The current court case against Donald Trump involving E. Jean Carroll is not about whether he sexually abused Carroll. Last year, a New York jury found that Trump both abused and defamed her. This current case is not about his guilt or innocence; it is about how much he should pay for his actions.
But you’d be forgiven for thinking otherwise. Trump has insisted on his innocence even after the verdict, even after being admonished by the judge, in a rhetorical tactic that keeps press headlines and political discourse trapped in the he said/she said ambivalence of sexual abuse cases.
Only 2 out of 3 rape cases are even reported to the police. Of those cases, only 5.7% of reports lead to an arrest, and only 0.7% lead to a conviction.
Our culture is not used to seeing sexually violent men, especially rich white ones, punished for their crimes against women. According to the Department of Justice only 2 out of 3 rape cases are even reported to the police. Of those cases, only 5.7% of reports lead to an arrest, and only 0.7% lead to a conviction.
The Me Too movement, which was reignited in 2017 after allegations surfaced about many prominent men, trapped news stories and cultural narratives in cycles of telling the stories of women’s abuse, subjugation and victimization at the hands of so many, many men.
These stories were and are important to tell, because they reveal to the world the endemic nature of sexual violence. But if we are going to move forward we have to find a new way of talking about sexual abuse. We have to find a different way of understanding consequences, accountability and what it means to be a victim.
In the stories we tell about rape and abuse, women are the victims, men the violent perpetrators. When women are allowed agency in the stories, frequently they are framed as monsters fabricating lies to bring down the men who are the object of their fixations. Rarely is there recourse for justice, for agency or for vindication.
In the stories we tell about…
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