The coverage of Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings and the sexual assault allegations against him felt like a re-traumatization for survivors of assault, and a mockery in general for any human being at all concerned with maintaining the integrity of our judicial branch in this country for generations to come.
But the number of women that stood up and publicly expressed their outrage over the lifetime appointment of our latest frat-tastic addition to the Supreme Court was not only gut-wrenching to witness, but inspiring.
The experiences of these women represent a widespread reality in a culture that has turned a blind eye to harassment and assault for…always.
Take Ana Maria Archila, for example. While her name may not be scrawled across headlines, her voice was heard by millions. Colombian-born Archila, is an activist and co-executive director of the Center for Popular Democracy and survivor of sexual violence who blocked an elevator door while confronting Republican Senator Jeff Flake about her story in an ultimately failed effort to prevent him from voting to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.
But Archila’s story and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s and Maria Ghallager’s and so many other women’s stories did not fall on deaf ears, nor are they isolated.
The experiences of these women represent a widespread reality in a culture that has turned a blind eye to harassment and assault for…always.
Women of color, white women, highly educated women, women with privilege and status, women in poverty, Republican women, Democratic women, your neighbor, your sister, your girlfriend… Yes, the list of #MeToos defies socio-economic status or political affiliation.
And despite its pervasiveness, there are some communities that are statiscally even more at risk than others. People in the LGBTQ community experience sexual violence at similar or higher rates than heterosexuals. And around half of transgender people will experience sexual violence at some point in their lifetimes.
And with current political leadership that believes in further marginalizing the LBGTQ community by refusing to uphold anti-discrimination laws or by banning them from serving in the military, we’re only further encouraging the attitudes that fuel these kinds of assaults in the first place.
So if those statistics alone don’t drive you to drown yourself zero-calorie wine coolers, I sincerely applaud your resilience.
If there’s anything stopping me from living in a perpetual happy hour, it’s that Kavanaugh’s appointment appears to have become yet another rallying cry for women across the country - in this post MeToo era - to continue speaking truth to power. Loudly.
What? Civil rights took more than just a couple years of griping on Twitter and phone calls to senators to affect any realistic change? Next thing ya know, they’re gonna tell us that it took an actual “war” to end slavery.
So, like Archila and Ford, it’s more important than ever to speak up and support women and victims of assault.
And duh, vote.
I’m switching to hard liquor and voting. But not in that order.