I’m a local #metoo activist. I have protested local politicians because I believe their accusers. I have supported accusers and other activists while watching the politicians who have been accused of harassment retaliate, wielding their power to threaten and intimidate victims.
I’ve come to recognize patterns in how things proceed when allegations against political figures are brought to light.
Most people quickly bring a laser focus to the credibility of the accuser, ignore the credibility of the accused, and completely ignore all of the structural and institutional power dynamics at play.
Whether conservative or liberal, most people still publicly employ rape myths to defend the accused. Survivors are treated as political bargaining chips, and internet commenters position themselves as entitled to bargain political outcomes using rape and assault as currency.
Nearly a year ago, Joe Biden announced his 2020 candidacy. Reviewing the footage of him sniffing and pawing various women and girls, I thought it was just a matter of time before a #metoo allegation came up. I also heard a lot of people excited about Joe Biden. Not my fellow Democratic committee members, but people like my coworkers, neighbors, my cousin’s gym friends. I did everything I could to support another candidate that I thought had a chance at winning.
As the allegations against Biden by Tara Reade unfolded, too late to affect the outcome of the Democratic primary, it became clear to me: outside of some anti-rape activists and advocates, the allegations would be believed or disbelieved based on their political utility.
At first I did not believe the allegations, because of the way they were clearly being used to effect a political outcome and as a reproach to liberal feminists and the #metoo movement.
However, three things incline me to think that the allegations are credible: Biden’s documented hair-sniffing behaviors; his inability to make any kind of statement taking real responsibility for his violation of boundaries; and Reade’s mother’s phone call to Larry King.
Many of us who have witnessed workplace harassment and the resulting coverups find it completely plausible that there are no records of anything happening.
What is not lost on me is that many of the same people who are calling for Biden to step aside are the same people who were just fine with calling Elizabeth Warren a snake and trolling her followers online with torrents of snake emojis. The same people who said Elizabeth Warren was a liar who stabbed Bernie in the back because she revealed a conversation where Bernie told her that he didn’t think a woman could win the presidency.
My support of survivors does not obligate me to ride out on an issues campaign that will immediately be co-opted by people virulently opposed to my civil rights, and those who merely think my civil rights should be a low-priority issue.
I’m not interested in engaging in the rape debates and the rapesplaining online. I don’t need to engage with petty sadists who will rehash the details of Reade’s accusation, and pop up in the mentions of anyone they perceive as feminist to loudly remind them of the dilemma we face: are we really going to vote for the lesser rapist?
The people who are choosing to weaponize these accusations act as though this is a brand new situation that survivors are just now waking up to. Many prominent feminists like Michele Dauber and Tarana Burke are calling for the allegations to be investigated, and I agree with that call. But those who expect more than that may be disappointed, because of course I’m voting for Joe Fucking Biden.
In fact I won’t even give a performance of “I’m holding my nose” or “vote blue no matter who” because I’m tired and I don’t owe anyone a justification of how I personally resolve the issue which only benefits two entitled men.
Some people want to sit in the middle of this unjust system and spout takes about how feminists are hypocritical for not responding adequately to these multiple no-win binds. But I am at peace with the fact that voting for Joe Biden is like the least morally compromised thing I would be willing to do to prevent Trump’s reelection.
Roe v. Wade being overturned is just one deadly threat posed by a 7-2 SCOTUS. If that happens, they’re bringing back the maternity homes en force. A lot of you don’t know what that would mean but others can’t forget. The end of Roe v. Wade means that death via miscarriage and prosecution of women for miscarriage will be as common here as it is in other countries with abortion bans. It means teenagers and very young pregnant people will be exploited for their babies as a policy of profitable family separation ratchets back up to pre-1970 levels. This is only one set of threats, centered around reproductive rights. I haven’t even mentioned the threats to unions, immigrants, prisoners, and all workers, that will be imposed by a 7-2 SCOTUS.
Do I enjoy admitting that the patriarchy has won another round, and that I am subject to a state that doesn’t respect my bodily autonomy? No.
But neither is it news to me. I grew up in the Clinton era, a time when Republicans were content to be moral hypocrites but maintain a veneer of respectability.
Now they are openly taunting women by appointing not just another conservative judge likely to end reproductive rights, but one with a credible accusation of attempted rape. They made it clear that no woman will be believed, and a man’s word will always take precedence, no matter how incompetent, debauched and disrepsectful. In the giant game of good cop, bad cop that is electoral politics, the worst cop of my lifetime is currently winning. My recognition of the game does absolutely nothing to stop the punishment that will come down on us. So I choose “good” cop once again and hope others will too.
I sleep well making that choice. Having grown up Republican, I always vote because I know that any scrap of power I abdicate, will be used by them against me, against us. Republicans have seized power from the grassroots to the executive in this country, and every bit of power they have, they use to consolidate and gain more power. They use it to punish us and to enrich themselves. The Republicans on SCOTUS just forced people to vote during a pandemic. The Republicans in Pennsylvania want to open up more businesses and send people back to work. No mention of testing, protective equipment or precautions. Just send people back to work so the donors can make money. Seems like just yesterday they were cheering for war in Iran.
I want you to know that if you criticize women as hypocrites for choosing the candidate that they think can win against the GOP juggernaut, and choosing the lesser evil, then you’re not changing those conditions, you’re simply one more voice blaming women instead of the system. If you criticize #metoo activists for not choosing to take on yet another traumatic battle which will be coopted in favor of Trump, you’re not holding perpetrators accountable. And it’s clear that many people criticizing activists right now were not aware of the basic facts of the #metoo movement before they saw a possible political advantage.
Trump must be defeated in November or more needless, preventable deaths will pile up.
If you say there’s no difference between Democrats and Republicans, you just proved that you know nothing about my life and you also don’t care. And if you say you won’t vote for Joe fucking Biden you proved the same thing, and I also don’t care.