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In response to multiple allegations of sexual misconduct against Brett Kavanaugh, Christian politicians have largely responded by either implying<\/a> the alleged victims are lying<\/a> or dismissing<\/a> the alleged incident as \u201cboys will be boys<\/a>.\u201d Personally, I don\u2019t even know how to respond to the second point, because it should go without saying that pinning a girl to a bed and covering her mouth so she can\u2019t scream while attempting to grope and strip her, or exposing one\u2019s genitals to a woman without her consent, are both inexcusable. It\u2019s downright insulting to men to suggest that they\u2019re incapable of treating women with basic respect.<\/p>\n To single women everywhere who are interested in dating men, might I suggest the following litmus test? Just ask him if he agrees with the \u201cboys will be boys\u201d response to these allegations. While you\u2019re at it, maybe ask if Trump\u2019s \u201cgrab her by the *****\u201d comments are \u201cjust locker room talk.\u201d Think how many misogynists you\u2019ll weed out!<\/p>\n But I don\u2019t want to focus on the \u201cboys will be boys\u201d response because, like I said, it should go without saying that it\u2019s wrong<\/a>. What I want to focus on is the knee-jerk reaction where Kavanaugh\u2019s supporters assume all three alleged victims are lying. The national conversation about Kavanaugh reminds me of an experience I had in college: I was in a creative writing course, and another student workshopped a piece about a protagonist who had been sexually assaulted. It was a heart-breaking piece in large part because it began as comedy before revealing the dark twist. The protagonist was the maid of honor in her little sister\u2019s wedding, and it was only revealed through a third person narrator that the groom had sexually assaulted her the day before.<\/p>\n To my shock, a male student loudly insisted that the protagonist was lying to herself and that she had consented to sex with the groom, only to later regret it and pretend it had been assault. As he described his interpretation, he added, \u201cIt happens ALL the time.\u201d Now, let me be clear. There was nothing<\/em> in the story to support his reading. Nothing to suggest the narrator was unreliable. It was a third person narrator, not first person POV, so the narrator wasn\u2019t a character in the piece \u2013 it was just a window into the protagonist\u2019s perspective. And there was absolutely nothing in the story to suggest that the protagonist was mistaken. The student suggesting this reading didn\u2019t point to any evidence in the piece itself, just kept insisting that women lie about sexual assault \u201call the time.\u201d In the story, the groom had physically restrained the victim by tying her hands together \u2013 the author left no room for reasonable doubt.<\/em> My classmate was reading his own assumptions and stereotypes into the story.<\/p>\n But the myth<\/a> that women regularly lie about sexual assault is prevalent, despite the fact that the rate of false reports is extremely low<\/a>, possibly as low as 2%.<\/a> One Christian woman recently* made a viral video where she presents an Old Testament story as proof that women regularly lie about sexual assault. She points to the account of Joseph\u2019s time enslaved in Egypt, where the wife of the man who owned him (only known as Potiphar\u2019s wife) failed to seduce Joseph and retaliated by telling her husband that Joseph had sexually assaulted her.<\/p>\n Now, I\u2019m going to put aside for a moment the question of whether this account in the Old Testament is literal and historical. Assuming these events transpired, here\u2019s the key detail that matters: Joseph was a slave. Potiphar\u2019s wife was not. She was married to a rich man and had class and wealth on her side. She attempted to sexually assault Joseph who, as a slave, could never have truly consented. If he had given in, it likely would have been because he feared for his life. And he was right to fear for his life. What good was the word of a slave against the word of a rich woman?<\/p>\n Imagine the same scenario playing out in the US in 1800. Who do you think a wealthy plantation owner would believe? His white wife, or the man who was legally considered his property? And even if the plantation owner knew his wife was lying, what do you think would happen if she told their friends?<\/p>\n But here\u2019s the flip side of the coin: if a woman enslaved on that plantation had accused the plantation owner of assaulting her, how do you think the plantation owner\u2019s wife and friends would respond? What do you think they would do, even if they did believe her?<\/p>\n And there was a power imbalance in 1955 when a white woman in Mississippi lied under oath about Emmett Till<\/a> in order to protect the men who had tortured and murdered him.<\/p>\n In the case of Kavanaugh, the power imbalance is squarely in his favor. He has been nominated by a president whose party controls both houses of congress, at a time when his appointment to the supreme court would essentially secure all three branches<\/strong> of the federal government for their ideology. He\u2019s been nominated close enough to the midterm election that the GOP is desperate to \u201cplough through this\u201d<\/a> rather than take the allegations seriously. And she\u2019s made an allegation that some public figures have taken so lightly as to dismiss it with the saying, \u201cboys will be boys.\u201d If she were lying, don\u2019t you think a professor would be smart enough to make up an even more damning incident?<\/p>\n I\u2019m not assuming that Dr. Ford\u2019s account is accurate or saying that Kavanaugh should automatically be disqualified. What I am saying that is that her account is credible enough to merit a real investigation. And it\u2019s high time we set aside the myth that women regularly lie about sexual assault.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n