glorifying Clintons new ad called “Mirrors,” which features young girls of varying shapes, sizes and ethnicities looking into the mirror and hearing all of Trump’s sexist comments. Regardless of your political preference, it is undeniable that this ad speaks volumes about the dangers young girls could face with Trump as our president. 

While both candidates have their very legitimate flaws, Trump’s words, actions and perceived notions about women are too harmful to our nation to go unnoticed. 

As a young woman, I can easily agree to the fact I, and almost every other woman, do not want their young girls or boys to be subjected to this type of sexism. It is not okay, and it is definitely not presidential. Our country cannot progress if our leader tries to hold half of the population back.