Cast your mind back to the halcyon days of 2012.
In the UK we had the perfect patriotic storm of the Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics after we were still high of the Royal Wedding from the year before.
A three and a half year-old girl got Tiger bread renamed to Giraffe bread, we thought there was a lion on the loose in Essex (there wasn't) and an elderly couple in Bedford accidentally planted and nurtured the largest cannabis plant the local police had ever seen. What a time to be alive eh?
Over the pond things weren't so hot. A couple of the worst mass shootings in US history took place, there was the destructive Hurricane Sandy and Mitt Romney and Barack Obama were in a fierce battle for the Presidency.
We all know Presidential debates get dirty and phrases from the campaign trail get picked up and used against their speaker.
Think about this time around ,'Grab 'em by the pussy', 'nasty woman', 'bad hombres' and 'They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people' - just some of the alleged Trump quotes that people began pulling him up for.
Well back in 2012, there was a comment by Mitt Romney, in one of the presidential debates against Obama that ended up on everyone's lips.
As the Republican candidate was discussing putting women in his cabinet he explained how hardly any had applied to the job. After seeing that it was largely men's CVs he had received, he and his team reached out to women's groups to collate 'binders full of women'. He went onto explain that the search was successful, he managed to hire a lot of great women and in the process learned the importance of flexible working hours to be inclusive to working mothers.
Here's the clip:
At the time, people really latched onto this phrase of 'binders full of women' and some have even claimed it derailed the candidates path to the win.
According to the Independent it was a day after the debate that campaigning in Iowa, Mr Obama remarked, 'I've got to tell you, we don't have to collect a bunch of binders to find qualified, talented, driven young women.'
A secret Facebook group was made in its name, a hashtag trended on Twitter. It was seen as graceless at best and sexist at worst.
Now, it has just resurfaced that the binders are in fact real.
The Boston Globe managed to get them from a former Romney aide, they explain, the aide 'recently exhumed the files and shared them with the Globe. Two white three-ring binders (weighing in at an aggregate 15 pounds, 6 ounces) are packed with nearly 200 cover letters and résumés, along with a few handwritten notations.'
The resurgence of the famous files yesterday has sparked something of a nostalgia-fest on Twitter. Since Romney active attempt to get more women into positions of agency and power seem progressive in comparison to Trump.
Perhaps Trump should have consulted some binders full of women when he signed the executive order that defunded clinics that provide abortions across the world?
Ahhh the benefit of hindsight.
Daisy Murray is the Digital Fashion Editor at ELLE UK, spotlighting emerging designers, sustainable shopping, and celebrity style. Since joining in 2016 as an editorial intern, Daisy has run the gamut of fashion journalism - interviewing Molly Goddard backstage at London Fashion Week, investigating the power of androgynous dressing and celebrating the joys of vintage shopping.
