In less than an hour the Senate Judiciary Committee will start questioning Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford. Whatever they determine and however they vote, I am convinced that any woman who thinks Dr. Ford's story could not possibly be true has lived a sheltered life indeed.
Actually, I lived an incredibly sheltered life myself, and yet something similar - though considerably milder - happened to me when I was 11 and the boy was 12. During the school day. In the teacher's office. When class was in session, but kids were working on projects and the teacher was distracted. And that was in the bucolic 1950s. By the way, I never told my parents, and I'm feeling really conflicted about mentioning it here, nearly 60 years later.
Most women know that these things happen.
Here's a story from Reviving Ophelia about a 15-year-old girl who was assaulted by a classmate in 1993. Her assault was worse than Dr. Ford's, but look at the parallels:
"She'd been invited to a party by a girl in her algebra class whose parents were out of town. The girl was supposed to stay with a friend, but she had worked out a way to be home. The kids could use her parents' hot tub and stereo system.
"Cassie didn't get invited to many parties, so she accepted the invitation. She planned to leave if things got out of control. She told her mother the truth about her plans, except she didn't mention that the parents were gone....
"The party was okay at first--lots of loud music and sick jokes but Cassie was glad to be at a party. A guy from her lunch period asked her to dance. A cheerleader she barely knew asked her to go to the movies that weekend. But by eleven she wanted to go home. The house was packed with crashers and everyone was drinking. Some kids were throwing up, others were having sex or getting rowdy. One boy had knocked a lamp off a desk and another had kicked a hole through a wall.
"Cassie slipped away to the upstairs bedroom for her coat. She didn't notice that a guy followed her into the room. He knew her name and asked for a kiss. She shook her head no and searched for her coat in the pile on the bed. He crept up behind her and put his hands under her shirt. She told him to quit and tried to push him away. Then things happened very fast. He grabbed her and called her a bitch. She struggled to break free, but he pinned her down and covered her mouth. She tried to fight but was not strong or aggressive enough. He was muscular and too drunk to feel pain when she flailed at him. Nobody downstairs heard anything over the music. In ten minutes it was over."
Cassie, unlike Dr. Ford, told her parents, who called the police. Here's why she might have wished she hadn't.
"The guy who sexually assaulted her had been suspended from the track team pending his trial. His friends were furious at her for getting him in trouble. Other kids thought she led him on, that she had asked for it by being at that party."
If you've ever been a high school girl, you know that rejection by your peers can be the unkindest cut of all.
Maybe you believe Judge Kavanaugh, or maybe you think he's lying, or maybe you think he was too drunk to know what he did. Maybe you believe Dr. Ford, or maybe you think she's lying, or maybe you think it was someone else who assaulted her.
But don't ever say the event couldn't have happened just as Dr. Ford describes it. It could have. Similar events often did. And very likely still do.
1 comment:
Being a CNN junkie, I watched all eight hours of testimony yesterday. There is no question that Christine Blasey Ford is telling the truth. It is not just that she is compelling, although she is. She told her husband, she told her therapist, all of this six years before Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court.
What is difficult to bear here is that if Dr. Ford is telling the truth, then Brett Kavanaugh is lying. There is no gray area here. Even the American Bar Association, which gave Kavanaugh its highest rating, says that his FBI investigation should be reopened. And two more of Kavanaugh's accusers haven't been given a chance to testify.
If Kavanaugh is confirmed, as seems likely, he will bring a stain to the Supreme Court not only for his entire duration there, as Clarence Thomas has done, but possibly permanently for the Court. Facts speak louder than words: lying works.
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