Dear Editor,
We are the officers and members of I Am That Girl, Girl UP, and She’s The First. We’re writing in response to recent events that denigrated feminist movements such as the #MeToo movement. As feminist clubs on campus, we strive to promote gender equity and empower women. Feminism is “a movement that seeks to address the needs of women in today’s society” (Shine 2018). Unfortunately, the #MeToo movement has come under backlash recently. The most controversial #MeToo trial was the Ford-Kavanaugh trial. People criticized the Ford-Kavanaugh trial and the MeToo trials saying that the public blindly believes women and that there is a “guilty until proven innocent” mindset and bias against men prevalent in these trials. The trials have even been compared to the Salem Witch Trials. In this letter, we hope to clear these up and defend the movement.
The #MeToo trials do proceed with evidence, contrary to criticism. People feel that the #MeToo trials place the blame automatically on the male without evidence to prove that they are guilty. However, this “lack of evidence” goes both ways. In the Ford-Kavanaugh trial, Kavanaugh defended himself by presenting a calendar- “evidence” that is completely unreliable. In a recent sexual assault case in Ireland, a girl was raped and took her rapist to court. There the rapist’s lawyer used her underwear- a thong- in argument that because she was wearing “revealing” underwear the girl consented to have sex. How is this evidence? Even if there is solid evidence provided by the victim, this in no way guarantees that the victim will get justice. This can be seen clearly in the Brock Turner case. Turner was a student at Stanford when he sexually assaulted a drunk girl. He was caught in the act by two eyewitnesses and Turner’s DNA was found on and in the girl. However, Turner was only sentenced to 6 months in jail in spite of all this evidence. The reasoning for this was that Turner had a bright future as a swimmer and this case would ruin all of that. This demonstrates that even if the victim does have evidence, it isn’t taken seriously. It has been repeatedly seen that men and their futures are prioritized over women’s safety. Another problem is that the evidence that sexual assault victims do have isn’t taken seriously. When a victim reports their assault, the “victim can choose to have a doctor or nurse photograph, swab and conduct an invasive and exhaustive examination of the victim’s entire body for DNA evidence left behind by the attacker—a process that takes four to six hours to complete (endthebacklog.org).” All this evidence is then compiled into a rape kit. When these kits are tested, they can prove the victim’s claims and consolidate them with DNA evidence. However, these kits aren’t being tested, due to prejudices based on victim-blaming and patriarchal beliefs. Hundreds of thousands of rape kits are in storage units, where they can sit indefinitely. Sex crime units are also very understaffed and under-resourced, leading to inefficient testing methods. This contributes to the “lack” of physical evidence in many sexual assault trials that is criticized. The public’s response to automatically believing the victim, even if they don’t have physical evidence, is widely influenced by all the reasons above.
In the Ford-Kavanaugh trial, many people immediately sided with and believed Dr. Ford as soon as she accused Kavanaugh. This garnered lots of criticism saying this was sexist and that sexual assault cases have a bias against men. While we agree that there should be evidence before convicting anyone in a trial, we also believe that the public has the right to believe the victim. The mindset that women in sexual assault cases should always be believed has a reason – countless sexual assault cases aren’t taken seriously and are swept under the rug. In fact, rape is the most under-reported crime (63% of rapes are not reported) according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. This stems from society’s tendencies to victim blame and its nonchalant attitude towards sexual assault allegations. Many women don’t get the justice they deserve, which is seen in countless cases like the Brock Turner case and the Jacob Anderson case. The #MeToo movement has brought attention to this injustice, and the attitude towards sexual violence is finally changing. Believing women who have the strength to accuse their rapist or assaulter is finally becoming the norm, which is much more preferable to not believing them.
The trials are also incomparable to the Salem Witch Trials. In the #MeToo trials, both sides get a lawyer and a fair chance to defend themselves (something that never happened in the Salem Witch Trials). Evidence is looked at and no matter what the outcome is, no one is killed. We can’t say that for the Salem Witch Trials. Also, witchcraft is not real, but rape and sexual assault are. You cannot compare accusing someone of the impossible to accusing someone of sexual assault. While people did use the paranoia of the witch trials to their advantage and accuse their enemies, this doesn’t happen in sexual assault trials mainly because is no benefit in accusing someone of sexual assault. In fact, there are only disadvantages. For example, after accusing Kavanaugh, Dr. Ford received so many death, rape, and kidnapping threats that she and her family had to hire a private security team. They also had to move four times. Why would anyone willingly put themselves and their family through this? Dr. Ford was not influenced by money, as seen by her actions. A GoFundMe campaign was set up to help pay for her security expenses, but she donated all that money (approximately $650,000) to sexual assault survivors. She clearly didn’t benefit in any way. While the public may believe the woman in these trials, this in no way makes the #MeToo trials comparable to the Salem Witch Trials. Even though the public might widely believe the woman, these opinions in no way affect the jury or the court. The public’s opinion is just that- the public’s opinion. This was seen in the Ford-Kavanaugh trial, where even though many people believed Dr. Ford, Kavanaugh still emerged from the trial unscathed. He didn’t face any consequences and was still sworn in, which contradicts what happened in the Salem Witch Trials.
The movement has also come under attack because of the “bias against men” it reportedly perpetuates. The saying it’s #MeToo, not #MenToo has been widely misunderstood; people seem to think that this is saying that men can’t be victims of sexual assault. However, it’s saying anything but that. The name #MeToo has included men from the beginning. That’s why the movement isn’t called #SheToo or #HerToo. The movement has been inclusive of men from the beginning because “Me” can be anyone. The notion that feminists believe that sexual violence victims can only be female is also false. The idea that men can’t be sexually assaulted is an idea born from toxic masculinity, an idea that feminism strongly opposes. Toxic masculinity is the idea that men have to be traditionally masculine to the point of suffocation. It refers to the socially-constructed attitudes that describe the masculine gender role as violent, unemotional, and sexually aggressive. When Terry Crews shared his experience with sexual abuse using the #MeToo movement, the first one to criticize and not believe him was 50 Cent, a man. Terry Crews was widely supported by feminists. He stated in his testimony “I sit here before you in this committee just as an example because a lot of people don’t believe that a person like me could actually be victimized. And what happened to me has happened to many, many other men in Hollywood and since I came forward with my story, I have had thousands and thousands of men come to me and say, “Me too.” The reason so many men don’t feel safe coming out about their experience with sexual assault is not that feminists believe that they can’t be abused, it’s because societal standards and expectations refuse to let men be “weak” by experiencing something like domestic or sexual abuse. Toxic masculinity is a serious problem that feminism actively fights against.
The #MeToo trials have done so much good for society. It’s become easier to come forward with a story of sexual assault, both for women and men alike, and it’s become more likely that they will be believed. Sexual assault isn’t something to take lightly; it’s highly emotionally, physically, and psychologically harmful. Knowing that there are others out there who have had the same experiences and survived, that there is a community of support and help out there, is incredibly helpful to survivors. The #MeToo movement has accomplished this, and we are incredibly grateful for it.
Sincerely,
Pranavi Manchikanti
Devika Kumar
Merilyn Kuo
Saumya Mutatkar
Roshini Gopala
Rohini Gadde
Izma Zuberi
Jahnavi Gupta
Vibha Sastry
Note: The letters are that of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of The Union, students, administration, or Milpitas Unified School District.