Where women's stories stop

July 25, 2024 4:58 AM

Moira Donegan, creator of the Shitty Media Men list, reviews and reflects on Christine Blasey Ford's memoir One Way Back, for Bookforum: "There are two ways to explain the moral wrong presented by Kavanaugh’s confirmation...Ford saw it the second way: she thought Kavanaugh wasn’t suited for the Court because what he did to her meant he wasn’t good enough for it. Perhaps her most revealing and tragic mistake is that she assumed that other people would agree.

"Nearly a decade beyond #MeToo, we still do not know much about the after. At least, not for the women."

posted by warriorqueen (25 comments total)

There's that MLK expression that "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice." Sometimes I wish he'd added that the tragedy is that it leaves a whole lot of damage in its wake.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:40 AM on July 25 [9 favorites]

With one exception, her brothers have not spoken to her since she appeared in Congress. Later, she found out that her father, a severe and conservative military type, had written an e-mail to Brett Kavanaugh’s father—the men are members of the same golf club—expressing his gratitude that Kavanaugh had been confirmed to the Supreme Court.

It's heartbreaking and shitty that her own family chose to believe her attacker, instead of their own sister and daughter. But this isn't unusual. Just infuriating and disappointing.
posted by Kitteh at 6:24 AM on July 25 [54 favorites]

My parents gave Jian Ghomeshi (a neighbour) a sympathy card and cookies. So yeah.
posted by warriorqueen at 6:35 AM on July 25 [19 favorites]

warriorqueen, if this were a text message, I would have done the double exclamation points for your comment.
posted by Kitteh at 7:06 AM on July 25 [7 favorites]

I hope it is OK to mention that there is a tiny typo in the main post—her middle name is "Blasey", not "Basey".
posted by It is regrettable that at 7:08 AM on July 25

Augh I’ll ask the mods to fix - thanks!
posted by warriorqueen at 7:10 AM on July 25 [1 favorite]

My personal takeaway is that as long as men are predominantly in power, women will not get fair treatment and redress. From what I have seen, men, even good progressive kind men, are deeply uncomfortable calling out other men out for sexual abuse and holding them responsible.

That's why I think Kamala appeals so viscerally to women like me. After a lifetime of sexual harassment and discrimination, we are aching for justice.
posted by birdsongster at 7:17 AM on July 25 [24 favorites]

Moira is also cohost of the podcast “In Bed with the Right” about gender and sexism. Highly recommended
posted by spork at 7:49 AM on July 25 [4 favorites]

I haven't finished the whole piece, but lately I've been thinking about a comment Melissa Harris Perry made during the 2020 primaries. She discussed the danger of having a female candidate face Donald Trump. Not "can a woman win?" but talking about, what will it cost us to witness the large-scale misogyny (and in Kamala Harris' case, misogynoir) that will be unleashed? Regardless of what it costs the individual woman running there is an additional and different cost paid by society.

I hope despite paying that price we come out better afterward but I am very aware of how hard it is to go through for all of us.
posted by Emmy Rae at 8:14 AM on July 25 [13 favorites]

The Frieda Lee Mock documentary about Anita Hill makes it clear that many of her male friends and family( some of whom showed up in court when she testified) completely supported her.

It hurts to see that Blasey Ford's FATHER and brothers didn't.
posted by brujita at 8:31 AM on July 25 [16 favorites]

but I am very aware of how hard it is to go through for all of us.

One blessing of how late Biden left things is that for once the US is having a relatively short general election race. Less than 3.5 months, instead of what felt like centuries of "but her emails" and "lock her up" when Hilary ran.
posted by trig at 9:00 AM on July 25 [18 favorites]

I honestly think Biden knew exactly what he was doing timing-wise. His making the announcement after the RNC convention meant that the Republicans spent the entire time with its attendant media coverage attacking him, and that now all those attacks are all for naught. He both protected Kamala Harris and cut the Republicans off at the knees. The old guy's still got it.
posted by orange swan at 9:18 AM on July 25 [19 favorites]

The moral universe does not bend towards justice, EmpressCallipygos. It just arcs long enough that people forget much of the injustice, until that injustice becoems the irreconcilable past.

Brett Kavanaugh is however part of the current court, so damaging him maybe useful now.
posted by jeffburdges at 9:49 AM on July 25 [5 favorites]

Just wanted to say thanks for this great find, @warriorqueen. I'm finding the article's perspective painful but helpful.
posted by The Baffled King at 10:06 AM on July 25 [4 favorites]

With one exception, her brothers have not spoken to her since she appeared in Congress. Later, she found out that her father, a severe and conservative military type, had written an e-mail to Brett Kavanaugh’s father—the men are members of the same golf club—expressing his gratitude that Kavanaugh had been confirmed to the Supreme Court.

She's better off without them. If you're going to present yourself as a moral and upright defender of the family and blah blah blah but can't even manage to help your own daughter in her two notable hours of need, you're just a cosplay cowboy.
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 10:43 AM on July 25 [8 favorites]

Ford saw it the second way: she thought Kavanaugh wasn’t suited for the Court because what he did to her meant he wasn’t good enough for it. Perhaps her most revealing and tragic mistake is that she assumed that other people would agree.

And she's correct. It damages the already severely damaged Court and it ultimately damages the respect the common person has for the law. It is the height of cynicism to elevate a basically faceless lump of interchangeable partisan play-dough to such a position when the same end would be achieved by picking another person; continuing on with that choice through to confirmation speaks to the motivations of Kavanaugh's backers.
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 10:52 AM on July 25 [14 favorites]

For a brief moment, for those of us watching at home, it seemed as if the power of her testimony might actually change the outcome of the nomination. Ford went back to her hotel, and didn’t watch Kavanaugh’s testimony, in which the judge screamed red-faced into his microphone and sarcastically talked back to the senators. She says she has still never seen it. She left the Capitol exhausted but relieved. She had been perfect up there. But all he had to do was be angry.

I don't understand the point of the confirmation hearings. Has anything ever been altered because of them? Why put the witnesses through it if no change will come of it?
posted by hydra77 at 2:07 PM on July 25 [3 favorites]

I think the confirmation hearings sank Bork, at least.
posted by bashos_frog at 2:12 PM on July 25 [4 favorites]

Trivia tidbit: Brett Kavanaugh is one of only 4 justices to be opposed by the ACLU. The others are William Rehnquist, Samuel Alito, and Robert Bork.
posted by bashos_frog at 2:13 PM on July 25 [6 favorites]

The moral universe does not bend towards justice, EmpressCallipygos. It just arcs long enough that people forget much of the injustice, until that injustice becoems the irreconcilable past.

A few years ago, I tried to read some of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s writings. I acknowledge their historical and cultural importance. And I admire both their beauty and moral clarity. But I couldn't finish reading them because reading them in the 2020s made them seem hopelessly naïve.
posted by ElKevbo at 2:23 PM on July 25 [3 favorites]

The moral universe does not bend towards justice, EmpressCallipygos.

Dude, don't look at me, it was Martin Luther King Jr. who said that. And he's right, speaking broadly.

I was only complaining that those kinds of changes can take multiple generations, and a whole fuckton of real people do not get that justice within their own lifetime as a result.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 2:25 PM on July 25 [4 favorites]

I don't understand the point of the confirmation hearings. Has anything ever been altered because of them? Why put the witnesses through it if no change will come of it?

iirc they stopped Harriet Miers from becoming a justice during the 2nd GWB administration. I don't remember much about that except the New Yorker's humor (lol) section clowning on her lack of qualifications and status as a close buddy of the Bush family. Looking back, and considering where the Republican Party is now, it seems like a miracle that she wasn't actually confirmed.
posted by knotty knots at 5:11 PM on July 25 [1 favorite]

Both of my parents were on Kavanaugh’s side, overtly so in a way neither was usually openly political. One of those cold-water-to-the-face moments for me. I’m not a person to them, or wasn’t, and I guess my mother isn’t even a person to herself.
posted by eirias at 4:48 AM on July 26 [2 favorites]

I thought the way Kavanaugh was gripping his daughter's shoulders to be extremely creepy.
posted by brujita at 6:25 AM on July 26 [1 favorite]

I watched Confirmation (2016 movie about Anita Hill, starring Kerry Washington, recommended) last night. I was 17 when those events occurred in 1991, and while I was certainly aware of Hill's testimony against Clarence Thomas at the time, I did not follow the story and did not know the details. It's so depressing that almost exactly the same scenario played out 27 years later with the same result: woman speaks out about the abuse she has experienced at the hands of a very privileged, powerful man, and pays a terrible price for it; man plays victim and gets off scot free.

You know, I think the problem wasn't even so much that Hill and Blasey Ford weren't believed, but that those in authority simply didn't care.
posted by orange swan at 7:37 PM on July 26 [1 favorite]