Edited by Ann Marie Elpa
It isn’t as if politics in 2018 wasn’t already a mess.
You could guess things weren’t really going according to plan when women all over America brought life to a dystopian society in Senate offices across the country. (and no they weren’t gearing up for Halloween) (I wish they were).
Handmaids, as depicted in Atwood’s book, stood together in silence serving as a chilling foretell of what the future would entail if placed under the jurisdiction of Kavanaugh. They made their voices heard as they yelled and screamed in confirmation hearings vocalizing their dissatisfaction with the system. From sending coat hangers to Senator Susan Collins, to lining up in front of City Hall in Portland, Kavanaugh’s nomination to this position spurred wide – range controversy appertaining to whether or not a man with such strong perspectives on how to control a woman’s body should withhold one of the strongest positions the nation had to offer.
Did a man like this authentically represent what the United States of America stood for?
Yet, until these past 2 weeks, these women’s voices drowned in the background. They were deemed as mere elevator music next to the orchestra which blindly supported Kavanaugh’s promotion.
Giving weight to the argument that Kavanaugh did not qualify as a judge for the supreme court, a woman named Christine Blasey Ford identified herself as the person to have written a letter earlier this summer to representative Anna Eshoo and Senator Dianne Feinstein, claiming that as a teenager, Brett Kavanaugh and a friend attempted to sexually assault her. On Sunday, Ford went on the record in the Washington Post, describing in explicit detail what she remembered of the Supreme Court nominee pinning her to a bed during a party, attempting to pull her clothes off.
In anything but a poise and collected manner Judge Kavanaugh responded that the confirmation process, and the hearing itself was a “national disgrace… fueled by calculated and orchestrated political hit”. He denied the allegations from Dr. Ford, alongside claims which followed made by Deborah Ramirez and Julie Swetnick.
So… here are my two cents.
I get it Brett. You are innocent until proven guilty. I also get it. You are frustrated and scared that the promotion of your life is (temporarily) being placed on hold because a ghost from your past has decided to resurface. However, I refuse to accept normalizing sexual predatory behaviour. I refuse to push aside the fact that you have a drinking problem, and a temper, and you are evidently partisan in every way shape and form.
It is time the ‘boys will be boys’ rhetoric is killed. On multiple occasions, Senator Lindsey Graham refused to take Dr. Ford’s allegations seriously because “there isn’t something more” fearing the “ruin of Judge Kavanaugh’s life”. Senator Lindsey made it clear that an event which occurred over 36 years ago should not affect the progress Kavanaugh has made in otherwise successful career. It is important to note what these words mean for today’s youth around the world. When repercussions are not made clear, and allegations are not taken seriously the rates of these crimes heighten. It is basic math. When the supreme court or elected senators will allow a man like this off easy, less women will report sexual violence and more women will become vulnerable to sexual violence. So, the only national tragedy here would be continuing to treat sexual violence as an act of little consequence.
Nonetheless, the world is watching. The rules are evolving, and if the political system won’t see through to fix itself, the people will fix it. Millions of women actively take to social media sharing their #MeToo moments. They fight hard not to dismiss 30-year-old memories. They passionately ally themselves with survivors. So, even if the senators don’t see beyond their respective political agendas, and refuse to thoroughly assess who is best to fill the seat of the judge on the highest ranking court in the country.
The people will elect who they believe best represents them, and election time is just around the corner.