The assault Kavanaugh is accused of was over 30 years ago – why it still matters

My TL is full of women trying to make the world understand that it can take a long long time to talk about assault. Many of these expressions include personal revelations, some for the first time.

How many of us have to put ourselves on the line to give one of us credibility?

— Jina Moore (@itsjina) September 17, 2018

Why does a high school assault matter, after so many years? Maybe this is why. https://t.co/4v07Q10kv1

— Jayne Anne Phillips (@jayneanneonly) September 17, 2018

"I was never concerned about the 'timing' of the allegations… The fact that you spoke publicly, for the first time, some 35 years after the incident gives me no pause." —@goldietaylor to Christine Blasey Ford https://t.co/WA54RvD0aA

— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) September 17, 2018

I think a lot of men find it hard to face the fact that statistically, many of their sisters, mothers, female friends, + colleagues have likely similar stories about being academically, professionally and/or emotionally, derailed for years after a “youthful indiscretion.”

— Karen Attiah (@KarenAttiah) September 17, 2018

Sexual abuses happen to all sorts of women and girls. Well-off women. Poor women. Educated women. Religious women. Women who grew up with two-parent households and those who didn’t.

The rot of misogyny is deep and unsparing.

— Karen Attiah (@KarenAttiah) September 17, 2018

I had a similar coercive incident college. I ended up depressed and in on-campus therapy. My mom threatened to pull me out of school if i didn’t report it. All the while I felt it didn’t matter because he was older and going to law school.

— Karen Attiah (@KarenAttiah) September 17, 2018

I reported it to campus police, but nothing was done.

I was messed up for a good year. Thought sex was an inherently violent act.

Got a bunch of piercings to try to feel like I was in control of my body while liking that the pain of the piercings matched how I felt.

— Karen Attiah (@KarenAttiah) September 17, 2018

And of course, I was told by family members that it was my fault for letting him up to my room (sober) in the first place.

I was told after that that if I had followed God’s commands it wouldn’t have happened, and that I needed to go to church to cleanse his spirit from me

— Karen Attiah (@KarenAttiah) September 17, 2018

I saw sincerely, what you may fail to understand is that for women who were in HS in 80s (& even later), it’s credible. Happened all the time. We didn’t talk about it, tried to forget it. But fact that it was common didn’t diminish the toll it took. And that bill has come due. https://t.co/m7L0LCtwWm

— Jennifer Palmieri (@jmpalmieri) September 17, 2018

Brett Kavanaugh may lose a job opportunity. Christine Blasey Ford has already lost so much more.

My latest. https://t.co/z6AUvUl86n

— Melissa Jeltsen (@quasimado) September 18, 2018

Don’t make up your mind about Kavanaugh without reading this. https://t.co/XFFjndwxyH

— David Brooks (@nytdavidbrooks) September 18, 2018

I personally know twenty women who have either been sexually harassed or assaulted. I don't know one woman who has ever lied about it.#BelieveChristine #Kavanaugh

— Emily Brandwin (@CIAspygirl) September 18, 2018

Why did Judge Kavanaugh's accuser take so long to come forward? Experts say a long delay in reporting or a foggy recall of events are the very hallmarks of sexual assault. https://t.co/01nyhJjBVy

— NYT Politics (@nytpolitics) September 18, 2018

Patti Davis, the daughter of Ronald and Nancy Reagan, pens a @washingtonpost op-ed on her sexual assault: "I never told anyone for decades — not a friend, not a boyfriend, not a therapist, not my husband when I got married years later" https://t.co/qqERQHRkzo

— Jennifer Hansler (@jmhansler) September 21, 2018

Hey, @realDonaldTrump, Listen the fuck up.

I was sexually assaulted twice. Once when I was a teenager. I never filed a police report and it took me 30 years to tell me parents.

If any survivor of sexual assault would like to add to this please do so in the replies. #MeToo https://t.co/n0Aymv3vCi

— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) September 21, 2018

I waited over 20 years to report my sexual abuser.
Because I was 14.
Because it was my hero.
Because it was my priest.
Because I thought I'd be expelled.
Because I feared no one would believe me.
Because I thought suicide was easier than telling 1 person#WhyIDidntReport

— Thomas Roberts (@ThomasARoberts) September 21, 2018

I want to share my experience on assault and memory in a thread:

— Anne Dickerson (@adickerson) September 21, 2018

I wrote an Op-Ed for @nytimes about something terrible that happened to me in my youth, something that happens to young women every day. We all have an opportunity to change the narrative and believe survivors. https://t.co/pqFt50t4R1

— Padma Lakshmi (@PadmaLakshmi) September 25, 2018

.@KirstenPowers tells @AndersonCooper she was sexually assaulted in the 1980s and "thought it was my fault."

"We didn't call it sexual assault," then, she said. "Sexual assault was something strangers did to you… It wasn't something that happened with a popular boy at school." pic.twitter.com/74a1AO0pOq

— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) October 3, 2018

"It wasn't until I read — and reread — Ford's account that I gained some sort of clarity. I felt in my bones that I had to take action."

Christine Blasey Ford inspired me to break my silence, writes Naomi Seligman via @CNNOpinion https://t.co/8AKhV2FYC3 pic.twitter.com/OwbKV0sPpT

— CNN (@CNN) October 3, 2018

Connie Chung says she was sexually assaulted by the doctor who delivered her – and she didn't tell anyone for five decades https://t.co/nYc8D5uglt pic.twitter.com/nugUXqr4WO

— CBS News (@CBSNews) October 3, 2018