On Thursday, September 27, 2018, all eyes turned to the force of a woman standing against the nomination to the Supreme Court of the man who sexually assaulted her in 1982. Dr. Christine Blasey Ford fought the fight that no individual should have to fight, and if you watched the hearing then you know, it is not an easy war. Through fractured tensions on the judiciary committee itself, Ford’s powerful recollection of the assault, the trial-like tone that was seeking to discredit Ford, and Kavanaugh’s enraged (and disrespectful) testimony-this hearing is making history. And our country has been here before.
In 1991, Clarence Thomas was in the process of being confirmed to the Supreme Court, when Professor Anita Hill came forward with accounts of sexual harassment that occurred when Hill worked for Thomas at the U.S. Department of Education and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Early in their professional relationship, Thomas asked Hill on a date and she declined because she wished to preserve their professional relationship. After the rejection, Thomas began to escalate conversation with Hill with graphic sexual talk. In her testimony Hill said,
“Judge Thomas began to use work situations to discuss sex…He spoke about acts that he had seen in pornographic films involving such matters as women having sex with animals, and films showing group sex or rape scenes. He talked about pornographic materials depicting individuals with large penises, or large breasts involved in various sex acts. On several occasions Thomas told me graphically of his own sexual prowess” (United States Senate).
Thomas’s testimony moved Congress in his favor despite Hill’s raw accounts. Thomas was confirmed “52-48 in the closest Supreme Court confirmation vote in more than a century” (CNN). The Thomas hearing set a precedent for incidents of sexual harassment-by confirming Thomas, Congress told the nation that harassment is an acceptable behavior. The Kavanaugh hearing holds the same weight for sexual assault.
Throughout Ford’s testimony, she was questioned by prosecutor, Rachel Mitchell, who was brought to the hearing by Republicans on the judiciary committee. Yes, you read that right. Republicans on the committee were so self-aware of how it would look for them to be questioning a female victim, that they brought a woman out as their shield. Mitchell’s strategy was to create doubt in Ford’s account by zeroing in on her inability to remember the date of the assault and how she got home afterwards. Ford’s inability to remember the specifics of her assault is not uncommon. In the article, “Why Rape and Trauma Survivors Have Fragmented and Incomplete Memories” James Hopper and David Lisak write, “Fear impairs the ability of the hippocampus to encode and store “contextual information,” like the layout of the room where the rape happened” (Time). Ford herself, used her extensive knowledge of psychology in her testimony when she was asked how she was certain that it was Kavanaugh who assaulted her:
“FORD: The same way that I’m sure that I’m talking to you right now. It’s — just basic memory functions. And also just the level of norepinephrine and epinephrine in the brain that, sort of, as you know, encodes — that neurotransmitter encodes memories into the hippocampus. And so, the trauma-related experience, then, is kind of locked there, whereas other details kind of drift.
FEINSTEIN: So what you are telling us is this could not be a case of mistaken identity?
FORD: Absolutely not” (The Washington Post).
In her own testimony, Ford had to fight for her truth to be heard. The hearing was flooded with doubt towards Ford’s credibility and the most adment disbelievers were conservative men.
Maybe older, white, conservative Senators are so quick to defend “golden boy” Kavanaugh because they worry about being in his seat one day. For too long in our world, the line of consent has been seen as transient and bendable. The Congressional Research Service’s profile on age demographics for our current Congress shows, “The average age of Members of the House at the beginning of the 115th Congress was 57.8 years; of Senators, 61.8 years, among the oldest in U.S. history” (Membership of the 115th Congress: A Profile). The men on the judiciary committee are older or around Kavanaugh’s age, they grew up (and may have even participated in) a culture that treats women and consent with reckless disregard. If you are unaware of the culture I’m referring to watch Sixteen Candles. As proven by the #MeToo movement, this assumed flexibility with consent (that never even existed) has been abused again and again. Most victims of sexual assault and harassment are speaking about past incidents just recently, thanks to the #MeToo movement’s momentum. Or in the case of Dr. Ford, speaking out because their abuser is about to occupy a position that will have ruling over what is legally right and wrong for women and their bodies for years.
What happened during the Kavanaugh hearing, goes farther than justice for Dr. Ford. With every question asked to poke holes in Ford’s story, victims are pushed away from speaking out over fear of support. If Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed, victims of sexual assault will be told that their experiences do not matter. With Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court, the fight for women’s right to have control over their bodies will be forced to start over again.
If you or a loved one have been affected by sexual assault here are resources for support:
RAINN: 800-656-HOPE (4673) Online chat: online.rainn.org
Women’s Resource Center of the New River Valley: (540) 639-1123
Cook Counseling Center: (540) 231-6444
VT Women’s Center: (540) 231-7806
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