I wrote the article below a few months ago but I feel that I need to re-post it with a few additional comments. Judge Brett Kavanaugh, a Supreme Court nominee, is currently being questioned about his alleged history of sexual assaults on several women and no surprise, the same old comments are being trotted out. It’s the same old BS we hear over and over again when someone, anyone, accuses a powerful, well-connected man of sexual assault.
We hear, “Why didn’t the victim report it to the authorities at the time?” “This person (the alleged victim) has a vendetta against the accused,” “This person is making it all up for political/financial/personal gain,” “This is part of a conspiracy to ruin the (alleged) perpetrator’s life/reputation/political chances.” And so on and so on, ad nauseum.
Really, it’s enough to make me want to vomit. And I have to believe that any sane, reasonable person can see how obvious it is that when even a perfectly credible woman of the deepest integrity accuses a powerful, connected man of sexual assault she will experience a s#%t-storm of retribution and character defamation so virulent that it will act as an almost fool-proof deterrent for everyone else who might wish to come forward with their valid complaints.
On top of this, everything the alleged victim says will be dismissed, contradicted or rationalized away – even if it sounds (and indeed, is) completely credible and reasonable, while everything the alleged perpetrator says will be accepted – even if they appear to be (and in fact, are) dissembling and their words sound totally false and unreasonable. The double standard is so gross and blatant that it would be laughable, if the stakes weren’t so awfully dire.
Clarence Thomas was unaffected by Anita Hill’s accusations years ago and I doubt that Kavanaugh will be in any way affected by Dr. Ford’s current accusations. The old boy’s network is too strong and the atmosphere in Washington is so incredibly toxic these days that I despair of seeing any justice served.
This article isn’t going to change anything, I fear, but I have to speak up if only to register my protest and remind people of exactly why women don’t come forward at the time of their sexual assault and just how toxic and pernicious the system is in successfully silencing the victims, whether before or after they come forth with their accusations.
My article:
After reading Ronan Farrow’s recent article in the New Yorker, entitled Harvey Weinstein’s Army of Spies, I’m filled with great sadness.
In his November 6, 2017 article, Mr. Farrow describes how producer Harvey Weinstein “hired private security agencies to collect information on the women and the journalists trying to expose the allegations” of sexual assault toward him. This revelation is horrifying, but it underscores a point I’ve been trying to make for many years.
I’ve been writing about sexual abuse, assault and rape for a long time, including an article in 2015 about societal attitudes toward women who accuse powerful men of sexual assault, as well as one in 2014 about our conspiracy of silence around sexual abuse.
Most recently, I wrote about how men like Harvey Weinstein can’t operate without a group of willing enablers, some of whom act to suppress the stories in the press and some of whom collude by failing to prosecute the offenders.
The point I’ve been trying to make, and that Mr. Farrow’s article drives home so powerfully, is that within our society there are powerful forces in play with the sole aim of shaming and bullying the victims of sexual assault (and those who write about it) into silence.
In his article, Mr. Farrow goes into detail about the agencies Mr. Weinstein hired and the nefarious ways in which they attempted to insinuate themselves into the lives of both the reporters working on these stories as well as the alleged victims of Weinstein’s predation.
Despite their protestations to the contrary, it seems pretty clear that these agencies were hired by Weinstein to suppress any stories about him in the press and to silence his alleged victims.
I’ve been writing for a long time about the way that women’s reputations are dragged through the mud when they make claims of sexual harassment or abuse. The Italian model, Ambra Batillano Gutierrez is a recent example of someone who experienced an assault not only on her body, but on her reputation when she accused Weinstein of sexual assault.
Sadly, there are too many people and too many institutions invested in keeping the victims from coming forward and accusing powerful men of sexual harassment and assault.
Did Harvey Weinstein destroy Annabella Sciorra’s career?
In another article by Ronan Farrow about the costs of speaking out about Harvey Weinstein, actress Annabella Sciorra describes how her career tanked after she was raped by Weinstein in the early 1990’s and then soon afterwards, she rebuffed further inappropriate sexual advances by him.
In the article she’s quoted as saying that she didn’t work between 1992 and 1995 and that she heard that there were rumours going around that she was “difficult,” which she believes were due to “the Harvey machine.”
In the same article, actress Daryl Hannah describes how she told colleagues how Weinstein had sexually assaulted her, and that “it didn’t matter.” She said that after she rebuffed his attempts at sexual assault, “I experienced immediate repercussions.”
Hanna goes on to say, “I think that it doesn’t matter if you’re a well-known actress… it doesn’t matter if you report or if you don’t, because we are not believed. We are more than not believed — we are berated and criticized and blamed.”
I can’t underestimate how many times a woman has come to me, describing an incident of sexual harassment at her workplace and when I suggested that she report it at the human resources department, she tells me that she has, and that they did absolutely nothing to help her.
Women get in trouble for reporting sexual harassment at work:
Many women get in trouble for reporting workplace sexual harassment. They receive demotions or are fired, while the person who preyed upon them suffers no consequences whatsoever.
Why is our society like this? Why do so many people want the victims of sexual harassment and abuse to just shut up? I don’t know. It’s not merely misogyny, because the male victims of these crimes are silenced in the same way.
I think that it might have something to do with our bizarre attitudes toward sexual misconduct, in which we tend to want to punish the victim and minimize the perpetrator’s behaviour.
Where do these strange attitudes come from? I can speculate, but I really don’t know. All I do know is that the problem is pervasive.
Michael Fallon, the Defense Secretary, just resigned after admitting to having inappropriately touched a female journalist 15 years ago. All this sexual misconduct has been going on for decades but it’s been kept under wraps, in the typical pattern we’re seeing around sexual abuse, harassment and assault.
In the US Congress, women are sharing their #MeToo stories around their experiences of sexual harassment on the job. In the US tech industry, 60% of women say they’ve experienced sexual harassment in the workplace, according to an article by Kristen Bellstrom in Fortune Magazine.
All of these powerful women have been experiencing this problem for years and years, and yet their complaints have fallen on deaf ears, or these victims felt that there would be no point in complaining, as there’s been no will to address the issue.
Every few years, another story breaks about a wealthy, powerful man accused of sexual assault. In recent years, it’s been Bill Cosby, Jian Ghomeshi and Donald Trump. Today, it’s Harvey Weinstein, a slew of other Hollywood men, and now Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh.
It took a man calling out Bill Cosby to get traction on the issue:
Tellingly, it took a male comedian, Hannibal Buress, and over 60 (!!) accusers to finally get Mr. Cosby a jail sentence, and even after calling him a dangerous predator, the judge only gave him a 3-10 year sentence. By the way, people who are convicted of robbing one convenience store get about the same sentence.
We must ask ourselves why it always takes so long for these stories to come to light and how these abusers can carry on over decades, virtually without consequences. We must ask ourselves if we want to keep electing politicians who turn a blind eye to the plight of half the population.
As women, sisters and mothers; as husbands, brothers and fathers, do we want our wives, sisters, daughters, friends and colleagues to have to shut up and take it for another several decades? Or do we want to start speaking up, and start breaking down this wall of silence against the victims who bravely come forward?
The whining and moaning of these powerful men notwithstanding, the only actual conspiracy in place is the one that continues to silence the victims.
It’s a travesty of justice and a disservice to at least half of the human race. And until we stop shaming, blaming, negating and silencing the victims of sexual assault, I despair that nothing will change.
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