It’s noon on Tuesday and I’m sitting at work. In the background, Rush Limbaugh is flapping his saggy jowls. Reminding us all that the woman accusing Kavanaugh is lying because she waited too long to come forward. He’s talking about how Anita Hill was a liar and that not a single shred of evidence was ever brought forward. Just another lying woman seeking to destroy a conservative.
Men, it’s time to admit that these things happen far too often. It’s time to admit that women don’t come forward because they’re scared of being called exactly what Rush was calling them, liars. That they’ll be dragged through the mud and have their lives exposed on every news channel. That they’ll be forced to talk, in great detail, about the things that happened to them. Only to have people call them trash, or whores, or be told they were “leading them on”.
It’s far past time for men to hold these sexual predators accountable for their actions. They’ve taken a “boys will be boys” mentality and used it to destroy and degrade women for years. Women you might even know. Think of your wife, mother, sister, daughter, or anything in between having to be leered at or groped, only to be told “well you were wearing that dress” or “you knew what you were getting into”. These men are trash. They make a grotesque mockery of every man that’s managed to see a woman and not act like some kind of rabid animal. Take a stand. There’s no more time to wait.
I’m a survivor of sexual assault. I would never compare my experience to the systematic abuse that women have experienced for as long as there have been women. Coming forward to admit you’ve been assaulted is scary. What will people say? As a child I wondered if my parents would be upset with me for letting this happen. Of course, they weren’t. It wasn’t my fault. And it isn’t the fault of any of these women now coming forward.
Rush Limbaugh is a disgusting piece of human excrement. He’s also not the only one that thinks the way that he does. You want women to come forward when these things happen? Fine. Stop making them shoulder the blame. Stop downplaying what these men, and sometimes women, are doing. They’re predators. Start listening to victims. Start believing them. No one is so high and mighty that they’re free to rape. No one. When you see someone bashing a victim, say something. Ostracize them and show them that we’re done allowing these things to happen.
Pain doesn’t have a time frame. Victims need our support. Not our disdain.
The Voice In Between 