It strains imagination to wonder where these supposed pillars of morality actually draw the line. (A transgender person going to the bathroom, I guess.)
What’s frightening is that we’re so accustomed to giving powerful, famous men the benefit of the doubt that, on a cultural level, we treat men’s reputations with the same reverence as victims’ safety. “Sure, it’s important to protect the vulnerable and sexually traumatised or whatever, but what about that nice man’s TV show? He worked really hard for that! You can’t just take away a man’s stuff!”
The result is a system in which victims often find themselves on trial in their own rape proceedings; a culture in which silence is incentivised and speaking out is often punished; a world in which we have ample vocabulary for comforting the accused (“I’m waiting to hear all the facts,” “we can’t jump to conclusions,” “who can even make sense of consent these days?”
but precious little for victims (when’s the last time you heard a simple, unqualified “I believe you” outside of the feminist blogosphere?).
