Just Believe Women
History is defined by pivotal moments, outstanding segments of time delineated by a shift, a movement so subtle yet powerful, you inherently know it when you’ve felt it. Such was the day of the press conference in Washington D.C., by & for the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein & Ghislaine Maxwell’s sexual violence. While far too much of the general population argues back & forth about hoax vs. legitimacy, & our FBI ‘director’ states an absence of credible evidence despite decades of details divulged, those of us all too familiar with the experience immediately recognize it on a societal scale for exactly what it is: gaslighting.
We culturally all live within a communal blindspot that in actuality should be inarguably, glaringly obvious: when you have the firsthand testimony of countless witnesses, you no longer require a burden of proof in terms of evidence to move forward. Survivors’ stories should be more than damning enough; women inherently deserve to be believed; pedophiles do not warrant anyone’s protection. Statistically speaking, 2-10% of rape allegations are false, so when multiplying by over 1,000 survivors, it’s statistically proven these women are telling the truth - why do I even feel compelled to go to such lengths to prove it to you? Because inherently, we don’t believe women, we never do.
After what these women lived through, they have more than earned the right to be heard, for us to trust them. No woman wants to come forward as a survivor of sexual violence - we do so due to our own personal journeys; some carry it for decades, some speak out immediately (but not many). There is nothing for survivors to gain when identifying their abusers; the burden of needing to prove the validity of their stories is a drain only those who’ve shared the weight of it can understand. We already know we won’t be believed. We already know we’ll be dismissed or gaslit. We already know we will be blamed & shamed & told how it was really on us (because they will always find a way to blame the women for the violence inflicted upon us by unfortunately, most frequently men).
We as a society always poke and prod, failing to realize or recognize that exposing the most painful parts of life, the most raw and vulnerable aspects, is not some picnic or walk in the park, & while there may be a release in speaking to what happened to you, it also never fully goes away. If that’s the weight women are all too frequently forced to carry, the least we can do is give them the dignity of carrying it with them, of honoring their bravery in the face of so much frightening adversity.
