Reactions to Stories about Sexual Assault/ Harassment

Over the past couple of months there have been and still are stories coming out about women being sexually harassed by men that they either work for or work with. And one thing that has bothered me is the way people around me seem to want to blame the women for either what happened or why they didn’t come forward and for whatever reason no one wants to put the blame on the men that are often times abusing their power. The hardest part for me was talking to one of my guy friends and he was completely convinced that no matter how many women came forward he believed that the women were the ones lying. When Brett Kavanaugh was in the news he would call him a great man and that he didn’t do anything wrong. And I wanted to talk but we were at work and when he said that most sexual assault victims that come forward are false. That set me off to the point that I almost lost it and he thought the whole situation was funny. And when talking to one of my female friends she said the same thing that he said which made me wonder where this study came from that proved all this and I’m sure they wouldn’t be able to tell me other than they heard someone else say it. The way people will almost go out of their way to defend these men and almost portray them as victims to these “evil” women trying to destroy them. This clearly isn’t true Kavanaugh was voted onto the Supreme Court and Louis C.K. when ever he goes to a stand up show he gets a standing ovation. The ones that are suffering here are the women that are being called liars by people that were not there. My question is why we are so quick to believe a man over a woman in almost every scenario. I’m sure this has something to do with how masculinity is basically blinding people from being able to see this situation from the view of the women. When the man in question is popular or has been portrayed as a “nice guy” no one will listen to these women. When it came to Bill Cosby no matter how many women came forward about what he has done people including women defended him like it was their job. And then when he admitted that he did do what these women said people were still on his side while some then said that he was guilty. Why was it not enough for these people when the many women came forward and said that he was not a good person like he was shown to the masses. Maybe one or two and I could understand why some would say I’m not sure but when the number grows to ten and then twenty then maybe were as a society need reevaluate why we are so determined to defend someone that has been accused of many wrongdoings. For example, if someone has been accused of stealing from friends and family there is a chance that you as a person would not invite them to your house ever and all you have to go on is what a friend said.