The hotly divisive nomination of newly confirmed Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court was not so much about boorish adolescent behavior in high school and even college. The arguments were about females who claim sexual assault, especially decades after an attack, still just an allegation. Who should believe her? When Kavanaugh’s accuser Christine Blasey Ford was a young teen-ager, the question would have been who would believe her, which is why she never spoke a word all these many years … until the very guy she swears long ago jumped her, groped and forcefully stopped her cries for help was a serious contender for the highest court in the land. Hearing her story, the entire nation split into two jagged sides, mostly along women against men though there were women who supported the handsome candidate and faithful family man now raising two girls.
We as a nation had to bear witness to the once timid teen of long ago publicly tell her side of the story to an almost all-male Congress and millions of Americans via cable news. Then Judge Kavanaugh aired his rebuttal. Both choked back tears of emotion recalling their separate recollections: hers that the teen-age attacker was definitely Brett Kavanaugh, his that he has never attacked any female his entire life, punch-drunk or sober—though he conceded to loving beer. ? What kind of ‘Trumped’ up hearing was that? Every word then-Judge Kavanaugh read from his oral argument sounded as if penned by the President himself.
We realized Republicans were easy to agree there was no proof of a sexual assault—and there never will be. So brilliant and cunning are sexual assaults, not so much rape nowadays with the DNA. But many women believed Dr. Ford’s testimony because they have experienced similar horseplay when they were young, immature and naïve, never in a million years thinking an adolescent boy would jump her or cop a feel or snap her bra or cup her breast. Every sexist excuse I thought died with the 1970s came flying out of the mouths from those who wholeheartedly supported Justice Kavanaugh: Boys will be boys; the guys probably thought the girl would like the attention; she named the wrong guy; she looked like she wanted it; she shouldn’t have been hanging out with older teens with booze and no adults; she was wearing a bathing suit; and my personal favorite: women are essentially pure evil and are notorious for making up lies against men just to get them in big trouble and destroy their lives forever.
Yeah, right
On behalf of all women around the world, let me assure: the number of vindictive conniving women who would go through the time and trouble to concoct a lie of sexual assault against a man is nowhere near the number of men who sexually assault women and girls every single day … and get away with it. This sobering fact was intentionally lost in the smokescreen of a salacious he said/she said American moment. Americans should never forget our own national statistic: 1 in 4 girls are victims of sexual assault. And with most girls frightened into never telling a soul, the statistic reasonably could be 1 in 2 is a victim of sexual assault … by males.
And to my fellow sisters understandably up in arms over sexual assault and the general public’s initial disbelief of the ‘unmentionable’ that spotlights the accuser more than the accused—well, my dears, there is a much bigger issue to rage against perpetual sexism. Instead of taking to the streets to protest Justice Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination, they should have been using their time and effort to protest the lingering situation worthy of national scrutiny: Why the hell aren’t there more women on our nation’s Supreme Court by now? Women make up a slight majority of the population, five million more of us than men. In representing all the people fairly, the U.S. Supreme Court should reflect our nation’s true demographics by gender, race and ethnicity, instead of carrying on like white males dominate the national landscape. They don’t.