The Politics of Sex II: Brett Kavanaugh
On September 27, 2018, a woman named Christine Blasey Ford went in front of the senate to testify that Brett Kavanaugh, supreme court nominee, had sexually assaulted her when they were in high school. She stepped forward because she believed it was her “civic duty” to expose who he truly is as a person so everyone would have the full picture of the man who was nominated. Before she even testified, right wing politicians started in on the “liberal agenda” and how this was all a ploy to get another liberal seat in the Supreme Court. When she testified, she was mocked and picked apart because she came forward “too late”.
With the comments of Ford’s incorrect proceedings with how she handled the assault, a movement sparked on social media of people sharing their reasons for not reporting their assaults. #WhyIdidntreport is still currently trending as people from all walks of life share their terrible stories of assault and why they chose not to report. Some share that it was out of fear of their attacker coming at them again, but most share that it is because they knew nothing would happen. They knew that in this society, survivors do not matter, and the man who is being accused of this crime matters more. Their life matters more.
When Brock Turner was convicted, he was given six months, and released early. He only served three months in prison. Before he was convicted, his parents pleaded for people to go easy on him. They didn’t want to see him lose his swimming career at Stanford. The judge called him a young man who had made a mistake. And pleaded that his life shouldn’t be ruined because of it. No one bothered to ask how the young woman was. How her life had been impacted following being sexually assaulted while unconscious. No one mentions how her life is ruined.
This is being repeated today. In the rest of this piece I would like to look not at the particulars of how Kavanaugh is acting, or the details of the cases, but how this is showing survivors of sexual assault, that they do not matter in this country.
POWERLESS.
That is the overall feeling of women as we fight to get our voices heard. When a country hears a woman explain everything about a sexual assault in front of a bunch of people looking to question her story, and still somehow find a way to still confirm the man who did it, that country is telling women everywhere that they do not matter. It’s these things that make women not report their sexual assaults, and the same men who force women into this position are the ones that they are questioning.
When it comes to the “right way” to handle a sexual assault, there are certain things a woman is exacted to do. She is supposed to call the cops, get a rape kit done, and bring her assaulter to court and prove that she is right. She is meant to explain her story over and over again to people who do not know her, and do not care, and hope that her trauma and her evidence is enough to say that it was the specific man. But what doesn’t fit into this seemingly perfect little do-process, is that what happens if the woman is raped by her boyfriend? Or a man she doesn’t know? Or happens to be drunk and there for doesn’t think to go get a rape kit done? Most time people forget that this is actual trauma. An actual trauma that these women have gone through that effect their mental health and safety. But yes, go straight to the hospital and get an invasive rape kit done to most likely still not even be able to convict your attacker.
If you google stories of rape cases that have gone to court, or search #metoo or #whyididntreport on social media, you will get many reasons why women didn’t report And one of them is that their attacker was not convicted the first time, so why would they report their second assault? When it comes to cases like these, women have seen time and time again that they are not worth it to the powers that be. Whether that is the government of this country, or the dean at a college who doesn’t want to tarnish the name of his school, or boss at work who doesn’t want to deal with the legal proceedings, women get brushed under the rug.
Christine Blasey Ford came forward and received death threats, was called horrible names, jeopardized her job, and was mocked by the president in front of the whole country. She put her life on the line to tell her story, and was rewarded with Brett Kavanaugh being confirmed anyway. If we didn’t know where the countries priorities were before this, we sure do now. At this point, the only thing left to do is to vote on November 6th this year. While it will not un-do everything that has happened, it can help to put people in office who will continue the fight to help women and not continue the war that is constantly being waged. So go out and vote. Because it really does make a difference.
Below I have shared links to the videos of both Dr.Fords testimony and Brett Kavanaugh, as well as the video where Trump makes of Dr. Ford.
The time is now ladies. Time to use our voices and to stand up for what we deserve.
Madey