In the days since the infamous Trump video was leaked, twelve women have come forward to confirm the dark reality of the presidential candidate’s “locker room banter.”
Accusing Trump of sexual mistreatment, many of the women have relayed graphic details of their encounters with the presidential candidate—some supplying photographic evidence. All of the women have claimed their decision to come forward stemmed from watching the footage of Trump bragging about his right as a celebrity, to sexually assault women, or in his words “grab them by the pussy.”
Despite the public outrage that ensued after the video came to light and despite Trump’s admission to these very actions and our knowledge of his recurring misogyny, we are still hesitant to trust the allegations.
Or more precisely, we are hesitant to trust the women behind them.
Certainly, we expect Donald Trump to deny the claims. We expect him to splutter incoherently, accusing all twelve women of being ‘sick’ liars. We expect him to point his finger at the New York Times and Hillary Clinton and we expect his hollow threats of legal action. A narcissist going into overdrive. We expect it all.
What we don’t necessarily anticipate are actions like the #NextFakeTrumpVictim campaign, sweeping across social media. The hashtag used now by thousands, ridicules the women who have made claims against Trump and calls their motives into question. Perhaps unsurprisingly, mainstream media has been running the same line. Last week, MSNBC’s host, Joe Scarborough queried the validity of the accusations saying: “There have been a thousand of these reports already — I’m just asking why all of a sudden this stuff is blowing up in October?”
On Monday night’s Q&A, CNN reporter Christine Dolan expressed a similar position when she claimed to “question the timing” of the allegations against Trump, stating: “if they knew he was a dog, why did they wait till now? It doesn’t make any sense to me.”
This very reaction ties in with society’s sad and entrenched convention of victim blaming and is, ironically, the very reason why women don’t come forward more often to report abuse: The fear of not being believed.
But, let’s reflect on another angle. One that I consider more plausible given the mounting evidence, and which adequately justifies the delay in these allegations surfacing. One that I believe, the media should side with more decisively.
It goes like this: These women have all been sexually harassed or assaulted by Trump. At the time, they did not come forward for fear of being called a liar and of having to relive a sickening and degrading moment in their lives.
But for the past few months, they’ve watched Trump’s campaign. They’ve watched him capitalize on the worst impulses of the American electorate—gaining ground by fueling distrust, fear and animosity. They’ve watched him get away with the unthinkable time and time again.
When that video surfaced two weeks ago, their worst fears surfaced too: that their country may soon be led by a man who is utterly ill-equipped to be President– a bigoted, racist, misogynist who sexually assaults women. This they knew for certain.
Thus their decision to come forward was not a conspiracy cooked up by the Clinton camp, but rather a courageous act — a bid to end Donald Trump’s very real chances of becoming President. We should applaud them.
Last week, First Lady Michelle Obama said in response to Trump’s video, that after years of working to end “this kind of violence and abuse and disrespect … we’re hearing these exact same things on the campaign trail. We are drowning in it.”
Her words are true. We have worked hard to end assaults of this nature, but one thing continues to stop us in our tracks. If we keep blaming victims, keep questioning their motives and looking for a reason to point the finger back at them, we will never shift the status quo.
