Democratic presidential candidate and
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders once wrote a shocking essay for an alternative newspaper suggesting that every woman fantasizes about being raped.
The 1972 essay was titled "Man — and Woman," a copy of which appears in a Mother Jones profile of Sanders.
In the essay for a publication called the Vermont Freeman, Sanders suggested that after having their dark fantasies, men and women "get dressed up on Sunday — and go to Church, or maybe to their 'revolutionary' political meeting."
Sanders had entered politics a year earlier by joining the Liberty Union party, a left-wing group that wanted to help end the Vietnam War. After losing several elections in the 1970s, Sanders won the 1981 election for mayor of Burlington, Vermont.
In the essay, Sanders also discussed sex and the roles of each gender.
"Have you ever looked at ... magazines on the shelf of your local bookstore? Do you know why the newspapers with the articles like "Girl 12 raped by 14 men" sell so well? To what in us are they appealing?" Sanders wrote.
Sanders also wrote what appears to be a fictional conversation between a man and a woman at the end of the essay.
CNN's Jake Tapper tweeted Sanders' current-day reaction to the essay:
Sanders is
a self-described socialist. He is a registered independent running for president on the Democrat ticket, although he's far behind Hillary Clinton in polling.
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