The Kavanaugh case has been an emotional roller coaster for Democrats and Republicans alike, causing protests, new hashtags like #HimToo, and a divide throughout the country. This event has triggered conversation about sexual assault, as well as discussing the importance of holding individuals accountable for their actions.
Both sides have strong arguments as for why or why not they support Kavanaugh—and it goes way beyond two political parties disagreeing on a candidate.
The main issue here, is that many are accusing of Ford of bringing up her assault at the wrong time. Many in favor of Kavanaugh agree that the only reason Ford is mentioning this assault (or lack thereof) is because he is a republican with a chance of serving on the Supreme Court.
However, Ford brought this event up due to the fact that he has a chance at becoming a government official—and someone with a sexually violent past has no right to be in the Supreme Court.
The second issue at hand is due to people saying that perhaps Ford was assaulted by someone other than Kavanaugh, and that she had forgotten all details of the event. Though possible, many survivors would agree that an assault is one of the worst moments of their lives. This event can cause PTSD, flashbacks, and trauma, and many describe not being able to forget the event no matter how hard they try. Survivors rarely forget their attackers face, smell, voice, or presence.
Many would account for this, including Ford—when something as horrifying as an unwanted advance happens, you know exactly who did it.
Something that is scary for survivors is the fact that rape and assault cases sometimes do not have hard evidence. For example, unless a rape kit is used up to 72 hours after the event, evidence will be unlikely to be collected. This is why the whole idea of “he said she said” in law is dangerous because officials never know who is telling the truth.
However many would agree that therapy sessions regarding Ford’s trauma and accounts from friends and her husband would be enough evidence to point to this assault happening, in fact, she has no real reason to lie. If she was lying, this evidence simply wouldn’t exist. Trauma can take years to emerge, thus, giving us her 2012 therapy sessions where she explained the assault in detail. Since rape and assault cases don’t have much evidence to begin with—unless they have DNA from fluids, or recordings of the assault—a therapy session is the hardest evidence possible out of this case.
Out of every 1,000 rapes, only 6 are reported; and only 2-8 percent of all reported rapes are false accusations according to Our Resilience. So, according to the statistics, who is more likely to be lying, a psychology professor who could easily lose her credibility, as well as will surely be bullied for being so vulnerable, or a man who becomes defensive and angry when asked the simplest of questions regarding a delicate subject in face of a traumatized woman?
Only time will tell; or, perhaps, the world will forget about these events like it did with Brock Turner, Donald Trump, and Woody Allen.
For now, Ford’s bravery and courage to look into the eye of her attacker inspires survivors everywhere, and she is a true hero, who deserves respect for sharing her horrifying story.
