What #BelieveWomen means to me is that women be given the opportunity to be heard and to tell their stories, without the first reaction being “she’s lying.” Tara Reade deserves what the #metoo movement has demanded for all women; a fair inquiry, which she currently isn’t getting.
What do I mean by “fair inquiry?” By this I mean that most harassment/assault claims against high powered men aren’t first taken up by a court of law, which means that journalists take up the role of investigators. They call corroborators, they ask for any sort of evidence /1
- photos, text messages, emails, etc., they compare the current statements with any past statement(s), they talk to people who know the person to try to determine credibility, etc etc etc. /2
Most women who go public with their claims know that every moment of their background will be judged, prodded, and aired to the world. That’s why it’s often difficult to imagine that a woman would make such a claim against a powerful man for any reason other than /3
wanting the world to know what they know about the man in question, and for there to be a semblance of accountability. Hell who knows, maybe even full accountability. /4
Is there a potential for some women to lie about a powerful man? Sure there is. And that’s exactly why it’s disturbing to see most mainstream media journalists not doing their due diligence on a story that is as consequential as this one. /5
All women deserve to be heard and if the credibility is there, to be believed. /end #BelieveWomen #Metoo
