"President Trump, who faces sexual misconduct accusations from numerous women, on Friday declared April as National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month.
"Sexual assault crimes remain tragically common in our society, and offenders too often evade accountability," Trump's presidential proclamation read." -USA Today
Being April 1st, I was not sure if Mr. Trump's above declaration was an April Fool's joke, an attempt to assuage his guilt over his numerous sexual improprieties, or just another one of his half-baked attempts at publicity. Truly, I am surprised he didn't cook up some tweet launching into how he has also been a victim of sexual assault (take note Stormy, this will be his next defense). In Trump's world, all roads lead to Trump.
Thanks to the #Me, too movement, women are finally getting a platform to discuss the realities of sexual harassment and assault in a male world that uses denial, money, threats, power, and shame to silence its victims. There's absolutely no doubt it's been incredibly effective. So much so, I would challenge any man to find a woman who hasn't experienced some form of sexual harassment, had a scary encounter with being threatened sexually, or had to overcome the horror of being sexually assaulted. Women tell other women because they know their stories of sexual victimization will be believed. They don't tell men, their workplaces, law enforcement or even their clergy for fear of being looked upon as having 'deserved it'. As women we have often heard that how we dress, act, and speak gives men the 'green light' to violate us with unwanted sexual behavior.
Some recent cases in point, continue to prove to women how the deck is stacked against us. Recently a judge in a sexual assault case asked the female victim if she tried to keep her legs crossed as a way of fending off her perpetrator. In the Stanford swimmer case, the judge gave the sex offender a lighter sentence because the victim was unconscious from inebriation and offender was a good white boy from his alma mater. My own employer, University of California, has cited example after example of supposed sexual harassment stories (ironically set at a university) in our yearly mandated sexual harassment training. All of the examples in this training were stopped only when the female victim filed a lawsuit after being fired by the university for lodging complaints against professors, chancellors, and other powerful university officials who thought terminating the victim would eliminate their problems. I have conjectured that these numerous lawsuits are the real reason we are being required to yearly view sexual harassment modules. Sorry, but the real message this training sends to women at our university is that the only way unwanted sexual advances will stop at our university system is to sue them.
Daily we see the failure of law enforcement and the judicial system in protecting women from assault. And to do so, women have their credibility impeached and have their behavior put on trial. From Politico: "President Donald Trump took to Twitter on Tuesday to deny accusations of sexual harassment from one of the 19 women who have accused him of misconduct." How can one fight the most powerful man in the free world accused of sexual predation? Evan after Mr. Trump boasted how women want to be grabbed by the pussy, he was unbelievably still elected President. This sends a powerful message to all women that it is perfectly okay for men to do and act on their 'locker room' talk. Women who experience these messages, whether overtly or covertly, know we face overwhelming odds in being believed. (BTW Mr. Trump: notice how their were never any allegations of this with President Obama.
Instead of 'Time's UP', I wish the slogan for gun control, 'Not One More' had been adopted for National Sexual Assault Awareness Month. For those of us who have known victims of sexual assault, have endured coming to terms with having been sexually assaulted, or are coping with ongoing sexual assaults, I say, enough is enough. Know you will be believed, that there is support, and that you are not alone.
For more information, support, and help, contact the National Sexual Violence Resource Center at: www.nsvrc.org
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