The current female population in America is 166,975,280. According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, about one in five women will be sexually violated at least once in their lifetime. That is about 33,395,256 women. And Ford vs. Kavanaugh is a slap in the face to each and every one of those 33,395,256 women.
Sexual violence is much more common than many people tend to believe. It has happened to me. It has happened to many of my friends. It has happened to many other men, women, and children worldwide. Despite how common it is, I find it extremely difficult to talk about my experiences with harassment and assault. Every time I make an attempt to start a discussion about the topic, I am faced with the inevitable “It can’t be that bad, you weren’t even, like, full-on raped or anything,” or “Stop victimizing yourself and ranting about things you cannot change,” or my personal favorite, “You just want attention.” Yes, I really have received each and every one of those encouraging responses. I am not making it up, I promise.
Another curious comment I have received that particularly grinds my gears is “Why didn’t you just report it then?” My answer to that is, have you seen how people treat those that do report it? Dr. Christine Blasey Ford is a prime, very relevant example of exactly why many, many women never end up reporting their traumas.
Need to be caught up on who exactly Dr. Ford is? No worries. Dr. Ford is a professor of psychology at Palo Alto University as well as a research psychologist at the Stanford University School of Medicine. In September 2018, she publically alleged that U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh assaulted her in Bethesda, Maryland in 1982.
Although she has received a flood of support, the reason Kavanaugh is still an eligible (and likely) nominee is because Ford is not being supported by the people who really count—those involved in the final decision of whether or not Kavanaugh will be elected to the Supreme Court of the United States. As I scroll through Instagram, Twitter, and through news articles about Kavanaugh’s court hearing, I see countless comments attempting to discredit Ford’s allegations. Numerous include those statements I have received myself that I have detailed above, but among those, I have seen various comments accusing Ford’s testimony of being shaky and full of gaps. But any psychology major can tell you that the brain reacts in various ways to trauma, such as blocking out parts of the (or sometimes the entire) trauma as a coping mechanism. Trying to discredit Ford’s testimony because she cannot remember, or misremembered, certain details is unfair and uninformed. I myself can concur this with my own similar experience. When I was sixteen years old, I was harassed by an old man to the point where a close relative was disturbed enough that she called the police. I will not go into details, but the things that old man said to me were extremely disturbing, violent, and very sexually charged. Although I cannot even remember exactly what month this incident happened in, whether it was October or November, I remember the exact outfit I was wearing down to my shoes (I know, weird, but the brain works in funny ways sometimes). I have forgotten seemingly large details even though this event only happened three years ago. Ford’s alleged trauma happened in 1982. It is now 2018. Thirty-six years have passed. I can imagine that it would be reasonable for Ford to misremember, or even entirely forget, certain details of her trauma when it has been so long. For people to expect her to remember every little detail and tarnish her for not correctly remembering the exact layout of the house in which a very personal experience took place for her is not only unfair, but also shows clear lack of understanding of how the human brain works.
Additionally, those that attempt to discredit Ford’s testimony, claiming that it is invalid because of her memory loss, would be hypocritical to do so without taking into consideration the memory loss that Kavanaugh is very likely to have experienced as a result of being a heavy drinker. Although Kavanaugh himself swore under oath that he was not a heavy drinker and has certainly never drank to the point of memory loss, multiple college acquaintances of his, including his freshman year roommate, James Roche, have declared otherwise. Roche said on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” that Kavanaugh lied about the extent of his drinking during last week’s hearing, and that it was much more excessive than Kavanaugh implied. Another acquaintance, former classmate Chad Ludington, who often drank with Kavanaugh during their college days, said that “[he] can unequivocally say that in denying the possibility that [Kavanaugh] ever blacked out from drinking, and in downplaying the degree and frequency of his drinking, Brett has not told the truth.” Ludington has stated that he often saw Brett “staggering from alcohol consumption,” saying that Kavanaugh often became “belligerent and aggressive” while drinking. Thus, if he was indeed prone to blacking out, it is very possible that he did, in fact, assault Dr. Ford but does not remember the act due to alcohol-related memory loss.
Yet another former Yale classmate Lynne Brookes, who said she was in the “same social circles” as Kavanaugh, stated that he “mischaracterized himself” under oath during his hearing. “I find it very hard to believe that he never blacked out or had memory problems,” Brookes declared. She also said that she and other Yale classmates were “extremely disappointed” at the way Kavanaugh “evaded” his excessive drinking questions. This counteracts many critics of Ford’s allegations who said that her accusations are an effort to forward a political agenda because although Ford herself is a Democrat, Brookes is a Republican, and thus in the same political party as Kavanaugh. Clearly, her statements are not politically motivated and she is only speaking out to make the public aware of the truth.
Before I move forward with my argument, I would like to stop and ruminate for a minute at the idea I have seen floating around the internet that Ford’s accusations against Kavanaugh are politically charged with an intent to stall the Republican party and bring forward the Democrat party. Let us pick apart that idea because I do not believe it in the least. Ford knew the risk that came with accusing a wealthy, white, Republican male elite from Washington, but she did so anyway because she believed it was her civil duty to make the general population aware that the man that very well could become the next Supreme Court justice is a sexual predator. Her worst fears were realized when she and her family had to move houses because she was sent so many death threats (which was then followed by her being forced to live separately from her family during a time of intensely taxing emotion, alone except for the security guards that she needed to ensure that she was not murdered for being brave enough to publicly accuse her violator). Her trauma is now being picked apart and scrutinized by all of America. Nobody would go through the indescribable emotional, mental, and financial stress that Dr. Ford went through just to promote a political agenda. Believe me. Nobody.
But what about innocent until proven guilty, you ask? To that, I remind you that not one, not two, but more than three of those who knew Kavanaugh personally in college have alleged that Kavanaugh lied under oath. If those allegations are true, which I personally am very sure that they are, then it is perjury, a federal crime. So he is, at the very least, guilty of at least one criminal act which should render him ineligible to be elected to Supreme Court. But how can he be considered guilty of Ford’s allegations with no hard evidence, you ask? Although there is, at this time, no hard evidence that he specifically raped Ford, there is clear evidence that he was indeed a heavy drinker and that he preyed on women while both parties were drunk. The evidence is in a letter written by Kavanaugh himself in 1983, saying that he and his friends are heavy drinkers and are “obnoxious drunks”, and that they want women—drunk women—to stay over in their rented Ocean City, Maryland condo where 8 boys, including Kavanaugh, were staying during their Beach Week trip. “We’re loud obnoxious drunks with prolific pukers among us,” he wrote. (image source: New York Times)
(image source: New York Times)
How can there still be doubt that Kavanaugh is not only a heavy drinker but also a sexual predator when he himself has written such a letter, explicitly stating the former and implying the latter?
I, along with many other victims of sexual violence, find myself shaking my head in disbelief. Even with hard evidence, even with several testimonies from those who knew the accused personally that he lied under oath and that he did in fact drink excessively, Ford’s allegations are still being doubted. Although Kavanaugh has not been found guilty, and likely will not be, given the way in which the trial is progressing and the way in which rich white heterosexual men are given free passes and pardons throughout their lives even for committing federal crimes, I steadfastly believe that Judge Brett Kavanaugh is guilty of sexually assaulting Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. If he is guilty of lying under oath, if he is a self-proclaimed “obnoxious drunk,” and if he “[begged]” drunk girls to stay over with him and other boys renting the Maryland beach condo as he stated himself, why should I believe, even for a second, that he is innocent? However, as strong as my opinion is, many people disagree with me. Even if Kavanaugh, by some miracle, is found guilty, many people will still find a way to say that he is innocent and that that cruel witch Ford has ruined poor Kavanaugh’s life, the same way rapist Brock Turner’s life was supposedly “ruined” when he was sent to jail for a whole three months after being found guilty of sexually assaulting a drunk girl. People always find a way to blame the victim or even go so far as to call the victim a liar. And Ford vs. Kavanaugh is clear proof of that. This court case is essentially a tedious, tiresome way of telling women that we are not going to be believed and that those that violated, objectified, and dehumanized us, especially if it was an upper-class white male, will get away with it with nothing more than a slap on the wrist, while we are left in the dust to deal with our traumas being shrugged off as nothing. Admittedly, I do have to concur with one of the comments I have received numerous times that was meant to tear me down. I guess you could say that I talk about my experiences with harassment and assault because I want attention. I do want attention, but I want that attention to be directed toward the harassment, assault, and sexual violence women go through every day.
So, to answer a question I have seen time and time again during discussions of sexual violence and trauma, that is why many instances of sexual violence go unreported. Because when they are reported, they are not believed, so why should a victim of sexual violence waste their time with going through the tedious process of reporting a crime when they are not even going to be taken seriously in the first place? To those calling me an armchair warrior, saying that “boys will be boys” and that “it won’t ever change, so just deal with it,” I say a hard and stubborn “NO.” Sexual violence can be reduced. Maybe start with believing us, for a change.
#IStandWithChristine