
Warning: This article deals with details of a sexual assault and may be triggering for some readers.
I truly thought I had become desensitised to Donald Trump.
This is a man who has talked about grabbing women by the pussy and has referred to his own daughter as “a piece of ass”. A man who has been accused of sexual misconduct by 22 women and believes women who have abortions should be “punished”.
None of it shocks me anymore.
We discuss Brett Kavanaugh on our US politics podcast, Tell Me It’s Going To Be Okay.
But today, as I watched him mock the wrenching testimony of Dr Christine Blasey-Ford in which she spoke about her alleged sexual assault by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, I was stunned.
While hundreds of his supporters cheered at a raucous campaign-style rally in Mississippi, Trump crudely imitated Ford, mocking her inability to remember certain details of the alleged assault 36 years ago.
“How did you get home? ‘I don’t remember,'” he says. “How did you get there? ‘I don’t remember,’ Where is the place? ‘I don’t remember,’ How many years ago was it? ‘I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know.'”
Continuing to imitate Ford to uproarious laughter, he added, “But I had one beer – that’s the only thing I remember.”
You can view the video of Donald Trump in the clip below.
After viewing the footage, I ran to the bathroom and threw up.
Here’s why.
At the age of 16, I was raped.
I truly don’t know the year right off the top of my head. But I am 33 now, so a quick calculation tells me it must have been 2002 when my life suddenly became… not fun anymore.
So it was 2002. I can recall, after some consideration, that it was April or May. April, I think. But I couldn’t tell you the exact date. I just know that in June I moved to a different town because I had to.
This was an age before smartphones, before Facebook even. I do not have a backlog of Facebook messages or WhatsApp texts or emails or a Google calendar to scroll through to help me get my timeline straight.
And as a high school student, the only dates I ever really kept track of were birthdays, holidays and exams.
In case it isn’t already clear, I didn’t report my rape. If I had, perhaps police statements, hospital reports and court documentation would help support my timeline or events.
Unfortunately, I was just too fucking terrified to even consider it.
Top Comments
As Kath would have said to Kim: I've got one word to say to you! Well, it's a name actually. George Soros.
It’s so disappointing how many MRAs come here to try to gaslight women about their experiences. This article really isn’t the place to argue that sexual assault victims shouldn’t be believed. Please leave these safe places for women to connect and go back to literally every other area of the world. Mama Mia moderators, it would be great if these sorts of articles that are personal and triggering for victims were better protected from angry men.
Defending the notion of innocent until proven guilty (the cornerstone of the legal system) and the expectation of due process if you are accused, is hardly radical “MRA” activity (as you label us for some strange reason).