Women need to be believed.
I understand that a lot of people have intellectual issues with uncritically accepting a woman’s outcry in regard to sexual assault. I understand that lives are ruined by false rape allegations. I don’t have to agree with these positions to understand that they exist. But look. This is really simple. Nothing gets better unless an outcry is heard and believed.
An acquaintance of mine stated at the weekend that she was raped by her now ex-boyfriend. She is a well-known sex worker. The backlash was horrible. Lots of people applied the first two sentences in the previous paragraph, and that was far from the worst of it. Not least because she made the statement on Twitter and there are a lot of insane people using Twitter. She was told to shut up, she was told that standards of consent don’t apply to her because she’s a sex worker, she was told she was a liar.
I believe Stoya. Not just because she’s an acquaintance. But because she’s a woman.
Make the world a slightly less shitty place. When a woman finds the courage to speak – or hits bottom and has to scream – believe them. Save all your rationalisations and hatred and half-smart bullshit for another time and put out your hand and stand with them. Stop making it all about you. Just once, make it about them. Believe women.
From Warren Ellis’ newsletter, and well worth sharing.
