Best Posts in Thread: Sexual harassment

Speaking from personal experience, it can be extremely difficult or impossible for a victim of sexual assault to come forward. I know it might seem like an easy thing but the experience in itself might have been very traumatic and it’s already very stigmatized by society. It could cost them their reputation, and in some countries, their job. You feel like it was your fault for being vunerable or weak, and you worry about the power that the other person has over you (physically, financially (EXPECIALLY if they are rich+famous). So when you see other people coming out against a person, you get courage to also tell your story. I realise it might be harder to believe, but they should not just be written off as people who want attention.

I don’t really want to get started on Trump but we all know about his “locker-room” “grab her by the _____” comment. For that, yes it makes sense that women would accuse him of sexual harassment/assult after that. The comment gross and should not be normalised. Expecially not for a public figure, but that’s a different debate.

Also it’s not true that if a public figure is disliked then their name is soiled with the allegation of sexual assault. If you look up hated public figures (make sure you find an older article, because obviously only the sexual assault cases are being published now) you can see that only a few have been ruined by accusations.

Anyways I just wanted to add another theory that I think it is really strange: that all of these cases are coming out now. People in Hollywood have known about child sexual abuse for as long as Hollywood has been around, but the stories were suppresed because no one took the people seriously or they were coaxed to not talk about it. Why is it being publisized now? Some say the Vegas shooter. That case completely disappeared and we know next to nothing about the shooter or his motives. It does seem fishy that these sexual allegations on such famous people are coming out at the same time for a reason.

Aside from that, I’m not saying all the stories are fake, and they should at least be investigated without a bias and fairly.

 

tl;dr

the second i heard more than 4 different woman rights activists use the statistic "More than 60% of rapes are undocumented and remain unheard of for the rest of their lives" i started to take these cases less seriously

i understand how difficult it would be to come out about something like this, being a pretty embarrassing (?) thing to come clean for, but it needs to be done if you want action to be taken

in the recent years, there is someone in some sort of power that a group of people dislike; therefore, he will get slammed for supposed sexual assault. it spirals into many people saying the same things, sometimes claiming it happened THIRTY PLUS YEARS AGO. take trumps for example. wow, a ton of girls come out and say that trump sexually assaulted them the second he became mega famous again... weird that they would want to do it at such a specific time? "its because he wont become president if they are ... say Something To The Presidant about raper.."

if you were so traumatized by the situation and you couldnt even see the man's name on a piece of paper, you should have come forward and said something about it right away. sorry not sorry but its insanely hard to believe someone who comes out amidst a huge string of other people coming out against someone.

 

Debates seemed dry lately, and I'm very bored, so here's something you guys can debate about


Unless you've been living under a rock (no offense to potential Patrick Star's), there have been many sexual assault/harassment allegations against several men of high social status.

Here's my two cents
Before I get into anything, I first want to give a quick firm reminder that an allegation does not mean anyone has been proven guilty. It is an accusation, and there is no guarantee that they are true or entirely accurate. And there have been many cases before where people have lied and have gotten someone else in serious trouble (prison sentencing, ending of careers, etc.). Now, it is also important to understand these types of crimes are hard to prove. Sex offenders would ideally commit their crimes with no witnesses, cameras, and audio recordings. Without any concrete evidence, it's ultimately the accuser's word against the defender's word. In any fair and just legal system, someone's words aren't enough to convict another person of a crime.

However, I do not think it is odd for mass amounts of people to speak out after several years. People who have been sexually assaulted often fear for their lives and reputations, and it's not until they see that they aren't alone that they get the courage to speak up. People with power can get away with a lot of disgusting behavior, and it's no surprise that their victims would rather stay quiet than try to stand up for themselves. If they make an accusation, they have no evidence. Without any evidence, they really don't have many options besides to stay quiet.

I was very reluctant to believe the allegations against Roy Moore at first because the timing seemed very odd considering he's running for Senate next month. Then, after hearing how he's been banned from a mall for predatory behavior, dated high school girls (according to former colleagues), and has many accusers, it's not so hard to believe anymore. With Al Franken, I was very hesitant to believe the accuser at first. Upon further research, I became more convinced that the accuser was stretching the truth. The only time a kiss happened was during a script rehearsal that she consented to. He never actually touches her in any of the photos she released. As for the photos themselves, it really does look like they were jokes in bad taste and not so much sexual assault. Nonetheless, Al Franken apologized for any potential misconduct and Leeann accepted. As for the George Takei allegation, I've found that it was pretty much total bogus.

Despite the room for grey areas in sexual assault, there's almost no doubt that people like Harvey Weinstein have harassed women for years and thought they could use their power to get away with it. Sexual harassment and assault are serious issues that many people face. Even being accused of sexual harassment can ruin someone's life, which is why it's very important to take these kinds of allegations seriously without assuming one person is right while the other is not.

 

All you (people) seem to be able to argue against is some mythical straw man "liberal". Nobody on this thread has said only republicans rape people.