There’s a huge problem with some of the women who are Trump supporters and their decision to come forward to tell their own stories of sexual assault. No, their accusations are not likely to be false. Yes, their claims are to be believed and deserve the same consideration as any other survivor coming forward.
The problem is that they never seem to come out on the side that promotes that idea. It isn’t as if they have to believe every story told by every victim, but they seem to support the men who refuse to believe any story told by any victim in every single instance.
.@KellyannePolls: Sexual assault victims need to be heard, but why just in the context of this Supreme Court hearing? pic.twitter.com/GI4vOwNAVT
— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) October 5, 2018
Appearing on Fox News ahead of the cloture vote to confirm accused sexual abuser Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, Kellyanne Conway, who disclosed that she has also experienced sexual assault, rebuked the survivors who confronted Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) in an elevator, influencing him to demand an FBI investigation into the sexual assault claims.
‘I’ve said “God bless them” for coming forward, but they need to feel that anger toward their individual perpetrators, not toward senators who are unconnected completely from the awful things that have happened to them in the past.’
Kellyanne Conway: Ford has "been treated like a Faberge egg by all of us beginning with me and the president." pic.twitter.com/fO2KRXBy5D
— The Hill (@thehill) October 3, 2018
Conway knows this, but it can be said here, anyway: being angry at an individual perpetrator of rape and other forms of sexual assault doesn’t bring anyone justice and doesn’t stop the epidemic that continues after centuries of flourishing under a culture of victim-blaming and revictimization of survivors. While Conway was able to support taking babies away from their parents and stashing them in detention centers as a deterrent to illegal immigration, she somehow can’t see her way to supporting confronting lawmakers and asking them to act to deter sexual abusers.
.@KellyannePolls: “We have to make sure that we’re not blaming an entire gender for what individual men have done and that we’re not judging people…based on their politics and where they work.” pic.twitter.com/DTJdKsFrkO
— Fox News (@FoxNews) October 4, 2018
Kellyanne Conway has the right to feel however she feels about her own assault. Her trauma belongs only to her and how she manages the effects of that trauma are her business alone. Her refusal to support believing other women who come forward and how they choose to manage their trauma, whether they manage it by trying to reach out to other survivors, being active in communicating with lawmakers and making their voices heard, or dealing with it privately, is disturbing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1733&v=cYK1vz53gHU
Featured image screenshot via YouTube
