Your Source for NPR News & Music
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Women On Social Media Respond To Trump Calling Clinton A 'Nasty Woman'

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

OK, one more story out of last night's debate - this one about the afterlife of four words interjected by Donald Trump.

(SOUNDBITE OF PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE)

HILLARY CLINTON: My social security payroll contribution will go up, as will Donald's, assuming he can't figure out how to get out of it. But what we want to do is to replenish the social security...

DONALD TRUMP: Such a nasty woman.

CLINTON: ...Trust fund by making sure...

MCEVERS: Such a nasty woman - it wasn't long before that insult was reclaimed as a rallying cry for Clinton supporters who felt like Trump was taking a dig at women.

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

Hashtag #I'mANastyWoman made the rounds on Twitter. So did #NastyWomenVote.

MCEVERS: One of those tweeting with Sophia Amoruso. She's something of an authority on nasty. Her clothing company has called Nasty Gal. She's written a memoir with advice for women entrepreneurs. She says she wasn't surprised Trump's insult backfired.

SOPHIA AMORUSO: Little did he know that the word nasty is one that - I don't know - women have been having a lot of fun with for a long time, from the time that Bette Davis wrote the album "Nasty Gal" and said she was a nasty gal. Like any word, it really only belongs to the person who uses it until someone steals it back and uses it in a different way.

MCEVERS: Amoruso says she thinks the insult resonated with women who've felt marginalized because of their gender. She says she views nasty woman as a badge of honor. She even changed the name of her company just for today from Nasty Gal to Nasty Woman. Amoruso agrees with Trump on one question - is Clinton a nasty woman?

AMORUSO: Yeah, Hillary's a nasty woman in, like, the best way possible. And I think, like, Hillary's a nasty woman and that she stands by her beliefs. She keeps showing up. I don't know. She's got, like, a real hairstyle (laughter). Like, she tries.

SIEGEL: Besides the hashtags, there are already nasty woman T-shirts for sale. There's a URL. We can't say it on the air, but it's the PG-13 version of nastywomengetthingsdone.com

MCEVERS: (Laughter) And one more bit of nasty news - Spotify tweeted today that streams of the Janet Jackson song "Nasty" are up 250 percent.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "NASTY")

JANET JACKSON: (Singing) Sitting in the movie show, thinking nasty thoughts. Better be a gentleman or you'll turn me off. That's right. Let me tell it. Nasty... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Related Stories