A sexual assault turning point?
Nothing made me happier back in January than the influx of pussy hats flooding the country (and indeed much of the world), that and the women's marches. I can't imagine what it would have been like to be a woman watching the rise of a sexual assaulter and misogynist to the highest office in the world knowing that we put him in that position with the confirmed knowledge that that's what he was like. And as might have been expected, he pretty well ignored the single largest march (four times larger than the nearest sized march according to Wikipedia) in the history of this country. He did, of course, berate it.
If there's a bright spot to his ascension, I think it's that women are feeling more compelled to call a spade a spade. Hollywood has rightly been thrust into the international spotlight for men being allowed to be assholes without any consequences for far too long and I'm not sure it would have happened without the Trumpster. (But unlike seemingly the entire elected republican clan, we denounce those on our side who cross the line; we don't elect them president.)
Until fairly recently, I hadn't ever forced myself to consider the plight of women or men's attitudes toward them and I surely hadn't ever tried to put myself in their shoes. But events in recent years have made the topic far more important to me and have created an empathy that was sorely lacking before. I've come to believe that our culture, and many, many others across the world are at fault for teaching boys that their job is to be the aggressor, but perhaps more significantly, we have failed to educate them about what it's like to be in other people's shoes.
And how much courage does it take for women to accuse powerful men of wrong doings? At least 16 women have accused Trump of sexual misconduct and the official response from the White House? They're all lying. This is after the entire world has watched video footage of the assaulter in chief bragging about doing exactly what these women are saying. And absolutely the most amazing part is that a pretty high percentage of people believe the women are all lying. WTF? I can't imagine being one of Harvey Weinstein's accusers, or Bill Cosby's, or Kevin Spacey's. I can only hope that some of these people were so outraged by Trump that they said, "No, I'm not standing for this shit anymore. I'm not turning a blind eye to yet another jerk." This isn't about men being men, it's about men getting away with murder for the history of humanity and women finally calling them out on it (or in Spacey's case, boys and men). Bravo!
Is this a turning point for sexual assault victims? I think the road has just barely begun to be traveled. Not only is one of the most clear offenders in charge of everything, but he has stacked the deck against victims for a while to come. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has put the onus back on the accusers, which will clearly dissuade many women from reporting assaults in the first place. In addition, Trump's cabinet seems to be filled with the definition of "the old boys' club."
And yet I remain optimistic in the long run. I think there's a big enough blowback from people who see the whole situation as I do. The democrats have won the presidential popular vote all but once in the last seven elections (and that was for W.'s second term during a war). I believe that clearly means the country is moving in a progressive direction. Unfortunately, we've had two out of three presidents in a row become president lacking the popular vote and this current one is stacking the judicial branch with hard right-wingers, which will seriously skew the country away from the direction the people apparently are leaning. And don't even get me going on Gerrymandering . . . Call me back in 50 years.
If there's a bright spot to his ascension, I think it's that women are feeling more compelled to call a spade a spade. Hollywood has rightly been thrust into the international spotlight for men being allowed to be assholes without any consequences for far too long and I'm not sure it would have happened without the Trumpster. (But unlike seemingly the entire elected republican clan, we denounce those on our side who cross the line; we don't elect them president.)
Until fairly recently, I hadn't ever forced myself to consider the plight of women or men's attitudes toward them and I surely hadn't ever tried to put myself in their shoes. But events in recent years have made the topic far more important to me and have created an empathy that was sorely lacking before. I've come to believe that our culture, and many, many others across the world are at fault for teaching boys that their job is to be the aggressor, but perhaps more significantly, we have failed to educate them about what it's like to be in other people's shoes.
And how much courage does it take for women to accuse powerful men of wrong doings? At least 16 women have accused Trump of sexual misconduct and the official response from the White House? They're all lying. This is after the entire world has watched video footage of the assaulter in chief bragging about doing exactly what these women are saying. And absolutely the most amazing part is that a pretty high percentage of people believe the women are all lying. WTF? I can't imagine being one of Harvey Weinstein's accusers, or Bill Cosby's, or Kevin Spacey's. I can only hope that some of these people were so outraged by Trump that they said, "No, I'm not standing for this shit anymore. I'm not turning a blind eye to yet another jerk." This isn't about men being men, it's about men getting away with murder for the history of humanity and women finally calling them out on it (or in Spacey's case, boys and men). Bravo!
Is this a turning point for sexual assault victims? I think the road has just barely begun to be traveled. Not only is one of the most clear offenders in charge of everything, but he has stacked the deck against victims for a while to come. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has put the onus back on the accusers, which will clearly dissuade many women from reporting assaults in the first place. In addition, Trump's cabinet seems to be filled with the definition of "the old boys' club."
And yet I remain optimistic in the long run. I think there's a big enough blowback from people who see the whole situation as I do. The democrats have won the presidential popular vote all but once in the last seven elections (and that was for W.'s second term during a war). I believe that clearly means the country is moving in a progressive direction. Unfortunately, we've had two out of three presidents in a row become president lacking the popular vote and this current one is stacking the judicial branch with hard right-wingers, which will seriously skew the country away from the direction the people apparently are leaning. And don't even get me going on Gerrymandering . . . Call me back in 50 years.
