By Katherine Timpf
Friday, November 10, 2017
The allegations against Roy Moore are disgusting — and if
you find yourself reluctant to say so because of your politics, then you’re
pretty gross, too.
The Leigh Corfman story, reported by the Washington Post, is about so much more
than just some older guy having a relationship with some younger girl. That, of
course, would be bad enough — many girls haven’t even had their f***ing periods
at age 14 — but this is also about a man who abuses his power to prey on the
powerless. It’s about a respected district attorney finding a girl in a
vulnerable position (waiting with her mother outside of a child-support hearing) and relishing in the opportunity to take
advantage of it. It’s a sick story that is all too common, and one that will
continue to be common if we refuse to speak out against it.
Now, I’ve had far too many people shouting, “Guilty until
proven innocent!” at me over my comments on this issue, as if they’re too dumb
to know that the second half of that phrase is “in a court of law.” Not to blow
your mind here, but I’m actually not
a court of law, and I’m allowed to believe whatever I want — and personally, I
believe that Roy Moore was a predator with a penchant for teenage girls. No,
not because I’m some p***y-hat-wearing snowflake (as eloquent as that argument
is) but because of logic. As my colleague David French notes, there are a lot
of reasons to believe these allegations: There are multiple accusers. These
women didn’t come to the press seeking attention, they simply answered the
questions when the press came to them.
They have witnesses corroborating their stories. Finally, the woman with the
most serious allegations, Leigh Corfman, voted for Donald Trump in 2016 —
making the political-hit-job storyline laughable at best.
Speaking of laughable, some of the defenses of these
accusations have been nothing short of atrocious. I mean, we’ve got Alabama
state auditor Jim Ziegler actually saying that it’s all good because Mary was a
teen and Joseph was an older guy, and without them hooking up then we wouldn’t
have Jesus. Yes — he’s not only using
theology to defend pedophilia, but incorrectly
using theology to defend pedophilia, seeing as the virgin birth is basically
the whole reason for his religion in the first place.
But it doesn’t stop there. We also have Joel Pollak of
Breitbart swooping in to say that, like, only one of Moore’s accusers was 14 and that we shouldn’t even be talking about the girls who were 16 and
18. First of all, if your defense of a pedophile is actually “But he only
molested one kid!” then I’d say it’s
pretty clear you need to take a long, hard look at yourself in the mirror and
wonder why the sight of yourself doesn’t make you start throwing up. Second,
one of these older teen accusers told the Washington
Post that she was only 14 when Moore initially approached her, while she
was working as a Santa’s helper at the mall. Not only is that vile, but it’s
also very relevant.
These absurd defenses are certainly the things that stick
out the most, but these people are not the only ones who are bothering me. I’m
also bothered by the silence — especially
coming from the people who rushed to their keyboards to condemn “Hollywood
rapist libtard” Kevin Spacey immediately after the Anthony Rapp allegations,
allegations that are nearly identical to the ones that Corfman made against
Moore. It’s not that these people only care about victims if the abuser is a
liberal, it’s that they don’t really care about victims at all. For them, the
abused are nothing more than political pawns to further a partisan agenda. It’s
sick, it’s disgusting, and it must stop.
Now, notice that I didn’t call it “shocking.” It’s not.
Many of these people, after all, are the same ones who wrote off Donald Trump’s
Access Hollywood tape — a literal admission of routine sexual assault — as “locker-room
talk,” despite 17 accusers coming forward to report the kind of behavior Trump
discussed in the tape. No, the worst part about this isn’t that it’s shocking,
it’s that it’s not shocking at all. It’s par for the course.
The deflections are too predictable. There’s the “Why are
these women just coming out now? Seems suspicious!” comeback and, of course,
the “They’re just doing it for the fame! These women just want attention!”
angle. Now, these comments actually are
very important — just not for the reasons that the people making them think
that they are. They’re important not
as defenses, but because they’re perfect examples of an exact reason why these women may have been too afraid to come
forward sooner: because they were afraid that they’d be ridiculed and doubted,
and that no one would believe them.
Oh, and by the way, I’d like someone to please give me some examples of women
who have launched themselves to fame and fortune by falsely accusing men of
sexual assault — because we all know that that’s not what happens. What does happen is their reputations are
scrutinized harshly, and the allies of the powerful men they’ve accused comb
through their pasts looking for evidence that they’re liars. People are afraid
to employ them; men are afraid to speak to them; their lives are forever
changed. Make no mistake: Speaking out publicly about your abuse is not a way
to stardom; it’s a painful, harrowing experience and a sacrifice that so few
are able to actually make given how brutal the consequences can be.
What’s more, ridiculing sexual-assault accusers causes
pain for far more people than just the accusers themselves. In fact, it hurts
everyone who has ever been a victim of sexual assault. It’s true: So many
victims stay silent because they’re worried about no one believing them, or
about losing their jobs or their friends, and they hardly need any reminders
about why they feel they must stay in the shadows. Before you make an
off-handed “Whatever, if it were true, she would have come forward sooner!”
comment to someone you know, just keep in mind that you may be talking to
someone who has been through it — someone who may not have come forward
precisely because of comments just like yours.
If you think that’s unlikely; you’re wrong. If you think
there’s no way you know anyone personally who has been through something like
this; you’re wrong again, and it’s time for people on all political sides to
recognize reality: These men are everywhere, so are their victims, and those
victims aren’t talking points for your partisan-hack gotcha tweets. They’re
people.
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