There are moments in each of our lives that we will remember for the rest of our lives. Like everyone who has a story of where they were when they found out about 9/11 or Trump being elected, I will always remember sneaking out my phone under the table at Canadian Thanksgiving yesterday to see the breaking news that Brett Kavanaugh, accused by several women of sexual misconduct, was voted into the Supreme Court of the United States.
As I’m sure everyone is aware, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, one of the women who accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault back in the summer of 1982, spoke before the senate ahead of their vote to confirm Kavanaugh. With the whole world watching, Ford shared the chilling, intimate details of Kavanaugh’s attack on her.
Yesterday must have been one of the hardest days of her life. After sharing her story — something she never should have had to do in the first place — Brett Kavanaugh was still sworn into the very role she hoped her story would keep him away from.
After everything she did and everything she went through, he still got through to a position he will not lose until he retires or dies.
Kavanaugh will be a character that will be trusted to make final decisions on sexual assault cases. He will have the power to change lives for survivors — and for rapists. It’s a grim day for the United States and it’s a tragic scene for anyone looking on from around the world, especially those who have been affected by sexual assault.
To a lot of people — to Dr. Ford — it must have seemed like her story didn’t matter.
It did. Trust me, it did.
Like many women all over the world, I cried when I listened to her speech. What is so heart-wrenching is not only Dr. Ford’s story itself, but all of the people who can relate to it.
If you haven’t been sexually assaulted yourself, you know someone who has been. Even if you have never been in the position of Dr. Ford, you’ve probably held your keys between your fingers or crossed the street when walking home alone at night.
Dr. Ford’s story was so eerily similar to my own that, for the first time, I felt like I was really being heard through her words. There didn’t have to be penetration for it to be wrong and it was scarier than any of us would be comfortable sharing, even though it wasn’t technically rape.
Like her, I carry the trauma of my assault. Like her, I was being believed by the world when she shared her story, despite the reservations that I held about my own assault.
Kavanaugh was sworn in — and that’s a scary fact. But I don’t doubt that this moment in history will be met by loud protests of women in pussy hats and a loud women’s march because, despite what Kavanaugh seems to like to do to women in bed, we will not be silenced.
These senators will pay for their actions with their careers. Too many women have been in Dr. Ford’s shoes for these senators to hide behind their party name and cling to their pussy-grabbing leader. Too many voices will cry out for justice on this decision and the cry for justice — real, societal justice — will be heard above the votes that they cast, effectively signing their own resignation letters.
All of this because Dr. Ford had the courage to come forward.
She, unlike Kavanaugh, the Senators who voted him in and Trump himself, will be on the right side of history. In 50 years, her name will be remembered for her heroic actions that contributed to a movement far larger than we can understand the day after this vote.
And Dr. Ford is a message to survivors everywhere: you will survive and you will be able to be successful. Her accused attacker may have become a lawyer, but she became a doctor. She teaches at Stanford, for crying out loud.
Despite her assault, she is intelligent. Despite her assault, she is successful. Despite her assault, she is still a person.
That’s a message we should take away ourselves. Though her story may not have changed the vote, it changed the narrative of how the world views survivors. Each of us is a web of complex parts and motivations. An assault is part of that and the trauma it leaves behind can be unyielding. But there are so many other parts of us — kind, brave, loyal, funny, confident, strong women have been assaulted and it does not define any of us any more than any of the other features we possess.
Survivors, my heart is breaking with you today. I feel ignored and I feel unsafe. But I also feel ready for the fight that I am sure is to come because of this decision. We are the future of America and of the world, not Kavanaugh. We are the ones who will show what women like Dr. Ford — women like us — can do.
We are heard and we are believed. Kavanaugh and everyone who supports him will know what we can do.
Our fight and our trauma will stay with us the rest of our lives, but so will our determination for real justice that a corrupt Supreme Court will never be able to provide, because it comes from the roots of our society. The change that is growing can’t be stopped and each of us is important to a movement that our children and grandchildren will be studying.
Each of us matters. And all of us are going to change the world.
Photos: CNN, The New York Times, The Inquisitr and The Women’s Foundation of California