How lucky, as women, we are to finally have a man explain to us what rape's really like
Rape can happen to anyone. That's why I don't doubt Kurt Eichenwald's
assertion today that he was raped in the 80s. Rape is not about sex.
It's about power and it's about doing harm. Anyone can be raped. Yes,
even a man as ugly as Kurt can be raped.
I also know that some men who are victimized go on to victimize others. That would explain why Kurt was seeking contact with underage male prostitutes online. Pedophiles are often grown men who were victims.
But what I don't accept is that Kurt is the voice of all rape survivors and that his reaction is the reaction that everyone must have if they were raped.
Sorry, Kurt, just as everyone doesn't have your fat body that somehow still has a flat, pancake ass, it's equally true that everyone who is raped doesn't remember the details that you did.
In fact, Kurt, this might be one of those times where a man and a woman experience things differently.
We get it, Kurt. Because rape happened to you, a man, it suddenly became a real story to you. But long before you were raped, women were dealing with it. And women haven't needed you once, since time began, to explain rape to us. Imagine that, a man's word wasn't needed, his judgment was neither requested nor called for.
I know that's a shocker to you, Kurt.
Poor Kurt. He thought he could come out as a rape victim and that we'd all then allow him to attack Tara Reade. Not happening. Wouldn't happen, Kurt, even if you got honest about what you were really doing online with those boys.
It's equally true that if Kurt actually remembers decades of crying over his rape, he is a piece of human trash to attack Tara Reade. Being raped, Kurt, doesn't give you rape-radar that allows you to know who else was raped and wasn't raped.
Kurt is trash. Kurt was trash before he announced that he had been raped and he's still trash now.
At THE WEEK, Ryan Cooper offers:
As I have previously written, Reade's story about Biden is credible. It would never meet the courtroom standard of "beyond a reasonable doubt," but given that Reade is now known to have privately told at least five people what happened at the time or in the years following, it can't be dismissed out of hand. Biden has a track record of behaving creepily around women, and has a long history of ridiculous exaggeration and telling bald-faced lies. At bottom, it is quite similar to many other #MeToo stories.
The plain fact is that this accusation is going to dog Biden for the rest of the campaign. Trump has already started talking about it. The right-wing media will cover the story for purely political reasons. Fox News does not care about #MeToo, but the story damages Biden, demoralizes Democrats, and makes liberals look like egregious hypocrites. The sight of nearly every Democratic-aligned women's rights group queasily keeping silent about the story is simply delicious for the likes of Sean Hannity (though a few have started speaking out).
It's also hard to see how Biden could conclusively "address" the story, as some liberals have advocated. At bottom it is a case of he-said-she-said, and Biden does not have a record of scrupulous honesty.
Many mainstream and lefty journalists will continue to cover it. The Reade accusation is unquestionably news, and outside of the right-wing press, there is still a broad ethic of covering stories even if they are politically inconvenient. It is not always honored, but it's still there. As The Intercept's Ryan Grim writes, "I decided early in my career that I would never suppress a story if the only reason I were doing so was concern about its political implications. If you do that, you're no longer a journalist."
However, Biden still has not been officially nominated. The Democratic National Convention is not until August 17, and before then he could be pressured into dropping out. If Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, a critical mass of the rest of other Democratic elected officials, and all the various Democratic-aligned activists groups all said in unison that Biden was unfit to be president, and should drop out for the good of the party, he probably would withdraw. The primary rules regarding candidates who drop out are somewhat vague, saying that delegates cannot be "mandated" to vote for someone else, and "shall in all good conscience reflect the sentiments of those who elected them." But this would seem to allow Biden to instruct his delegates to support another candidate, and in 11 states there are specific rules for doing so. Realistically, no unclear legal technicalities are going to prevent someone else from getting the nomination if Biden refuses to take it.
In an effort to save Joe Biden, the ASSOCIATED PRESS today ran a story with a false headline.
CNN's MJ Lee Tweeted:
The AP's Tara Reade story headline appears to now been changed from “AP Exclusive: Harassment, assault absent in Biden complaint” to “Reade: ‘I didn’t use sexual harassment’ in Biden complaint”
And she Tweeted:
That clumsy initial headline appears to be the reason that we appear to have now entered the news cycle of: Tara Reade now says she didn't file a complaint about sexual harassment or assault.
Survivors of violence are watching and we are seeing what AP is doing. This will not end pretty for the press. They learned nothing from the gender quake of 1992 or from Hill-Thomas.
The following sites updated:
I also know that some men who are victimized go on to victimize others. That would explain why Kurt was seeking contact with underage male prostitutes online. Pedophiles are often grown men who were victims.
But what I don't accept is that Kurt is the voice of all rape survivors and that his reaction is the reaction that everyone must have if they were raped.
Sorry, Kurt, just as everyone doesn't have your fat body that somehow still has a flat, pancake ass, it's equally true that everyone who is raped doesn't remember the details that you did.
In fact, Kurt, this might be one of those times where a man and a woman experience things differently.
We get it, Kurt. Because rape happened to you, a man, it suddenly became a real story to you. But long before you were raped, women were dealing with it. And women haven't needed you once, since time began, to explain rape to us. Imagine that, a man's word wasn't needed, his judgment was neither requested nor called for.
I know that's a shocker to you, Kurt.
Poor Kurt. He thought he could come out as a rape victim and that we'd all then allow him to attack Tara Reade. Not happening. Wouldn't happen, Kurt, even if you got honest about what you were really doing online with those boys.
It's equally true that if Kurt actually remembers decades of crying over his rape, he is a piece of human trash to attack Tara Reade. Being raped, Kurt, doesn't give you rape-radar that allows you to know who else was raped and wasn't raped.
Kurt is trash. Kurt was trash before he announced that he had been raped and he's still trash now.
At THE WEEK, Ryan Cooper offers:
As I have previously written, Reade's story about Biden is credible. It would never meet the courtroom standard of "beyond a reasonable doubt," but given that Reade is now known to have privately told at least five people what happened at the time or in the years following, it can't be dismissed out of hand. Biden has a track record of behaving creepily around women, and has a long history of ridiculous exaggeration and telling bald-faced lies. At bottom, it is quite similar to many other #MeToo stories.
The plain fact is that this accusation is going to dog Biden for the rest of the campaign. Trump has already started talking about it. The right-wing media will cover the story for purely political reasons. Fox News does not care about #MeToo, but the story damages Biden, demoralizes Democrats, and makes liberals look like egregious hypocrites. The sight of nearly every Democratic-aligned women's rights group queasily keeping silent about the story is simply delicious for the likes of Sean Hannity (though a few have started speaking out).
It's also hard to see how Biden could conclusively "address" the story, as some liberals have advocated. At bottom it is a case of he-said-she-said, and Biden does not have a record of scrupulous honesty.
Many mainstream and lefty journalists will continue to cover it. The Reade accusation is unquestionably news, and outside of the right-wing press, there is still a broad ethic of covering stories even if they are politically inconvenient. It is not always honored, but it's still there. As The Intercept's Ryan Grim writes, "I decided early in my career that I would never suppress a story if the only reason I were doing so was concern about its political implications. If you do that, you're no longer a journalist."
However, Biden still has not been officially nominated. The Democratic National Convention is not until August 17, and before then he could be pressured into dropping out. If Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, a critical mass of the rest of other Democratic elected officials, and all the various Democratic-aligned activists groups all said in unison that Biden was unfit to be president, and should drop out for the good of the party, he probably would withdraw. The primary rules regarding candidates who drop out are somewhat vague, saying that delegates cannot be "mandated" to vote for someone else, and "shall in all good conscience reflect the sentiments of those who elected them." But this would seem to allow Biden to instruct his delegates to support another candidate, and in 11 states there are specific rules for doing so. Realistically, no unclear legal technicalities are going to prevent someone else from getting the nomination if Biden refuses to take it.
In an effort to save Joe Biden, the ASSOCIATED PRESS today ran a story with a false headline.
CNN's MJ Lee Tweeted:
The AP's Tara Reade story headline appears to now been changed from “AP Exclusive: Harassment, assault absent in Biden complaint” to “Reade: ‘I didn’t use sexual harassment’ in Biden complaint”
And she Tweeted:
That clumsy initial headline appears to be the reason that we appear to have now entered the news cycle of: Tara Reade now says she didn't file a complaint about sexual harassment or assault.
Survivors of violence are watching and we are seeing what AP is doing. This will not end pretty for the press. They learned nothing from the gender quake of 1992 or from Hill-Thomas.
The following sites updated:
