#MeToo will outlive its hashtag. It will outlive Twitter. It will likely outlive social media. Long after we have graduated, past the prime of our college lives, the heydays of our careers and the golden years of our old age, the Me Too movement will persist.
Women have always existed under a system that discourages them to speak up about sexual assault. Misconduct which should have been immediately addressed goes undisclosed and unpunished for years because that system is not yet dead. Women bury assaults for fear of embarrassment or ridicule because coming forward with an old accusation is a surefire way to get it dismissed as an ancient wrongdoing.
Even if sexual assault were eradicated tomorrow, the movement would march on. Two-thirds of sexual assaults go unreported. The number is greater among college-aged students, who only report sexual assault one-fifth of the time. Every day the number of unreported assaults grows.
Each accusation, no matter how old, is not yet treated with deference and respect. That day is still far ahead, down a road of social progress we have not travelled far along.
Current hearings in the U.S. Senate show that to be the case. Judge Brett Kavanaugh, whom President Donald Trump nominated to be an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, is saddled with sexual assault allegations from the 1980s that are complicating his confirmation hearings. Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, a former classmate of Kavanaugh’s, accused him of holding her down, putting his hand over her mouth to silence her and trying to remove her clothes at a party in 1982, according to USA Today. Her lawyer said Ford considers it to be an “attempted rape.” Those allegations first came forward Sept. 16.
On Sunday, Deborah Ramirez, a former classmate of Kavanaugh at Yale University, came forward with more allegations. She said Kavanaugh exposed himself to her and shoved his penis in her face at a dormitory room party during their freshman year of college while playing a drinking game.
Ford is appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday to testify on the alleged assault. Ramirez is not yet scheduled to testify.
But as the hearings unfold, keep a watchful eye on how many times Ford is asked to provide vivid details from a traumatic event which allegedly happened 36 years ago. Keep close tabs on how many times she is doubted, told that her story doesn’t seem credible and asked why she failed to report this sooner. Keep a lookout for senators who tell Ford she is making it up. That it’s a smear. That it’s a witch hunt. Note the senators who act as if they know more about the assault than Ford does.
It happened to Anita Hill, who accused Judge Clarence Thomas of sexual misconduct at his confirmation hearings. Thomas is now Associate Justice Clarence Thomas. It will happen to Ford, testifying against Kavanaugh. When asked if Kavanaugh would be confirmed, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said, “We’re going to be moving forward. I’m confident we’re going to win, confident that he’ll be confirmed in the very near future,” according to Reuters. So to answer the question on everyone’s mind: Yes, Kavanaugh will likely become Justice Kavanaugh.
But in spite of his confirmation, women will not stop. They will continue to do the right thing. They will bring their stories to the Senate floor. They will speak out against their assaulters. They will keep chipping away at the stigma of being a victim. Gradually, women today will lay the groundwork for women to follow, so those who come after can have a platform from which they can speak with authority. They will make sure #MeToo never dies — that it survives until the day sexual assault is a relic of a time long past. We hope that day comes soon.
