Long silence later
The trial of Christine Ford.Over the past year a key result of the #MeToo movement has been that it has uncloseted sexual abuse accusations going back decades. These accusations are having consequences. In the US they have caused nine members of Congress to resign or decline to run for re-election. But there are consequences for the accuser too.
Academic psychologist Christine Blasey Ford has been pilloried for alleging assault by US Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh back when they were in high school. Of course some are heralding her as a hero for doing her “civic duty” against tough odds. But a political knife-fight has also shovelled vitriol and death threats at her. As she testified before the judiciary committee, Senator Kamala Harris assured her, “You are not on trial.” But it definitely felt like that.
In India, as former Miss India and actor Tanushree Dutta revoices sexual harassment accusations from a decade ago, she too is being bombarded with the question, why now? TV host Padma Lakshmi has penned a thoughtful essay on this, which includes going public about how she herself kept the trauma of being raped when she was 16 shrouded in a long silence. Social conditions that create long silences about abuse will change when women’s testimonies are no longer dismissed as conspiracies or sham. To the argument that a man shouldn’t pay for an act he committed in youth Lakshmi says, but the woman pays the price for the rest of her life.
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