Many survivors feel that there had been an eerie silence around
Reade’s story. For a while, Reade's story was barely in the news. That
silence also stands in contrast to the reactions to the Access Hollywood tape that was leaked while President Trump was running for office, or when Justice Brett Kavanaugh was being confirmed to the Supreme Court. In each of those instances, Democratic leaders worked to let the American public know
that men who abuse women and abuse their power as government officials
would not be tolerated. Now that a very powerful member of the
Democratic party is in question, that same outrage seems to be missing.
“It
was ignored in the media. When it started to get more coverage, it kind
of made me feel sick. It reminded me of the way my own experience would
be invalidated; the way abusers gaslight you into thinking what
happened to you wasn’t real or was your fault,” Asha R said. “I played a
lot into the self blame, the victim blaming that is really prevalent in
the media and culture, the way survivors are blamed for what happened
to them, and I just used that against myself for a long time.”
-- Ray Levy-Uyeda, "The Joe Biden Sexual Assault Allegations Made Some Survivors Feel 'Hopeless'" (TEEN VOGUE).