Hearing about Professor Mann's experience is horrifying, intensely saddening, and just overwhelming. I understand how there might be a deep, what she calls "epistemic," split between people who have suffered such violence and people who have not. (Although I once fought off a rapist, and I was frightened, I escaped.)
When I hear the word "epistemic," though, I also think of knowledge and the evidentiary procedures that we set up when people are accused of things. And I think that the question of truth and knowledge is important to keep in mind. Professor Mann does not treat the evidence and witnesses in this case, and yet this is essential for making a fair judgment about Brett Kavanaugh. That cannot be accomplished in the context of a psycho-social episteme. It requires respecting evidence and, yes, presuming innocence, something each and every person deserves.
I read Emma Green's important Atlantic piece on conservative women, and that is a valuable companion to Professor Mann's essay here. I am worried, though, that in Professor Mann's universe, Ms. Green's women will be pre-categorized as the "good women" of Mann's patriarchy.
I believe that there must be a better way to register our differences than demeaning those we disagree with. There is tremendous agreement in this country that we should persevere and be courageous in fighting sexual violence. I myself tend to think that it will be harder to do in a Mannian universe or by making judgments without evidence.
3
No, the hearings do not expose "the depth, belligerence and intransigence of misogyny in our time." They expose what happens when people are crime victims and do not do their public duty of making a police report even if the likelihood of an arrest and conviction is slim to none. I've done it a dozen times in my life. Not reporting means that potentially criminals run free, able to harm others. Innocent people are potentially accused thirty years later, and react emotionally, willing to do whatever it takes to protect themselves and their families. The hearings also expose a fundamental truth: no one is more believable because of their chromosomes, wealth, status, or lack thereof. Believability takes evidence, which gets us back to the contemporareous reporting thing again.
2
Think of the outcomes of the election thought brought us to this point...candidate Clinton was held to a very different standard than Trump, by the media, by voters, even by herself as she tried to not offend people by being a smart, accomplished, intense, interested person. In this way, sex mattered even more than race. And a large part of this is our culture based on biblical teachings, based on economic power, based on ownership. As one comment noted in asking this question, why do white woman support Trump? It is a puzzle we need to understand...mots other countries have at least figured out that women can be good leaders, maybe, in part, because they do have different perspectives, richer experiences than affluent white men, entitled men. More than ever we need the entire world view!
6
Thank you so much for publishing this article. This type of writing makes me feel indebted to the Times; lucky to be able to read it, and so happy to be part of the Times reading community.
9
The good professor can try to re-frame this as much as she wants - and just like Socrates pinned back the ears of Euthyphro in the eponymous dialogue.
No - it is not about battling epistemologies - it is simply about the truth and what standard of evidence you have to bring to the discussion to claim that you have the truth.
Professor Mann is simply stating this fourth wave feminist concept that if you deeply believe something - absent any evidence - they you are - by definition - are telling the 'truth' And Nietzsche would have laughed and laughed at that - but he would have understood the move perfectly.
~ Everything which distinguishes man from the animals depends upon this ability to volatilize perceptual metaphors in a schema, and thus to dissolve an image into a concept.
Nietzsche On Truth and Lies in an Extra-Moral Sense (1873)
5
This is brilliant. And also heartbreaking.
6
I ab so sorry for your experience. And so thankful for your article. You are exactly right, and the fact that you had the guts to say it takes you out of and above pretty much every other article on the subject. Bravo.
6
The essay is an excellent example of the consequences of truth speaking out against power. In James Comey's article in the Sept. 30 Times, The FBI Can Do This. He writes, "If truth were the only goal, there would be no clock." Truth isn't the goal. The goal is keeping power in the reins of a few. The GOP senators fear the truth because it will reduce the power and privilege they've enjoyed since the early days of our country.
10
I am almost 70 years old. I have been reliving so many instances from when I was 18, 19, 20, most of which involved my "rescuing" my friends from this type of situation. It was the 1960s; I didn't (still don't) drink or smoke weed. I was kind of a geeky, heavy, politically-involved young woman. I had several friends who were gorgeous, vibrant, and, as a few guys described them, "game for anything."
However, I will say that when we were in high school, we went to a public school and met a bunch of guys when we we competed in a drama festival. They all went to a private school. They were perfect gentlemen. I always look to them as role models. We hung out with them almost every weekend. They were funny, had great personalities, didn't drink, were always trying to come up with new harmonies to songs we liked to sing, shot baskets with us, and mostly, we laughed. They were the antithesis of what we heard about the Georgetown Prep boys these last few weeks. These are the really great memories I'm leaning on. Those "boys," who are now in their 70s as well, have children of their own--daughters and sons. How I wish I could tell their children how wonderful their fathers behaved when they were young, how much fun we had WITHOUT alcohol or drugs, how much we laughed, and how proud they should be of their dads.
If only I knew where they were now. What a difference. No white privilege from them, even though they went to private Catholic school. Just thank you.
3
"All of this reinforces what their years of silence indicate, that the “law enforcement” branch of patriarchy is alive and well."
Dr. Blasey kept silent for 35 years. What does this indicate? A culture of misogynist annihilation? Or perhaps, unfortunate that it may be, that at least by a certain point there was insufficient evidence to see justice done?
3
Two days after the election I told my right wing uncle that the women will take him down. I continue to believe that the women in this country have had enough. This column provides a great backdrop as to why we are done.
3
Thank you for opening a door to a larger discussion. I feel strongly that Kavanaugh has only one viable option as a human being: take responsibility for whatever his misbehavior was (drinking too much, and intimidating women because of his looks, power, entitlement, while under the influence, whatever his misbehavior was. What is more he needs to express remorse, and he needs to repair the damage that has been done by his past behavior. Perhaps then he can grow from this, his children can grow, and we can all move up a notice on the spiral of evolution.
3
Nothing frustrates me more than American female voters, because I'm a staunch feminist disgusted by the failure of the majority of American voters, the female ones, to stand up for women, for a change. As everyone knows, Trump was elected by a malign combination of white working-class women and white, college-educated suburban women. We hear noises about how some of the suburban women, at least, may actually start voting for people on women's side, for a change, instead of for Trump and his backers. I'll believe it when I see it. It's great to march and make noise, but the whole "resistance" will just be a bad joke for Trump to mock women about if women don't do the only thing that counts: VOTE.
6
Seems to me more misandry is on display than misogyny. Christine Ford was (largely) treated with respect. Brett Kavanaugh was not. He has been vilified for months. His hearing was interrupted by women who popped up like mechanical dolls every few minutes to scream at him. And that was just a small part of this fiasco.
Yes, Brett Kavanaugh has his faults. We all do. Even judges and justices. But his strengths greatly outweigh his faults. Apart from whether you agree with his politics, he has lived his life without any verified stain on his character. How many men can say that?
Sounds like many would only accept Jesus Christ as worthy to sit on the Supreme Court. But maybe not even he could make it past this angry mob. After all, when he faced his own agitated crowd, he wasn't just figuratively crucified, but literally.
6
What is truly deafening is the silence of Ivanka Trump.
3
The only part of this superb essay that is wrong comes near the end:
"If this nomination succeeds, women’s human rights will be set back for decades."
I'm afraid that is now the inevitable outcome, even if this particular Republican parasite fails to be confirmed.
9
What about the women who also mock Prof. Ford. I have heard a number of them being interviewed and they are very dismissive of her. And what about all those women at Trumps’ rallies cheering him on when he denigrates Prof. Ford and other women. Is that self hate?
5
Brilliant, poignant, painful and true.
Thank you
5
Thankyou for a thoughtful and clearly presented perspective on a dreadful situation. Two world views are colliding and truth and fair play by one side are out of the window in pursuit of the survival of their male, old-world, corrupt and power and profit-hungry ethos.
“The battle over the Supreme Court nomination is not about truth. It is about who controls meaning.”
So speaks an avowed leftist academic. We on the right care about truth, as meaning is derived from truth, not vice versa.
3
I'm a 65 yr-old man and am appalled at the behavior of our poor excuse for a human being mental emotional juvenile POTUS in Mississippi last night. Trump attacks only those who cannot respond in kind. He is a bully and a bone-spur coward.
I'm shocked and sorry to discover so many women in our society have been sexually assaulted (1 in three I understand). I have exhibited behaviors I am not proud of, but I can say with a clear conscience I have never forced myself on a woman, under any circumstance, under the influence, or not. I would like to believe most men don't act that way, but if fully 1/3 of women have experienced sexual assault, perhaps I need to reconsider.
Since November 2016, I feel as though I have come from a different planet. I survived an abusive alcoholic father, who acted just like Kavanaugh on Thursday pm. I believe Ms Fords' compelling testimony, and wonder why the GOP has so much tied up in him. I hired people as part of my work and would never hire someone who acted as poorly as Mr Kavanaugh. Given his conspiracy laden, biased partisan behavior, I wonder how he could continue in his present position.
4
What I’m getting from the brunt of these posts is that Kavanaugh is guilty because 1. He’s a man, 2. He’s a white man, 3. He’s a conservative (read privileged) white man. What I also gather is that Ford is to be believed because 1. She’s a woman who accused the person described in 1 thru 3 above. That trumps verifiable evidence, or the absence of a single corroborating witness, or Dr. Ford’s complete inability to corroborating her own story during sworn testimony. And then today, she’s refusing to turn over therapist’s notes (that she apparently shared with the WP already) which she previously stated would support at least part of her story. Apparently, that may not be the case.
If you don’t like Kavanaugh because of reasons 1 thru 3 above, I suppose you have your reasons. Maybe its political, maybe your racial or socially intolerant of others, or maybe you’re simply a philogynist. Unfortunately for you, we live in a country where ALL citizens are entitled to civil rights, and are innocent until proven guilty. Blasey Ford has proven only the obvious. She’s a woman. If she was assaulted, my prayers go out to her. But, that doesn’t relieve her of the burden of proof if she’s going to level unverified charges that ruin someone’s life.
Show me the proof Kavanaugh is guilty of anything other than liking beer in college (and 1 thru 3) and I’ll be the first one to call my senator.
11
Trump did not 'mock' Dr Ford. He merely recited the facts of the case.
If it seems like mocking it's only because Ford's testimony is so weak that any scrutiny would make it crumble.
4
Trump used the same attack tactics against the Central Park 5, but now he is aided and abetted by Sen Grassley who released a letter from an ex boyfriend daming Dr. Ford by an and by Hannity and his ilk. As Sir Ian McKellen observed Trump's sole accomplishment is his mastery of the small screen. The President uses his television appearances to weaponize the Presidency and attack his political foes. Sarah Sanders and Kellyanne Conway do the same.
8
The irony and cognitive dissonance of this whole situation is astounding. First the irony,we have a man who is accused of sexually foisting himself on women against their will now being foisted on the American populace as a whole to be a Justice for life on the Supreme Court. Secondly the cognitive dissonance. President Trump has complained that Judge Kavanaugh's family and reputation are being destroyed by these unproven allegations. It seems he has forgotten that Private Citizen Trump took out a full page ad that called for the execution of the Central Park Five.
19
As a young man in the 50s we boys-to-men just accepted the fact that we were allowed to try out any girl or woman who would let us and see if she let us. A very few girls initiated the behavior but some did. I always knew I would marry so I settled down to protect my woman and help HER raise our children while I pursued my career. I am at least proud to say I never forced any girl but played around as long as she let me. This is accepted as what men always do and how women use sex to get what they need out of men. Believe me men and women still say Kavanaugh is typical and thus accepted as a young man's normal behavior if the girl lets him.
1
Earlier this year in NY, a man was freed from prison after having served years in prison for a rape he did not commit. The conviction was based largly on the eye witnesses identification of the man by the alledged victim.
In the McMartin pre-school case, dozens of people were implicated in the most horrific child abuse allegations including the murder of infants. It was all a lie, yet numerous children lined up to testify about abuse that never occurred.
In the case of Twana Brawly, a teenage girl, alledged she was raped by multiple men, identifing several police officers and a prosecutor who was attending a legal conference half way across the country.
Then the Duke Rape case.
Each year thousands of men are accused of sexual battery and ultimately proven innocent because of false allegations. Each year, the database of exhortations maintained at the University of Michigan grows with the names of wrongfully convicted men found to be innocent.
There is never a reasonable instance in which a man can have his freedom taken, or his reputation and career ruined based on false or unsupported allegations. America does not work that way and we have a Bill of Rights to remind us. To blindly believe allegations without cooberative evidence makes a mockery of everything this nation stands for.
4
Bonnie Mann's accurate depiction of privileged white men barely scratches the surface of the actual privilege these white men have in totality. This is due to the fact that her conversation in the editorial only concerns itself with the privilege regarding sexual harassment, sexual assault, and rape. We can glean from the NY Times report on Donald Trump's financial dealings that the privilege extends to lying and cheating in finance, hiring and promotion in employment, and many other areas.
Although I'm male and white, like so many other males I feel for Bonnie and the millions (if not billions) of other females who are sexually assaulted and raped every year. When my younger sister told me she was date raped about 20 years after it occurred, I was furious about it and asked her why she hadn't informed me. then She told she was very afraid at the time that if she told me who did it I might have killed him. While I did grow up in a ghetto in NYC and certainly learned to defend myself, I doubt I'd have a chance or desire to actually kill her assailant. But--and this is important--I would have assured her that there was nothing to be ashamed of, worked with my sister to obtain evidence of the assault and made her assailant pay a price to pay for his transgression. Until women can learn to be as violent as men, this will continue to be a problem, as mentally ill men like Trump and Kavanagh are and will be among us for some time.
2
Trump’s simplistic “he said, she said” method of declaring a tie and claim he must believe his man is absurd. Corporations and governments fire people every day for egregious misconduct when there are competing versions of the truth from only two witnesses. Fact finders, whether a judge, jury, or arbitrator look at the motives, demeanor, and testimony of the competing versions to decide who is telling the truth. This happens hundreds of thousands of time a month, year in and year out.
Trump, you put are putting your head in a hole in the ground when you do this.
3
Trump/GOP is the snap shot of male dominance. Alpha males; preening in their power and greed. Vote out GOP . Ray Sipe
2
The Kavanaugh hearing and confirmation is not a battle of him vs. her, Dems vs. Repubs, Trump vs everyone else, its about ROE vs. WADE, which Kavanaugh will lead the way to repeal 5 minutes after his butt hits the bench. Sad but true.
1
Trump both attacked Ford and supported boys accused of assault. His right-wing Christian base hate feminists and women who stand up for themselves, but mostly it fears them. Add gender anxiety to the white racial anxiety that drives right-wing Christian whites. Trump effectively moves between playing on the fears of his base to inspiring them to follow his lead so he can protect them. Watch Hitler’s speeches with subtitles and you’ll see the same method. Instead of Bolsheviks and Jews, Trump’s base is politically passive but united, so Kavanaugh is probably in. #MeToo, the movement for criminal justice reform, immigrant rights, gun regulation all need to unite by using this as a springboard for Resistance.
Trump mocks and degrades women.
Now is America's time to mock and degrade him.
Vote November 6.
5
Daily, this despicable man gets more despicable. Daily, the world is witness to America's role model showing them how utterly despicable and ugly America is; not was, not can be, but is.
Trump holds supreme power, and yet he is so insecure, so juvenile, so base and so simple, that he is forced to resort to insults because he is incapable of forming a constructive argument.
And the basest of the base still fawn all over him. That is also on display for the world to see. Traveling these days as an American is an embarrassment. Trump has eroded American pride, American goodness. All the world sees is crass ugliness.
6
We have seen the real Brett Kavanaugh. A spoiled rotten preppie rich kid. In short Brett Kavanaugh is Donald Trump. Does anyone want another Donald Trump? Does Susan Collins want another Donald Trump? Lisa Murkowski? Jeff Flake? We have seen Brett Kavanaugh raw and hopefully we will see him cooked.
1
This is not just a matter of misogyny. As a straight white male, I understand that Kavanaugh is a pathological liar and a drunken frat-boy who must not be given power over anybody.
6
"... and intransigence of misogyny in our time. "
Prof. Mann frames the question and then answers it. This may work for class but fails in the real world.
Ms. Mann decries that "white men" are used to acting with impunity, and that this is the core of the "division" in this country.
Ms. Mann forgets that 42% of the country's women voted for Donald Trump, or that one of Hillary's good friends, former Secretary of State Albright opined that "Hell has a special place for women who vote for Trump."
However, at least based on the women I know who voted for Trump, their concerns mirrored those of the white men in their socio-economic group. It was really about the economics,being abandoned to "globalization," and communities breaking apart by unemployment, lost businesses, and addiction.
In Oregon, it might seem that women are a monolithic voting block. But Dr. Blassy Ford, like Judge Kavanaugh, went to an exclusive prep school,had every advantage, lived in a toney suburb, and never knew a day of economic hardship, except for couples therapy, which most people I know cannot afford and health insurance ain't paying for it.
Women voters are also concerned by the lack of due process in the Kavanaugh proceedings. They see their sons, brothers and fathers being caught up in the "presumption of guilt" demanded by #MeToo and their media allies, and they don't like it.
Maybe she is correct and the elites are always right, and the women who live in my area are just "deplorable."
5
In newly liberated France suspected male collaborators with the Nazis were summarily executed whereas their suspected female counterparts had their heads shaven and were then released so that, innocent or not, they could be raped with impunity by the liberators. Few of these women lived long enough for their hair to grow back in. This reader's thoughts are with Dr Ford.
It appears that the the Republican Party officially supports an encourages bullying and women hating.
1
Misogyny ran like a knife through the 2016 election. Misogyny runs like blood in the veins of the Trump base. Misogyny was death by a thousand cuts for Sec. Clinton. Misogyny was the engine in the rightwing Clinton hate propaganda machine.
In the old epistemic system, a privileged elite white man could treat a girl or woman however he wanted to, and still be president, Supreme Court justice, professor, executive, etc. This has not changed in the heads of too many.
Moral outrage has not been a substitute for real thinking. On the contrary, outrage follows thought. Most victims of sexual assault don't receive justice. Most perpetrators are never brought to justice. The statistics alone, and the thinking behind them, tell us to believe the accuser.
Both sides believe Mr. Kavanaugh assaulted Dr. Blasey. Both sides probably believe that Kavanaugh participated in the gang rape of a drunken girl, as Ms. Swetnick has testified. But only one side snickers about it once they leave the room.
For their own wellbeing, the bad women discover that they must speak out about the assault. They hardly dare to hope to bring the powerful entitled white men to justice. The good women do something else that I am still not able to understand.
The purpose of the circus was to obscure fact, cover up wrongdoing. The "female assistant" attacked the victim whose testimony alone embodied probity and veracity. It was a trial of the victim for treason and heresy against the old system.
47
Wrong. It's about the #MeToo mob wanting its pound of flesh based on Ford's vaporware of reshaped past--Medieval public square vengeance--and the DNC Politburo's obsession with protecting Roe v. Wade. Nothing deeper than that--no Socratic dialogue required.
3
The only thing at all that will make one wit of difference is voting and changing the power dynamic of this country.
Everything else is barking at the moon.
19
Misogyny in modern America?
America appears a hopeless case, utterly unable to move to a scientific/biological view of human nature. Everyone is familiar with Christianity, the belief in a soul separate from the body, and of course Descartes mind/body separation, but what people are largely unaware of is that America with secularism/socialism is by no means beyond the former views and is by no means based on biology/science.
In America it appears for all overcoming of Christianity, all advance of science, we are locked in a nurture over nature view which is just the modern form of conceiving of a soul or Cartesian mind/body separation. We all typically say men and women and of course the races and ethnic groups are equal in every ability, that people are quite malleable, can be educated this way and that, that anyone can be almost anything, and of course actors, those who pretend to be this and that at will, are our most celebrated artists.
We are in complete denial of actual biological differences between individuals, races, the sexes. Thus the increasing nightmare of our bureaucratic/fictional world where everybody must act and think in approximation to everybody else or be maligned this way and that, not to mention considered just not willing to get with the program, because of course if you do not fit into a world which reinforces nurture over nature as it does, it obviously must be only your fault and nobody else's.
And this is an improvement over Christianity?
4
Democrats lost the last election, and now Republicans are about ram two Supreme Court appointments in succession through Congress. Roe vs. Wade might be threatened, a possibility that frightens me as much as anyone. Behold democracy in action. The rise of judicial activism has been for the most part a boon to Democrats, but not when Republicans control who sits on the benches. If Democrats want to command the judiciary again I guess they have to win a few elections. The Democratic Party’s behavior throughout the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings, motivated by frustration and hastening the breakdown of “norms” it pretends to lament, has been ugly, sickening and grossly unfair to Kavanaugh and his family, and sets back the cause of women’s rights by decades. Democrats are exploiting the #MeToo movement for short-term political gain, in exactly the same way Republicans exploit right-to-life emotions. Oh well, whatever works. Do you believe Ford or Kavanaugh? Do you LIKE Ford or Kavanaugh? I wonder if your party affiliation has ANYTHING to do with your answer? You may be a tenured college professor, but don’t be so patronizing as to pretend that this media circus has anything to do with the “misogyny” dog whistle. It is about politics, politics, politics, and about a Republican-controlled Congress whose candidates were voted into office by an electorate made up of equal parts women and men.
6
@Stephen Hoffman Watching form the sidelines, your Republican party is all about misogyny, so the opposition is absolutely about both politics and misogyny.
1
@Stephen Hoffman
Dems did win the last election, but were blocked by the antiquated electoral college which grants weight to some votes and takes weight away from others. Democracy in action my foot.
2
And what if they lied?
8
I am a 62 year old white woman. Just this week, I was out of town on business and walking from a museum back to my car in broad daylight. A white guy, 40ish, in a work truck came up on my from behind and unleashed quite the sexual tirade. When I turned and he saw that I wasn't a young chick, he looked slightly taken aback and sped off. A younger black man who was walking toward me, dressed very shabbily, went out of his way to stop and apologize for the other guy's behavior, and ask if I was enjoying my visit to his town. I can't help but feel that the first guy was doing what he did in response to what is currently happening in our country with respect to attacks on women. I can't help but feel heartened that the second guy broke the mold of the typical stereotype.
242
The posters who continue with the "job interview" idea are deluded, naive, or sophists. The initial session was predetermined. All Democrats on the committee had announced opposition, and all Republicans support. So what we saw was an opportunity for a charade by the Democrats as mid-term campaigning (and with Booker and Harris presidential posturing). The fact that the Republicans on the committee are men is not evidence of misogyny but of the Senate's procedures for committee assignment.
Then with Ford's last minute accusation we did in fact have a trial. Job interviews do not involve criminal accusations or spirited defenses.
Dr. Mann's essay is no doubt heart-felt, but it's irrelevant to the guilt or innocence of Kavanaugh and the truthfulness of either him or Ford. Blather about epistemic worlds seems out of place,
17
@kwb
True. If this were a real job interview it would have been canceled and Kavanaugh would have been shown the door a long time ago.
Professor Mann's points are thoughtful. But she confuses the difference between what's epistemic and what's valuational (axiological). She's talking about various value-led understandings, what's commonly pursed in philosophy these days as "value-theoretical" understandings (re: value theory—or axiology).
3
@gary e. davis Indigenous people would argue that you cannot detach axiology from that which is epistemic. I think Foucault might concur.
Nobody likes "privileged" white frat boys. However, that doesn't make them rapists. Remember the Duke Lacrosse players. Ms. Ford's allegations are very weak, inconsistent, and 35-year-old memories are simply not accurate enough for any purpose.
27
@Moishe Pipik I am so tired of the "remember the Duke lacrosse players" argument. According to the FBI, only an average of 5.5% of allegations of rape are proven by investigation to be false or baseless. That means that 94.5% are proven to be true.
Should justice be withheld for the 94.5% of victims of sexual assault because of the 5.5% who lie? And should we then deny justice to victims of robbery, men and women, because some people (5.5%, the same percentage) lie about being robbed?
6
Why are the 35-year-old memories of men attacked by priests credible and Dr. Blasey’s are not? Yes, the charges at Duke were false, but they are very much in the minority.
7
But the petulant out of control entitled dissembling partisan evasive hysterical and false response to the allegations is certainly telling; what it tells is that the guy is not supreme court material.
7
Has anyone noticed that trump rails against all the "injustices" when white men are accused, but when Bill Cosby was convicted and recently sentenced, he had nary a word. Only dopey Lindsay Graham keeps comparing kavanaugh to Cosby. (Was he saying Cosby was railroaded? Hard to tell, as he just makes no sense). But trump-HAH he probably believes Cosby's accusers, because, after all, he is a black man.
16
Please make this grotesque carnival go away. Take down the Big Top, round up the clowns, and fire the (straw) dogs that walk on hind legs. It was never funny; it's tragic.
How many words have been wasted on parsing the obvious? How many absurd excuses have been harnessed to defend the indefensible? How much longer can a nation divided --one where fully one half of the citizens,the female half naturally-- are daily denigrated, derided, and denied full equality and justice stand?
It's only 2018. And we DARE visit other countries to yap about democracy and freedoms and rights? We DARE call other cultures benighted and backward for their misogyny? There is a limit and we are at it. This is the week reason and logic went to the wailing wall.
It is this simple: This country "elected" a man who bragged about his own proclivity for sexual violence. Because he was elected, he now feels, not just empowered, but compelled to back other men up on the same charges because if we question them we call his legitimacy into question. As well we should.
Read international journals for what they think about the country that pulls these stunts repeatedly. I used to try to point out at The Guardian that we really aren't the moronic, jingoistic, parochial backwater we seem hellbent on presenting as, but I think it's time to join the chorus. Theirs.
Forget the Age of Aquarius; welcome to the Age of Unhinged Hypocrisy in Aid of Misogyny. It stinks like a fish out of water.
23
@AhBrightWings
Hi from Aelwyd at The Guardian. Not all Americans are like that, and by no means do all of us hold unremittingly critical views of Americans. Quite the opposite.
You as a nation are, I think, at a crossroads, and none of us can tell how things will turn out; but as I said to you a while back on Cif, at one of the bleakest and most horrific times in the history of my country, the anchoress of St Julian's in Norwich saw through the darkness, and was able to say that "Al shal be wel and al shal be wel and al manner of thyng shal be wele".
11
@Aelwyd
Thanks for that beautiful reminder.
It has seemed hopeless to me since Trump's inauguration. It seems to get worse every day. Lovely to get a bit of hope from Wales.
3
"How much longer can a nation divided --one where fully one half of the citizens,the female half naturally-- are daily denigrated, derided, and denied full equality and justice stand?"
I don't understand this. We all have different experiences, but I freely admit it: I just don't get it. From the time girls start school to the time they are in their thirties, they TROUNCE men in educational achievement and in the workplace. Colleges have to fight to recruit men and then they fail to graduate large percentages of the ones they manage to recruit. There is no so-called "wage gap" for women well into their 30s. They have lately advanced to greater representation even beyond this age in nearly all the professions. At the same time addiction and suicide rates have soared for men, not to mention that they are specially selected for incarceration and the most dangerous labor. I honestly do not understand what you are talking about.
By the way, thanks for the lines from Julian below!
3
Trump spoke to the fact Ford’s testimony did nothing to establish the credibility of her accusations. The information she presented remains unverified, with absolutely no corroboration from the witnesses SHE named. So, was it Trump’s “tone”, his presentation? Well, he ain’t smooth, and I don’t always agree with his delivery, but he spoke to the facts with regards to the testimony. She had no proof, and very limited, and incorrect, recollection of the time, place, age, number of partygoers, etc., etc., etc.
Yeah, Trump could have made things easier by just avoiding the subject, but then that would have become an issue for the Dems to attack on. It’s all part of “moving the goalposts” as McConnell noted.
The Dems wanted another FBI ackground investigation of Kavanaugh. “It shouldn’t take more than a week” the Dems said publicly. Now, a week isn’t enough, and they didn’t ask the right questions, or the right people weren’t questioned, or Ford wasn’t questioned again after giving sworn testimony before the Senate a week ago. She made her case which has since been repeatedly discredited and uncorroborated. Maybe the FBI simply doesn’t see the value of interviewing her further. No one told them they couldn’t.
This has all been a political ruse hatched by Feinstein and her minions. And it time to call it like we see it. Move on to the confirmation vote. And on to the Red Wave in November.
3
There will be no red wave in November. As usual, we will have divided government.
@TheRealJR60
1. Her accusation has not been discredited.
2. Kavanaugh lied in the hearing about so many things--including instances unrelated to this accusation--that he should not be confirmed.
Why doesn't it bother you that he's a liar? Shouldn't that be enough? The dems are doing their job to vet the candidate. The WH did not do its job well to vet the candidate (or maybe they did), that's why they want to rush it through.
1
No, it's not about misogyny. The taunting the Trump engaged in, on behalf of one of his most valued nominees, pales in contrast to the epithets being lobbed at both of them.
Time to stop playing feminist victim. What this is is hard politics, and there's been absolutely no shortage of it in recent weeks from any side.
6
Hey. Thanks for this and for sharing your story. I'm writing in to comment on your rape (I hope you'll not mind). After reading piece, it's all that really stuck with me. I thought you surely could go after those guys (if you wanted to/haven't already) - considering the investigations possible re. Ford/Kavanaugh. Then I thought it may not be very realistic so many years later and given there must be hundreds of thousands of these cases/rapes. With where our technology is in our present information age, however, along w/ society's growing strength to speak out and attain justice - I think it is possible to get 'em. Regardless, in the end I know God will hold everyone accountable - He will show no partiality. ..Thanks again. Best to you -
1
Since you are a philosophy professor I think that you set a poor example to tell us that the debate is only over one thing, in this case control of meaning.
The debate is actually a lot more diverse and nuanced than your piece suggests.
Each of us has our reasons, many of which do not follow logic, for why we act and think as we do.
Even you.
6
The thing that has really stood out to me in reading the many comments from women and men is that women (except for those still under the spell of the Rule Patriarchy) - women "get it" they understand Dr. Blasey's experience in a visceral way.
And even the awesome supportive men, don't really "get it" in the way that women do since most women have lived that experience.
To the wonderfully supportive men in my life I try to explain it to them this way - I don't understand what African Americans go through since I'm white, but I try to listen and hear what they are saying.
In the same vein, I think most men (except maybe those who have been raped) don't really "get it", but I really appreciate them when they truly listen to women and truly care to hear what we have to say.
24
@Dem in CA Hear hear! There are a fair few who are decent and empathic. I am heartened that they are speaking up against the loutishness ( putting it mildly) of their fellows.
1
I was a young man in high school and in college in the late '50s to mid-'60s, and it's been an article of faith for me that the young men of my time - or at least very few - of them ever even considered sexual assault. We were Boy Scouts, for goodness sake!
Oh sure, almost of us smoked cigarettes, and almost all of us drank ourselves into a coma at least once. Some of us even drank beer regularly (just like our dads, but for them it was legal).
But sexual assault?
Certainly not! (This is where I crank up the Hammond Chord Organ and swing into a nostalgiasmic chorus of "I Want a Girl" (Just Like the Girl Who Married Dear Old Dad)")
Delightful! Exactly way we thought.
Except it wasn't. In fact, to my knowledge no one in my circle of friends ever committed sexual assault, but it's unimaginable that no one even thought about it.
That "to my knowledge" is a loaded phrase, and it's just now occurred to me. The fact that I didn't know it to happen obviously does NOT mean that it DID'T happen.
Where does "thinking about it" end and perhaps "doing it" begin? In my opinion, at the frat house door. (And no fellas, I was "rushed" by at least a half dozen fraternities, but saw nothing worthwhile in any of them.)
Every fraternity during "Rush week (or sometimes, "recruitment week") always made it plain that there was at least one girl in every "sister sorority" that simply "had to do it" with a brother fraternity member. HAD to.
Then there were the parties...
5
Trump sees, every day, what the agents are learning from the very few (at Trump's command) witnesses they talk to.
Since he knows what's being said, he knows what will be in the report. Knowing that freed him to mock Christine Blasey Ford last night, to complete the assault.
(I guess Mark Judge stuck to his Georgetown Prep code and denied that he and Brett tried to use Christine as the third side of their Triangle.)
7
I got a glimpse into why misogyny is mainstream republican, and why this party's nihilism poses the biggest threat to the republic. They must destroy women, and gut everything that can potentially help weak people (see dedicated gutting of ACA, justice, environment, education).
I teach about a 100 students juniors and seniors at a b-school. A quick poll revealed only about 10% awareness of the Kavanaugh nomination this week. No one had heard of the gutting of NAFTA and its replacement (currently only proposed) by a new deal to which tariffs and protected industries are central. None. Not one could speak to second order implications of tariffs.
This afternoon NPR reports that only 60% of those under 30, and only 62% of Hispanics think voting this mid term is important. Both have absolutely everything to lose - but no one cares. On the other hand, the race-driven hate has galvanized and mobilized the hard right.
Democrats are not just fighting nihilistic, misogynistic republicans that seek more inspiration from Germany of 1936 and less from Pericles' Athens, they are fighting a grossly disinterested, disengaged potential voter who could not care less about her/his own future.
Every sign suggests that the country will double down and embrace even greater sadistic nihilism this November, and not creep toward a pluralistic democracy. Republicans have won this war, democrats have given up. We could do with a new democrat to replace every old one in power.
10
A brilliant piece, thank you so much for writing it. What is happening at this cultural moment is in desperate need of this kind of analysis to fully understand it. To tell us about your own sexual assault experience in this context sheds crucial light on why someone such as yourself would remain silent about their experience for years, or in some cases forever. The weight of 'epistemic' misogyny, and the threat of further abuse it its name if one were to speak up -- plus the visceral experience of trauma and instinct for survival -- comes through so powerfully as the reasons why one would remain silent. Again, thank you, thank you.
8
Bonnie Mann has written one of the most trenchant opinion pieces I've ever read.
The bottom line is that even if even if this testimony and bearing witness by Christine Blasey Ford does not defeat the ugly white maleness that is Brett Kavanaugh and Company, Dr. Ford has moved society forward by speaking truth to ugly white male power.
Dr. Ford has inspired many formerly 'silent' women - including Bonnie Mann herself and thousands, if not millions - to speak up and tell the ugly truth about white male power and patriarchy.
This many not save us from the drunken, craven, partisan nightmare that would be a Supreme Court judgeship by the creepy Kavanaugh, but the act of calling men out for their megalomaniacal, destructive and abusive behavior to men is a tremendous public service that will pay dividends down the road in the form of a more decent society where men learn to act with decency toward women.
I'm a white man, and it's thoughtful women like Bonnie Mann and Christine Blasey Ford who make the world a better place.
Let's hope for a miracle and hope the Senate rejects the spoiled rotten white male judge nominated by the Spoiled-Rotten-White-Male-In-Chief, both of whom are white male American disgraces.
30
Memory isn't a video recording to be replayed when it comes time to recall. It is a summary of essential information--- you retain the important stuff. In your and Dr Ford's case memory is doing exactly what it is supposed to be doing: remembering what happened and who did it.
References to "holes" in such memories are a red herring (or red herrings?).
8
@Anthony
Worse even. Holes in memories, while retaining the essential information - what happened and who did it - are signs of a true memory.
A liar can invent detail after detail - excessive detail is a sign of a lie. True memories have holes - I don't recall the color of the shirt of the guy showing my husband and I our engagement rings. I absolutely remember seeing the rings and looking up at my new finacee. Does that mean I'm lying because I can't give the color of the shirt - nor am I certain if it was a guy?
1
Misogyny is not the operative motivation. The Republicans are the majority and they depend upon an electorate who wants them to appoint a right wing fanatic to the Supreme Court. They consider neither the sex nor the politics of anyone who presents an obstacle far less relevant than the obstacle. They want the power to control the events, now. Any misogyny is just circumstantial.
If the Democrats were nominating a Kavanaugh, then Republicans would all talk like feminists even if the had always conducted their business as misogynists.
4
Women, particularly white women, must also fight against the ongoing oppression of blacks and other minorities. It isn´t just women.
14
Professor Mann,
Thank you for writing this.
I hope and pray that if anything, your account has added to women feeling more empowered to speak out and bear witness against ugly (and criminal behavior) IMMEDIATELY, for the sake of all of our daughters and sisters.
As a white male, I do fear for my sons. We work hard to instill moral and ethical behavior, and respect for all persons. I don't fear their behavior- I fear future risk. I worry about them ever being alone in a room with female they don't know. I fear that there are women out there far less conscientious then you or Dr Blasey who can (and sometimes do) make false accusations to further an agenda, leaving devastation in their wake.
My worry in all of this, is that Dr. Blasey's testimony, as credible as she sounds, DOESN'T EVEN HAVE TO BE TRUE to ruin the life and career of Judge Kavanaugh.
Given that her account can be neither proven nor disproven, I believe the only rationale course is for the committee to vote no and simply move on to the next candidate. Not fair to Kavanaugh if he is innocent, but from a utilitarian viewpoint, a much worse harm would be for him to be confirmed if he is guilty.
39
@Dan False reports of sexual assault are uncommon. According to the FBI, only 5.5 percent of allegations of rape are proven by investigation to be false or baseless, which means 94.5 percent are proven to be true. (The same figures hold true for other felonies, such as robbery.)
So the chances of a boy or man being falsely accused of sexual assault are infinitely smaller than the chances of a girl or woman experiencing sexual assault in her lifetime and having to pick up the pieces. Parents of girls have so much more to worry about.
14
@M. Lyon The fault with this logic is that failure to prove an allegation as baseless doesn’t prove that it’s true. It just means that the investigators cannot prove that the allegations are false. Additionally, this statistic only applies to reported rapes which are allegedly a small percentage of overall sexual assaults.
@Dan
This accusation is considered in the context of judge Kavanaugh's conduct then and now. If Judge Kavanaugh had demonstrated "moral and ethical behavior and respect for all persons" in the hearing, he probably wouldn't have a problem getting confirmed. Thus, the lesson for your sons is to lead an upright life and then if there is a "false" accusation, it will be a glaring contrast to a reality rather than a plausible act.
When I read such accounts, when I know what's coming - that Kavanaugh will be confirmed and probably with all of the Republicans', including two women senators, votes, I feel so wretched inside. Not only will America have a president who lies and who is a sexual assaulter (no alledged from me, I believe all 20 of the women who have accused him) and who mocks a woman for her honesty, America will have now TWO men on the Supreme Court for lifetime appointments who are also liars and sexual criminals.
No accountability will come to any of them. Their lives will continue and they will rule over women. But history will remember and there will be a constant, dark cloud over all three of them for the rest of their lives.
To all of us who have been assaulted: We are strong. We will endure. With no cloud over our heads because we told the truth.
239
@sophia - I have a family member who was assaulted in college 35 years ago. Unlike Ford , she can remember in minute detail all the things Ford cannot recall. I don't know if Ford is being truthful but accepting her story with so many contradictions makes no sense.
2
Well said NYT and reader kim. I'm reminded of a passage in The Colour Purple about the axe handle that is the twisted distorted form of tree that now wants to to do harm to the other trees. Alice Walker said it much better needless to say. Too many women participate in keeping other women down in support of patriarchy, easier to see when race is involved or when the labels of political parties and social movements are applied. Let's build on the MeToo movement to bring about a very large consciousness raising moment. Show that there are more people who love freedom than those who do not.
7
The "compartment" the professor describes resonates with me -- I described it as a "man in a little box locked in my mind" when I told my husband - about 40 years after I was raped. I had to listen to my very drunk also 13 year old friend be gang raped and abused at the same party. They called her "the cucumber kid" after that.
9
I don't doubt for a second that Kavanaugh tried to rape Dr. Ford. But the Republicans in the senate simply don't care. What is the rape of one woman (or a thousand?) compared to a reliable conservative vote on the Supreme Court for the next 30 years.
I don't understand how so many women can continue to support the blatant and brutal misogyny of the Trump's, McConnell's and Graham's of this world. Until that changes, little else will.
It is a conversation for women to have with other women. Perhaps they can start with Senators Collins and Murkowski who could sink Kavanaugh if they chose to.
23
Can anybody really be surprised by Trump’s mocking of Dr. Ford? This clearly demonstrates what he has always been - a bully, as well as a despicable human being. All of us need to keep this in mind when voting next month. Do we want to re-elect people who are going to provide him another two years worth of cover and protection?
25
We thank you now for sharing your sad and painful story. Professor Mann. It is never too late and will encourage others who have been silenced by shame and embarrassment to do the same!
As you say, "If this (Kavanaugh) nomination succeeds, women’s human rights will be set back for decades."
Time to call Republican Senators Flake, Collins, Murkowski and beg them to vote NO on this deeply disturbing candidate, Kavanaugh.
Democratic Senators in red states as well....Senators. Heidi Heitkamp, Joe Donnelly and Joe Manchin... all need to be contacted.
This is too important to assume they will not flip for Kavanaugh as they did Gorsuch.
8
It is not just white men who allow Trump and other rich, powerful white men to stay in power. Fifty-three percent of white women voted for Trump. A majority of white women chose a sexist, racist, misogynist white man over a very capable woman. What does that say about this part of our society? The author doesn't address this question.
Women - white women - had an opportunity to break the highest glass ceiling, and a majority chose not to. White women are complicit in all women continuing to be treated as 2nd class citizens.
In a few days, the 2 so-called "moderate" females Senators will have an opportunity to say #timesup by voting against Kavanaugh. What does it say if they don't vote against him?
32
Amen! Scratching my head on this one!
3
@Eric
"Women - white women - had an opportunity to break the highest glass ceiling, and a majority chose not to."
What condescending nonsense. This may come as a shock to you, but women are individuals with their own political beliefs, which are usually more important to them than simply the gender of a candidate. If you're a man, do you always vote for the man, or do you vote for the candidate you agree with? Why should it be any different for women? Are you suggesting that women should have voted for Hillary even if those women believed Hillary was a corrupt liar who would make a bad President? I'm quite tired of this patronizing attitude from men, who can't get their mind around the fact that a woman might have principles and might not vote for another woman simply because they have the same anatomy. And yes, believe it or not, a lot of women are pro-life and a lot support Trump policies like border protection and tougher trade restrictions. Get used to it.
4
@Samuel Russell Pro-life but certainly not pro children given treatment of refugees and cuts to welfare and health care. In other words blind ideologues.
1
Even while living in a near-constant state of appalled shock these past 2+ years, the exposure of our society's deep misogyny is not altogether a surprise.
The GOP and Christian Dominionists (who may not be completely indistinguishable) have been pretty plain in their attacks on women these past few decades. Some have voiced their wish to "redefine rape". They continue to vilify single women, especially those collecting food or financial assistance from the government. They never waver from their attacks on reproductive rights...or the poor. There were previous attempts to make divorce more difficult to obtain, to suggest that the children of poor women be housed in orphanages, or given to the wealthy to raise. The gender wage disparity is all but disregarded.
I believe they want women out of the workforce. To insult and demean us into submission. To get out of their way. To stop competing for 'their' jobs. Like the good little girls that we are.
Maybe they don't all want that vision of the future, but I have had conversations with some who absolutely see that scenario as predestined in their holy book. Feminism is the Devil, and she's threatened the Man as King of Everything.
10
"The battle over the Supreme Court nomination is not about truth. It is about who controls meaning. "
Seriously ?
The battle is over one thing, and one thing only: The nullification of the left wing Progressive majority on the Supreme Court.
The Democrats will do anything to keep the statist and socialists in power. The Republicans will do anything to keep them out.
All the other stuff is just a distraction, and entirely unimportant.
Don't believe that ? Here's a metric: Count how many of these issues are still on the Opinion page of the NY Times, four weeks after Kavanaugh is confirmed.
It will be " move on to next manufactured crisis " time.
I'm with the Republicans.
Kelo vs. City of New London proved to me, once and for all, that the new Democrats - the radical left wing Progressives who have taken over the party, and who put Ginsburg, Breyer, and Sotomayor on the bench - are the enemies of the principles of our Constitution.
4
@Objectivist I'm sorry, but a woman who says she was sexually assaulted by a nominee for the Supreme Courts is hardly a "manufactured crisis". Nor is it a "manufactured crisis" that Judge Kavanaugh lied in sworn testimony, and behaved like a privileged buffoon throughout.
And by the way, there is a "takings clause" in the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution, relating to taking private property for public use. Before you get all indignant about the "principles of our Constitution", maybe you should read it.
12
@JPQ
Public use?
Thanks for making my point, proving that people on the left are either lulled into complacency - or - are genuine socialists.
And why Kelo was a manifest travesty of justice.
The property was not taken for public use.
It was taken for public enrichment.
A classic socialist tactic, executed by socialists, and affirmed by more socialists sitting on our Supreme Court.
The property, was to be given to a private developer whose project would produce larger tax income than from single family housing.
That, is not, public use. Unless you are a socialist.
P.S. The project, was never even executed.
@JPQ, the issue in Kelo was the taking of private property for private use. Not for public use.
This was not for a highway or public park or post office. This was the forced transfer of private property from a working class woman to private developers. And same had been forced on her working class neighbors. What they did to Wilhemina Dery. What they did to the Christofao family. The majority's argument was saying this transfer to private developers is justified for economic development, as a corollary to urban renewal. Because the city of New London decided they would get more property taxes from not only rezoning against the will of its own residents but in forcing all of them out.
There are very legitimate issues & concerns with the Kelo case, including from progressives! Ralph Nader and Rush Limbaugh were equally appalled and disgusted. Suzette Kelo, the woman in the pink house, was not some wealthy 1%er. Just a working class nurse.
So while it has taken me a little bit longer than the original commenter ("Objectivist" in Massachusetts,) I can fully understand how he or she would have left the Democratic Party over this.
Dear Professor Mann,
The men who assaulted you are criminals and should be put in prison, and on a sex offenders registry for the rest fo their lives. I am sorry to be associated with them as a white American male, but still I cannot deny the association. I would suggest that the only thing that separates the privileged white males in our society from the average white male is a greater sense of personal agency and the resources to act on their urges. Not all of us are sociopathic rapists, but all of us are implicitly biased toward patriarchy and misogyny, both by genetic inheritance and neural training in a culture that is awash with both values in its every expression. The best we can hope for is some sort of implicit bias awareness that allows us to suspend our knee-jerk response and develop the habit of replacing it with something better.
7
Great article. Thank you.
7
The shameful belief and the right to one's actions persists: it is permissible to rape a woman if she's too drunk or drugged to forcefully resist. Girls such as Prof. Mann and Prof. Ford are conditioned to believe, suspect or wonder if they were to blame for being abused. Don't tell.
The truncated FBI "investigation" into the Kavanaugh behavior is regarding CRIMINAL BEHAVOR and unlawful lying under oath, it seems approached as the same old Old Boy "philosophy" as in the misbegotten past.
Only a few Republican senators hold the opportunity to bring justice, restore fairness, and begin a movement toward change.
Will they rise to the occasion?
Doug Giebel, Big Sandy, Montana
7
Talk radio misogynistis are having a field day mocking Dr Ford. Mike Savage just called her Dr Fraud.
And does anyone continue to wonder why women are reluctant to report sexual assaults?
16
Why does the Times repeatedly print that institutional misogyny is the purview of 'white men'? Misogyny is practiced by men of all colors across many domains, alongside complicit females whom are rewarded for fitting the status (misogynist) quo (see female Fox News anchors and pundits). The last SCOTUS nominee to make it to the bench after being accused of sexual misconduct was Clarence Thomas, a black man. Bill Cosby was also convicted this week of multiple counts of sexual assault. Please do no undermine the seriousness and pervasiveness of misogyny in American workplaces, TV, film, music, and broader culture by suggesting it is only perpetrated by white men. We are ALL complicit.
6
Dear Professor Mann,
It is late here in Sweden when I discover your essay. A first reading tells me that I must print and read it very carefully tomorrow morning. Fortunately, Concerned in NY'C, just 4 minutes ago speaks for me.
I have a comment in which I first note that Trump's harangue is the absolutely worst I have yet seen or heard, so horrifying I could not listen to all of it.
But I then go on to suggest that we readers and then professionals who study the madness of crows study the response of each woman visible when Trump engages in the unforgivable and study how each responds.
I perhaps will return to the video tomorrow to see what I can learn.
That comment at: http://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/02/opinion/the-american-civil-war-part-ii...
Again, thank you.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Citizen US SE
4
Whatever happens with the Kavanaugh nomination, Dr. Ford's remarkable performance last Thursday will stand as a huge contribution to the understanding of the power games that underlie not just male violence against women but also male entitlement in dating relationships, marriages and the workplace. What was most disturbing about the response of Kavanaugh and the Republican senators was that it was so ready to nullify Ford's story by ignoring it altogether, so ready to show outrage in defense of one of their own, without evidence that he was telling the truth, so revealing about the fragility of the male ego - or, should I say, Achilles heel.
7
The fight over Kavanaugh is not even about who controls meaning. It is about raw, naked, unadulterated political power. That is all that everything is about now.
6
Posters on this thread who are coming to the uncritical defense of Judge Kavanaugh would do well to consider the matter from another perspective.
This was not a trial, it was a job interview. Kavanaugh is not entitled to a seat on the Supreme Court, he has been nominated for it by the President; having questioned him, the Senate will eventually vote on his suitability for the post. Please note: 'suitability'.
In my time, I have been both interviewed and have interviewed others. Anyone who has experience of the latter will know that in addition to looking at a candidate's professional qualifications and experience, an assessment must be made as to his or her character. Can they, for example, handle stress? How do they react when you put them under pressure at interview?
None of us can really know what happened between two individuals 36 years ago. But the interview was not just about that. The Brett Kavanaugh who came out breathing fire and fury against his critics last Thursday showed a side of himself that was very different to the chummy, church-going, carpool Dad of his first interview. Or, to put it another way, he cracked under pressure.
To choose just two examples: he made unspecified but unambiguous threats against political opponents of the Republican Party, and he was grossly disrespectful towards some of those interviewing him. Had I been one of them, I would have come to the conclusion that on those grounds alone, Kavanaugh was not a suitable candidate.
25
Wow...I did not know where this thoughtful, heartfelt and devastating essay was heading. Dr. Bonnie Mann’s treatise on misogynists reads like a Greek tragedy. One of the greatest Greek plays on the battle of the sexes, Lysistrata, was oddly a comedy by Aristophanes. The women withheld sex to force men to negotiate peace in the Peloponnesian War, but it backfired. I suspect that our country’s worship of the white male is so ingrained in this country’s culture that our current battle of the sexes will backfire as well. And women will contribute and support it backfiring. After all, 52 percent of white women, who have internalized misogyny into blatant self-hatred of their own sex, voted for Trump. But if we ever want a lasting peace between the sexes, we must rid ourselves of all bellicose imagery, and seek out true negotiation as our model. We never want to become women with men’s hearts, souls and minds. Peace to Dr. Mann.
5
Wow! Thank you for your courage and your honesty. I've just watched another Sarah performance, and can't understand why no one calls her out She excuses misogyny. She conflated Trump's disgraceful lying parody of Dr, Ford at his gang-rally yesterday. Sarah said he was simply repeating facts, and that the Senate needed to know those facts. That gang-rally didn't look like a Senate meeting to me.
PS: Big Brother Trump just invaded my home with a test of his emergency alert system. I saw no way of replying to it.
3
Now the liberal media and the politically correct suffocating world of academia has a white male privileged, general misogyny, and the presumption of guilt for sexual misconduct at the ready for every failure, missed promotion, employment, or not being able to compete even when given an equal chance.
Professor Mann makes eloquent and well written diatribe on men, especially so-called privileged white men, (perish the thought they might have earned it,) to make the case that there is nothing that is out of bounds when dealing with men, be it questioning there ideas, opinions, motives, and history, and no innuendo that sullies them is off limits. But, for women, not a chance you treat them the same way. That would be misogyny. A word that's become very chic nowadays.
After reading this essay I came away with the feeling that white men have earned nothing from hard work and dedication. It's all been stolen. It's all a fraud. Trump was elected by whining white men who have lost their privileged status but forgets that the majority of white women vote for Trump too.
3
"What we have been witnessing is the form misogyny takes when the most powerful, wealthy and entitled of white men find themselves confronted by women unwilling or unable to keep silent any longer."
What we have been witnessing is the form justice takes when accommodating, patient men find themselves confronted by women unable to make a credible case for sexual assault.
Bonnie Mann, I cannot thank you enough for harnessing the dignity, reason, and eloquence you marshaled to address this debacle. You just did what we women always do...stepped above the fray, accommodated the bad behavior in order to contemplate it, and then consigned it to the trash where it belongs.
Against the nauseating display unleashed by Graham, Grassley, and Kavanaugh --unhinged rants with spittle flying that amounted to nothing more or less than this: How DARE a lowly woman bring a good man down--I will place your and Dr. Blasey Ford's wise words knowing that thinking, civilized people the world over know which ones resonate.
Much more important, I place your piece against the unspoken cowardice of Eleven Angry Impotent Men. Democracy has not been brought to its knees in quite the fashion it was when eleven elected officials--people paid to listen and speak-- traded away their own voices so that a hired trumpet could tootle their pathetic thoughts. And if they think we didn't take note of how quickly they regained their own voices when they felt like cheering a man, they can think again.
It's also time to stop talking about so-called "good" GOP members. No reasonable, ethical person sitting in that room should have voted to go forward. Flake is not a hero. He's a coward who wants it both ways. And no excuses for Collins and Merkowski if they vote him in.
The GOP pulled a stunt that should be its undoing. This article eloquently encapsulates exactly why.
7
I suspect majority of white women are ok with what men having been doing to women. In fact take the case of senator Collins and Murowski. They are hiding under the FBI report. They are trying to show they are reasonable and fair minded towards the plight of women. As soon as the FBI report comes it will be deemed inconclusive and therefore they will be free to vote yes for Mr Kavanaugh which they wanted to begin with.
Without the support of majority of white women in our country White Republicans know they can ram through anything they wish. Just look at what kind of a President we have. Collins and Murowski say all the time what he is doing is wrong but they still support him. So almost certainly Mr Kavanaugh will be on the Supreme Court.
10
What I am seeing actually gives me a two sided coin..One side is the revulsion of women being the "brood mares", servants and a form of drunken recreation for rich white males.
The other side is the truly desperate attempts of an entire generation of privileged white males whose time is close to ending in the halls of power. The demographics are changing faster than they can handle with grace or dignity. New faces of color and females climbing up ladders THEY built are owning the future.
I too, experienced what Dr. Ford did and was also lucky enough to have it end abruptly before the grand finale...And, I in my adulthood, as a woman, experienced more of the prime time reality of never being equal in the workplace because of my handicap of having a uterus. I was the employee of men less educated, less capable, and far more lazy than I ever imagined anyone could be while still collecting a paycheck.
This is THEIR WORLD and we are only allowed on the fringes of it. The sin of speaking openly about being abused will always be punished by the ideology that we are too emotional and hysterical to be telling the truth.
Mr. Kavanaugh's angry indignation was perfectly "reasonable". Dr. Ford's years of dealing with what happened to her is not.
"Times, they are a changin" as Dylan would sing... Hear the sound of our laughter yet? It will get much, much louder....Footsteps behind you might be wearing high heels. We are done with your unearned privilege.
8
Democrats lost the last election, and now Republicans are about ram two Supreme Court appointments in succession through Congress. Roe vs. Wade might be threatened, a possibility that frightens me as much as anyone. Behold democracy in action. The rise of judicial activism has been for the most part a boon to Democrats, but not when Republicans control who sits on the benches. If Democrats want to command the judiciary again I guess they have to win a few elections. The Democratic Party’s behavior throughout the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings, motivated by frustration and hastening the breakdown of “norms” it pretends to lament, has been ugly, sickening and grossly unfair to Kavanaugh and his family, and sets back the cause of women’s rights by decades. Democrats are exploiting the #MeToo movement for short-term political gain, in exactly the same way Republicans exploit right-to-life emotions. Oh well, whatever works. Do you believe Ford or Kavanaugh? Do you “like” Ford or Kavanaugh (in the same way your restless digits “like” a Facebook cat video)? The answer probably depends largely on your party affiliation. You may be a tenured college professor, but don’t be so patronizing as to pretend that this media circus has anything to do with the “misogyny” dog whistle. It is about politics, politics, politics, and about a Republican-controlled Congress whose candidates were voted into office by an electorate made up of equal parts women and men.
Bonnie Mann presents an interesting though flawed vision. First off, if we indeed live in a world where privileged white men can sexually assault women without a second thought then why are these privileged white males underrepresented in sexual assault statistics. In fact, a New York Times article from Oct. 30th 2017 pointed to studies that show race, class, and marital status are not primary factors in determining whether a man will become a perpetrator of sexual assault. Next, she presents her ideas as if the only two logical stances are to accept sexual assaults or to have a default position that accused men are guilty. This is an illogical choice. One can be against sexual assault but still believe in innocence until proven guilty.
30
@John: Where in her argument does Mann address who commits the crimes? She states that "privileged white men get to do with impunity what other men have to think about". So it's about who gets away with it. Therefore, your citation of a 2017 NYT's article about sexual assault statistics would appear to bolster Mann's argument and undercut your own. But I'm not a philosopher. Nor, clearly, are you. But the mansplaining is duly noted.
1
@John You missed the part about how 'statistics' don't begin to capture the actual number of women affected. Reread the piece, especially the part about post-rape shame.
7
@John at the risk of calling out the obvious - "priviledged white males" are underrepresented in sexual assault statistics becuase they are priviledged white males. The priviledge, the white race, and the male gender all conspire to decrease the chances that this behavior will be reported and conversely the underreporting actually encourages more sexual assualts that will also go un/underreported.
1
I would suggest that the author learn to write in a way most people would fully understand her argument and explanation. I studied and practiced philosophy and theology for many years, yet I had to read through the article twice to get the points she was making and I seriously doubt most readers took away from the article enough to even discuss the ideas and salient points offered. That is too bad because several are good points to ponder or open a dialog with other persons who do not even recognize where their bias and ideas come from. Lara to write articles for public consumption different than what you pose in professional forums
Please consider this a plea more than a criticism. Thank
You
1
sandman338....I think you underestimated the intelligence and reading comprehension of the average NYT reader.
Most commenters appear to have understood what Bonnie Mann wrote and were deeply moved by her observations, interpretation and personal story.
Bonnie Mann wrote a superb article and deserves an award for it.
10
@sandman338 I had no problem understanding it at all. And I was an engineer in college.
Great points. No one should have to endure such horror. I wonder, however, if The Stone/NYT might ask Professor Mann to write a follow-up piece about the well-known, sexual harassment case in her own philosophy department? In particular, perhaps she could address her own role in covering up the event(s) surrounding this insidious case, thereby participating in and further enabling the "good ol boys misogynistic network" she (rightly) denounces here? Then she could move to discuss how she engaged in such behavior that an award for "best climate for women students" was subsequently rescinded, and close with a discussion of how she publicly (on blogs) put forth her own version of the Urban Meyer defense ("I/We did what was technically right")? That would be good account of some of her own epistemic world.
7
Why didn't she come forward then? A question that has been thrown around by many including the President of the United States. On full display, since Thursday last, are a dizzying number of examples of exactly why victims of sexual assault choose to remain silent. Left alone to find mechanisms to cope and move ahead with their lives.
How many silent victims of sexual assault are out there? A number we will never know precisely. Among women the number is most certainly staggeringly high. Currently the forces moving the Kavanaugh confirmation ahead are desperate and in that desperation are deploying their last resort weapons. As the author pointed out, they are using similar tactics that occur in a physical assault. Collectively this amounts to political rape.
When will this end? Not soon enough for millions and millions of women.
8
If anyone is interested in learning more about "the patriarchy," that is, how it evolved from thousands of years ago, how women's lives were and are impacted by it, and why; who started it and where and why it took hold so strongly--please get yourself a copy of: "The Creation of Patriarchy" (Oxford University Press, 1987), by the late professor of history, Dr. Gerda Lerner.
Years of researching obscure archival materials and other sources have been put together to come up with an incredible journey through time to explain the world's constructs.
You may well be glad that you read this fine book in better understanding of how and why women have been so indelibly affected by this system.
5
Thank you Professor Mann,
I have very little doubt that Judge Kavanaugh will become Justice Kavanaugh. His character is not in question, he was nominated because he is a reliable hired gun. He is as good a representative of a misogynist white male culture as could be found in the Federalist Society which still rejects the 19th amendment.
While we may feel assault on our fellow citizens to be a violation the countries where the strong do with what they may with the weak is the core of the GOP.
I am a Canadian and when Canada dared to challenge China, Russia, The Philippines, and Saudi Arabia on their human rights abuses we understood that Trump's America would not be on our side.
6
There are regions in the world where over 40% of elected representatives are women.
This type of severe epistemic rift is not universal. The United States stands apart.
8
Others have made the same comment I am about to make.
This is absolutely the best essay I have read anywhere in ages. If I were still teaching college classes, I would race to include it in my course readings. I have already sent it to my daughter who has professionally experienced the policing of the patriarchy to silence the "bad" women.
I'm not saying anything original here, but I want to emphasize how powerful and important your essay is.
3
Thank you, Professor Mann, for sharing your analysis and your experience. Some of our readers (myself included) might be interested your thoughts on how the instant situation compares with Sparta's problem vis-a-vis the helots.
1
I'm an old woman, and I know there are many good men. I also know there are bad ones, Trump and Kavanaugh being two of them.
I would like to point to one group that I think has done a lot to make high school boys think hating/hurting women is acceptable: coaches.
Even there, there are some good ones, but there are some very bad ones. I think parents of boys going out for sports should take time to talk to the coaches before letting their sons sign up.
20
Intelligent, honest, and courageous. Thank you, Professor Mann.
6
Professor Mann has launched a strategically aimed missive into the heart of the patriarchy, right through the shifting surface smoke of "credibility" into the structural core of patriarchal defined Meaning.
Progressive change requires deep work in the subterranean realm of the unconscious. That's where meaning is defined and controlled by Power, and from where it must be forcefully delegitimized and redefined.
Is this missive an opening shot heard 'round the world in an overdue Gender Revolution? Sounds like it to me.
3
"The battle over the Supreme Court nomination is not about truth"
100% correct.
Because if it was about truth neither side would take issue with establishing the veracity of BOTH Kavanaugh AND Blasey-Ford.
4
I'm so sorry for what happened to you.
I'm so sorry for what's happening to our country. I thought we were better than this. Clearly not.
79% of Republicans support Trump; 54% support putting Kavanaugh on the Court even if he did it. Sigh.
5
Watch in Lancaster, PA for Lloyd Smucker's (R) TV adds depicting opponent Jess King (D) as a paper doll "king" with "funny" clothing tacked on.
3
I see this whole mess as a particularly nasty cultural debate on our right to self-actualization. A lot has happened in the past 50 years. Glass ceilings have shattered. Women achieved the right to not have their lives derailed by pregnancy. A person with darker skin can own a company, and tell people with lighter skin what to do. That person can even be president. As everyone's right to be self-actualized is realized many people whose social position was artificially buoyed by sex or skin color find themselves in a lower social position, one based on merit.
The second piece of the puzzle is inequality. In our golden age of full economic recovery, many American counties, far too many of them concentrated in the South, have greater than 30% poverty. Look at a map - 30% or more of people in these counties cannot afford basic necessities. Further, the gap between the lower and upper class has reached appalling levels. According to Forbes, a CEO now makes 361 times the lowest-paid employee. The wealthy, being the sort of people who become wealthy, see this as confirmation of their innate superiority.
White males have been hit with a double blow, and so they're fighting the battle they feel most able to win. These men, and the women who have been raised to support them at expense to themselves ("good wives") join the fray.
To defuse the problem, people with greater social status will have to lose a good deal of it. I don't have much hope of this occurring peacefully.
3
When these conflicting epistemic views are brought into sharp contrast, it is clearly going to end in the sort of character assassination we are witnessing. The fact is, we can look at these 2 people and believe one (or both, if one takes into account the possibility of blackouts) or the other. But we won't know definitively what is true.
But I know 2 things.
1st, I know that the partisan tantrum I watched last Thurs revealed a man who was too angry, too partisan and, most importantly, too vengeful, to be a Supreme Court justice.
2nd, there is no magic to Kavanaugh. There are other candidates as conservative as Kavanaugh who could fill this seat that don't carry all of this awful baggage-alcohol problems, sexual assault allegations, bar fights, nakedly partisan behaviour, dissembling in both this hearing and in his hearing in 2006. Clinging to Kavanaugh is harming the country and sullies the country's faith in the Supreme Court. Gorsuch is very conservative and got through the process without this public bloodletting; Thomas was brought forth after Bork, and has been sitting on the court for 27 years-the 1991 hearing was awful, but nothing like this.
Clinging to Kavanaugh in spite of his baggage harms the country and it harms to Supreme Court.
So, why him? He'd only be 1 vote. And the other 4 Republican justices have shown no inclination to say that a sitting President is above the law. All this damage won't even serve Trump's objectives. So why?
3
Dr. Mann,
I thought your article was brilliant and, of course, accurate. I am reminded about what George Orwell said; 'Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.' I agree that this and the whole Trump administration places all the progress made in the last 50 years with regard to race, women's rights, gay rights in a very precarious position in this country. I don't blame Trump as much as others do. He's just the trumpeter so to speak. What is dangerous is that he has such a broad following of scared white men and enough women to sweep him to victory in 2020. Anyway, thank you for your insightful and eloquent article.
11
“Aided and abetted by misogyny, presidents are elected, Supreme Court justices are seated.”
Let us not forget the religious right, many but not all, who believe God places women second to men. We recently left a church that did not allow women to speak during a service, or even when seriously abused, leave their husbands.
It will be fathers and mothers teaching their children we are all equal. And no, we don’t have to use the same bathroom. (If you are old enough to remember that particular admonition against equal rights.)
VOTE!
8
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
This has helped me, I’m sure it will help others.
5
Professor Mann, by "epistemic worlds" do you mean points of view (worldviews) or communities?
In any case, your discussion seems to imply that both of the epistemic worlds you describe are limited and incomplete, and don't get at the real truth. Is there room for more enlightened epistemic worlds than either of those?
Is there room for the view that Dr. Blasey could be mistaken about some aspects of her testimony, without that view being misogynistic?
Is there room for someone who is not a Kavanaugh supporter nevertheless to think that he may not have intended to rape her, and for that view not to be misogynist?
Is there room for one to think that what Ms. Ramirez thinks Kavanaugh did is not in itself disqualifying, without belonging to the first of the two epistemic worlds?
Is there room for one not automatically to believe an accusation without being part of an attempt to "annihilate the women as epistemic subjects"?
You draw a powerful dichotomy consisting of two very simplistic points of view, but it seems to me a false dichotomy.
1
So, what's the rush for the FBI to complete its "investigation"-- by tomorrow? I think Dr. Mann's likening this rush to rape itself is illuminating. Why does Trump mock Dr. Ford, even before the 3-day "investigation" is complete? I think Dr. Mann's conclusion that this is done to silence any other women who have been sexually attacked is compelling.
7
@Portola: Well, isn't the quality of our civic discourse enhanced if we consider substantive arguments why it is or is not in the public interest to impose this time limitation?
Whereas likening the restriction to rape is inflammatory and has all the advantages of theft over honest toil.
The tragedy of our society's refusal to treat sexual assault as a threat to equality before the law stems in part from the willingness of many women to accept the patriarchal assumptions which undergird misogyny. Women make up half the voting population but only a relatively small percentage of elected officials. Trump would remain at most a footnote in our political history had he not won the support of a substantial minority of female voters.
At the same time, the rising number of women in office reflects, in part, the changing attitudes among men, many of whom ignore gender in deciding whom to vote for. They reject the first epistemic world, largely because of the contempt it displays for women, but also because it threatens the democratic principles essential to the survival of a free society.
The struggle between advocates of these two epistemic worlds involves a deep disagreement over the necessity of gender equality. But at its core, this contest also will determine the fate of democracy in America. And on this issue, the contending parties do not break down simply along gender lines.
3
Good article. Lets make the key idea even more clear - some restatement:
Bonney Mann: Sexism justifies patriarchy by differentiating women and men. Misogyny differentiates “good women” and “bad women.” It rewards the good ones and punishes the bad. Misogyny [is] “...the ‘law enforcement’ branch of a patriarchal order… enforcing its governing norms.” Quoted Source: Kate Manne.
"Bad women", I assume, are the ones who take issue with this system. "Good women" submit to it. However, I think that they are also treated badly.
5
Dr Mann, brilliant! The writing is like a scalpel, sharp, incisive, cutting - the analysis fresh, deep and compelling. This is the best philosophy, the best politics. Your bravery, intelligence, fortitude...
Thank you,
3
I've read that the study of philosophy itself is a misogynistic world. It goes hand-in-hand with misogynistic religions.
I'm a boomer, and since I was a teen I've been confused and outraged about how much the world is missing when men consciously exclude women from knowledge and power. Half the planet's population relegated to subservience - it's just ridiculous on the face of it, especially when men have absolutely no scientific proof of their claimed superiority or women's claimed inferiority.
I somehow had an Aquarian-age faith that by this time in my life - half a century later - misogyny would have ended because men would have come to their senses and relieved themselves of the unbearable burden of running the world without the full intelligence available to the human species, would have realized how insidiously destructive their misogyny is to themselves as well as to women.
I guess it's a sad testament to the naivety of my once-cherished faith that we're still witnessing the closed-circuit misogynistic thinking not only in business, religion and philosophy but also in politics, in the depressing, demoralizing spectacle taking place in the Senate Judiciary Committee, not to mention the White House. Men are obviously not ready to stop degrading themselves, let alone women.
7
Well, it is definitely not about truth.
It is definitely not about all women. For example, it is certainly not about -
-Prof. Ford, who was outed by someone from the D side of the aisle without a care in the world what would happen to her.
- Kavanaugh's wife or daughters.
- women lawyers, as it was pretty clearly established by BK's male and female law clerks that women had no greater champions on the bench than Justice Kavanaugh.
- women who have suffered from sexual assault and think this is about them.
What a joke. Even some of the most partisan liberals I know have acknowledged to me from the first day of this horror show that it was about Garland, Trump and Roe, not necessarily in that order, though some have forgotten that in their partisan outrage.
The hypocrisy surrounding this matter is just astounding. The idea that people can have certainty about an accusation which is 35+ years old reeks of a ferocious hysteria that leads to very bad things happening. Has not everyone experienced friends or family remembering things they know did not happen or when they know that person was not even present? We all have. Have people truly lost their minds over this?
This is politics. This is partisanship. This is truly disgusting. Another friend called me today who has criticized both parties to me on a number of occasions to say it will be a long time before he votes for a Democrat again. I get it. I wish I voted for either party so I could stop voting for them.
6
@DHEisenberg And many Republican friends (I live in a county that went 70/30 for Trump but now the R Congressman has been indicted on corruption and people think it is flippable) have told me they are disgusted with their own party and are going to vote D or not vote at all. They've said that the Ds are the lesser evil.
2
@DHEisenberg No reasonable Democrat thinks that, if Kavanaugh is not confirmed by the Senate, Trump will suddenly decide to nominate a liberal, or even a moderate to the Supreme Court. The next appointment could be someone who is even more conservative than Kavanaugh. So your claim that this is about partisan politics from the Democrats seems, well to be nice, odd. Disingenuous. I suppose Republicans don't want the delay that would be involved in case they lose the Senate this fall. But that seems remote at best. I'm a moderate, but my view is that it would be better to avoid having another justice on the Supreme Court who has a cloud hanging over his head regarding his sexual behavior. Not to mention the fact that he clearly lied under oath about his behavior in high school and college, at that he seems to be lacking in judicial demeanor.
This is a powerful article, both for its intelligent outline of our current power structures and the fate of women who challenge it.
Witness the sanctioning of Senator Warren in the Senate, the brutal characterizations of Hillary Clinton, the slurs against Nancy Pelosi. Women with power are feared and diminished by the boy-men who only know privilege without really earning it.
Thank you Ms. Mann.
9
There is a difference between mocking another politician or tv pundit and mocking a private citizen who was forced to come forth and give testimony. A private citizen has absolutely no resources or ability to respond to or fight taunts from the President. In this case the private citizen was a woman who was recounting a sex crime that was committed against her.
Once we normalize attacks on the innocent and private citizens we have crossed the ultimate line. This time Trump has to apologize or his supporters have to condemn him for it. Even Fox News spoke out against this taunt this morning.
So Trump supporters everywhere, you are now on the line. The question is how low can you go. The question is do you crawl on your belly or stand like men. The world is waiting.
27
As Dr. Mann's powerful comments describe, the core obscenity of Donald Trump is his willful effort to twist the truth about violence, racism, inequity, sexism, misogyny and other forms or extremely rank injustice. First Trump practices denial -- there is no problem in the first place because these injustices don't exist except in the mind of weak people. Trump's core message is to make one group feel strong by attacking another group. The first group gets its encouragement because they are not in the victims group. Because evils don't exist, no one should have to worry about them and there is no need for improvement, healing, decency or justice.
Donald Trump is an obscenity in that he renders violence against people in order to deny that violence is ever happening. In Trump's world the perpetrator is the victim and the victim deserves it.
There are many kinds of evil in the world but Trump demonstrates one of the most vile and most dangerous forms. And the Republicans are backing him to the hilt.
6
This shameful chapter of U.S. history can't end soon enough. Even worse than Trumps remarks, were the throngs of people clapping and laughing as he spoke during his rally. Reagan ushered in this neo-conservative movement but it has become hard an brittle over the years and especially hateful. At a time when our Country needs reasoned and measured leadership, we're given a game show host with a bullhorn.
5
A very powerful and well written article.
2
Your article is stunning - the most illuminating I have ever read on this topic. If it were a book, it would win a Nobel prize. Thank you for providing this primer.
I, too, am horrified that the President of our country has declared a war on women. His comments have placed women in danger and sent a clear warning to sexual assault survivors: that this is what will happen if you speak out.
President Trump is going down. There are many, many powerful people working on taking him down, "as we speak." The Republican Party will follow. Our votes, our actions, our protests and our collective, powerful voice will ensure this is their last time at the helm. Their behavior toward Dr. Ford may be winning them support among their right-wing supporters, but our tsunami of a response in the polls will drown them.
217
@Concerned in NYC - I am the first to recommend you since your comment appeared just as I was about to start drafting mine. I point to your comment stating that you speak for me. I just add here that a careful person-by-person study of each woman in Trump's audience seen in the video might reveal facts we do not want to believe, that individual women in Mississippi could appear to support the most horrifying attack by a president of the United States ever made against a single female American.
my 1st comment:
http://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/02/opinion/the-american-civil-war-part-ii...
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Citizen US SE
3
@Concerned in NYC, it is also my hope that President Trump is going down. Skeptics point to how his 40% approval rating never wavers, even in times like this. But what motivates those in that 40% is another story. The group that's important is the additional 8% or so of Americans (he won with only 48% of the vote) who unenthusiastically voted for him in 2016 but since then have never expressed their approval.
He has always needed to re-win this group—and the Democrats have needed to win them over, of course—yet I don' think that has worked well. And my belief is that in recent days in his cluelessness President Trump may have finally burned his bridges with so many in this group. This is important, because with the math of the 2016 election he couldn't afford to lose any of this group.
What we still need is for the Democrats to do what they largely failed to do in 2016, and provide an inspiring alternative future version for our once-great country. But maybe in all of this sad mess there's hope for us.
2
It’s beyond time for women to be represented at 51% in all areas of society. We are 51% of the population. Imagine if men were as underrepresented as we are. The streets would be full of angry men, screaming about their marginalization. They’re the majority now, and they scream nonstop. We need 51% of the positions in the workforce, in management, in the C-suite, in Congress, the Executive, the Judiciary, the military, police force, doctors, lawyers, dog catchers. Everywhere. Men have ruled the roost for more than 10,000 years, and it’s time for equity, right here, right now, today.
“When I'm sometimes asked when will there be enough [women on the Supreme Court] and I say, 'When there are nine,' people are shocked. But there'd been nine men, and nobody's ever raised a question about that.”
—Ruth Bader Ginsburg
81
@A Woman To begin with, this is a statistically misleading statement. Women represent 51% of the population because men on average die sooner. Basically, among working age adults in the US, the split is 50/50. Next, the statement fails to address the reality that women and men are not the same. They don’t on average choose the same professions, including politics and government. They don’t choose to be in the work force in the same proportions. Are we to mandate these things. Are our lives our own or are we to start assigning professions, etc to live up to an artificial mandate?
2
What an incisive, personal, and compelling article. This is the best of philosophy--getting some distance to look at ideas behind events, but not staying so distant as to be purely hypothetical. I thank Ms. Mann for writing it and I intend to share it widely. I wish so much that this would be the most widely-shared and highly-commented on article on the front page today. Yet I fear that an article on DT's pernicious antics will take that claim, again. One of the biggest things I mourn in this Trumpian age is the prominence of thoughtful civil discourse. I commend Ms. Mann for reminding me of what it's good for.
32
Woody Guthrie singing about racist Fred Trump. The fruit fell right under this tree. The family is vile to the core.
"Old Man Trump".
https://woodyguthrie.org/Lyrics/Old_Man_Trump.htm
"I suppose that Old Man Trump knows just how much racial hate
He stirred up in that bloodpot of human hearts
When he drawed that color line
Here at his Beach Haven family project
Beach Haven ain't my home!
No, I just can't pay this rent!
My money's down the drain,
And my soul is badly bent!
Beach Haven is Trump’s Tower
Where no black folks come to roam,
No, no, Old Man Trump!
Old Beach Haven ain't my home!"
26
From my colleague Sara: "I saw the clip of him mocking Dr. Ford while at the gym trying to redirect my "White College Educated Female Demographic" rage into revolutions on the exercise bike. What surprised me is not the fact that he mocked her, (since that is one of the few things that Trump is actually quite consistent about doing along with STD-filled extramarital sex, eating 2,500 calorie cheeseburgers, hitting the fake tan machine in the Oval Office, defending and supporting sexual predators and dictators, and making creepy incest-loving comments about his daughter), but that it took him so long to do it. God bless the racist, misogynistic rednecks in Mississippi who gave Trump all the ego-strokes his narcissistic little brain could handle. That should keep him until lunch."
31
This essay by Professor Mann should become a classic, especially as a clarion call of order on the subject. As a psychologist, I clearly read how she identifies the hideous attitudinal mechanisms used by those men. Particularly fascinating is her outline (as I read it) of sexism as the general base, with misogyny as it's "law enforcement" (borrowed aptly from Kate Manne). Particularly praiseworthy is Professor Mann's highlighting the Republicans' way of handling their questioning Dr. Ford as a re-creation of the assault (as if highlighting were needed for something I regarded as self-evident, but I guess so in this society). I would only add a point about another epistemic meaning involved here--that of the Republicans' (and corporate Democrats') apparent, dedicated belief in social Darwinism. The belief would pose that "naturally" control is obtained through domination, to be applied by men especially toward women. "Might makes right." But, in any case, thank you to Professor Mann!
32
The GOP won’t stop till all the little ladies are in the kitchen, barefoot and pregnant.
The women who enable trump have Stockholm syndrome.
If you’re feeling hopeless you can vote in November and/or it may be time to start looking at other countries as this mess will be around for a while.
26
@CC
Not leaving - I'm going to stay here and fight for this country to finally become my country too.
3
Thank you for this. It is hard to see the misogyny in full display in our Senate, President and in the media. Kavanugh lied constantly in his testimony before congress yet republicans don't care. Seeking the truth should be the highest goal of a Judge yet he did everything he could to misdirect and evade questions and then attacked the senators that dared to questions his obvious falsehood. We know of the vile attitudes he had towards women because he wrote it down in his year book. I knew guys just like him in college who had no clue that they sexually assaulted women because it was all done while horribly drunk. They didn't actually think date rape was rape. Kavanaugh is furious that he might have to reap the consequences of hurting other humans. He should not be a judge as women will never get a fair hearing around this belligerent misogynist.
30
@Amy Luna
I agree with you in many respects, but I think it is still critical to recognize that it is white men who ultimately hold the real power in all Western societies. One of the most important aspects of this op-ed piece is the distinction between sexism and misogyny, and within sexism one can include all the other forms it takes in every other culture, machisimo, etc.
While the philosophy of male supremacy exists in many cultures, there have always been matriarchal societies, in which until subjugated and destroyed, almost always by white colonialism, women were leaders and not considered inferior to men. I would also suggest that male supremacy is also very much a cultural construct deeply embedded and then propped up, justified, and attributed to religious doctrines written and interpreted exclusively by men.
What is so brilliant about this piece is that Mann really gets to the heart of the issue in exposing the real conflict here, which is only partially about Kavanaugh's undoubted assault of Dr. Blasey Ford.
I totally agree with you that it is critical that the fight to make the voices of women of color heard in this discussion has been nowhere near adequate, let alone recognized, and this has to be acknowledged and addressed. Still, while women of color frequently bear the double and triple burdens of gender, race and class from men in all communities, they misogyny that Mann has identified here is waging war on all women.
Thank you Bonnie Mann!!
8
Brilliant essay. Puts into context our frustration and anger in ways I've not seen yet. Thank you.
34
Excellent piece. Thank you.
7
Time for the media to begin 30 second blitz each from the Access Hollywood bus, to mocking reporter with disability, to mocking other women, and Dr. Ford, just last night. Appeal to mothers to "teach our children well." It is difficult to absorb the deafening lack of counter narrative in the larger picture that is this vile, disgusting man who lives in our White House. He steals from his own constituents. No counter-narrative. He maligns the free press. No effective counter-narrative but for hours of tedious discussion. Emotional ads work. But it seems my Democratic Party has forgotten the larger picture in the important, though partial, local campaign strategies. We need both to defeat this vulgar excuse for a human being. Big counter narratives. Small, local appeals.
14
Every voting age woman better get out and vote for Democrats in November. Any woman who does not do so should be deeply ashamed and should bear responsibility for the consequences.
32
@Mark
Wrong, Mark. Women don't have to either vote for Democrats or feel deeply ashamed, as you insist. Women are free to vote for whomever they like and should never feel ashamed for doing so!
Wow! A fresh voice in a 'macho' world that takes for granted male superiority at women's expense, to keep the upper hand, no matter what the truth is, what the facts were, and the need to perpetuate male dominance...for fear that when women wake up, prepare and take over, the old misogynous stance may fall, confined to where it belongs, the garbage can.
8
Right on, sister! Your theory of social structure is on point and presented in such a careful, thoughtful manner.
12
The professor has a case.
Trump’s parody of Christine Blasey Ford and her testimony probably will go down as Trump’s dumbest stunt yet … so far. I want to be sure to dissociate myself completely from such “deplorable” behavior – apart from being his dumbest stunt to date, it’s also one of the more disgusting. The parody may not lose Republicans many base “deplorable” votes, but it won’t gain them any soft Democratic votes and may lose them a lot of Independent votes – one month before an important midterm election.
And beyond the political ramifications, it was slimy.
I don’t support most of Professor’s Mann’s analysis about the extent and intensity of white, privileged misogyny (although I can swallow some of it), and there is a very legitimate basis for supporting Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation; but I don’t want to bury the lead on Trump’s own performance.
He should have stuck to criticizing Dianne Feinstein’s clear political ends in orchestrating a public spectacle for the sole purpose of torpedoing a Supreme Court confirmation, at any cost to America, after she already had lost the fight on the numbers. #MeToo! is doing just fine, except that the blowback from this Feinstein spectacle may simply make the vitriol more damaging on one side while energizing a resistance that claims witch hunts and apostate lynchings.
He never should have attacked a woman claiming a sexual assault, even one 36 years in the past. It just doesn’t get dumber or more disgusting than that.
5
...and yet you persist in supporting him.
But ol' Barfo' Kavanaugh fermented and distilled his epistemological argument down in a much clearer way for the American people:
People who liked beer when they were underage, drank beer when they were underage, and still like beer and drink beer now that they are overage, are real Americans. Anyone else is obviously not. It's your choice America. You're all about choices, right? Beer or not?
7
Sad part is, despite the despicable behavior of Trump attacking Dr. Ford, making fun of her, despite the GOP congressmen and Senators deriding her story, or making innuendo like "How much had she drank?" (as if it is okay to try and rape a girl who is drunk, since she 'deserved it'...I guess Steubenville, Ohio blue collar attitudes aren't just for the bottom of Trump nation), it isn't just angry white men who are perpetuating this. The GOP has clearly decided to support Donald Trump, no matter how vile he gets, and it is clear that with the Kavenaugh nomination few of them care about what he might have did, they are turning a serious accusation into political theater, dismissing Ford as nothing more than 'you know, a typically lying woman, out to get men".
So what about all the women who in November, despite everything, will vote for a GOP candidate, not just blue collar Trump nation types, but all those suburban, educated, relatively well of women going into the ballot box and voting R? How about that at least 50% of the woman voters polled plan on voting for Lance in NJ, despite the fact he has said that he believes Kavenaugh, supports him wholeheartedly? How about the more than 50% of the women who voted for Trump?
Sadly, women are their own worst enemies, and I would bet good money that when the dust settles in the midterms, women still vote in large numbers for the party that has made misogyny great again.
12
@bill d .
Women actually voted for Clinton over Trump though white women did cross over that 50% line. Trump has created a lie but please don't repeat it. Here's the truth:
Trump claimed that 52 percent of women voted for him, when in fact he got 41 percent of the female vote, according to exit polls. The 52 percent isn’t an insignificant number, though — that’s the percentage of white women who voted for Trump. Surveys found that only 4 percent of black women and 25 percent of Hispanic women voted for Trump.
1
When you have less you expect less may explain why some women still vote for misogyny.
Misogyny only "rules" in the deafening silence of a Democratic Party that has lost its creative ability for counter narrative.
15
"Think of your husbands. Think of your sons." trump shouts this to cheers from his base while eyeing the crowd to spot someone's wife or daughter to grope. trump finds new lows in civility, decency and morality with every rally.
21
The epistemic worlds Professor Mann describes are caricatures. I suppose if one wants to dismantle an epistemic world, the easiest way is to simplify, demonize, and attack. The approach makes sense, but only as a political tactic. Qua philosopher, I expect more from Ms. Mann.
The epistemic world these men inhabit is not simply sexist or misogynistic; indeed, in many ways they hold up women as angels of the household, matriarchs of the sitting room, keepers of hearth--in short, guarantors of the Christian values of a home. Yes, one can quarrel with such a representation or ideal of women, but not too precipitously if one seeks to understand it and open doors of communication. There are, after all, many men and women who share this epistemic world who are not themselves abusive misogynists.
The deep fissures in this epistemic world--between the male public space and the female domestic sphere, between the affectionate and sexual currents of this male desire, between violence against women in private and the parsing of legal texts in publi, etc.--must be laid out clearly and dispassionately. We will simply never understand the epistemic world these men inhabit, much less negotiate its differences with our own, in the denunciatory mode.
We need cool headed emissaries in search of understanding not the angry redactions of its victims, however sympathetic and just their claims of abuse.
5
@Chris Buczinsky
We need both. I understand it discomforts you to hear about it, but you are ignorant to think victims have no business addressing the mess in public. How do you think we got here? Sharing our experiences.
4
@Chris Buczinsky
Right there is your deepest fissure. The "male public space" and the "female domestic sphere."
There is misogyny, there is the sickness.
5
But it’s ok for Kavanaugh to be angry and of course Trump can be angry, insulting, and vulgar.
1
I don't know who I adore more, the woman who gets her revenge, or the man who documented it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dg58WYCvBv0
4
As a 62 year old man I took this pledge with 50 other men on the steps of Pasadena City Hall Monday night. I offer it to all:
We commit to
*Stand with women telling their truths of rape, abuse, discrimination and harassment.
*Rigorously examine our own role in perpetuating rape and abuse culture.
*Actively work to dismantle that culture, demanding accountability for abusers, providing opportunities for healing for all people, advocating for survivors of rape, sexual abuse, and discrimination and raising our sons to respect and value the power and agency of women.
*Step up and speak out when necessary and step back and shut up when necessary so that women’s rights can be honored and protected and the voices of women can be heard and centered.
*Take responsibility for this work as our work, caring for our own emotional selves and not using this to add to the emotional labor women already bear.
To all those who identify as women, who have endured sexual abuse, harassment, rape, discrimination and any form of gender-based indignity, we hear you, we believe you, we stand with you.
We Hear You. We Believe You. We Stand With You.
54
Thank you.
6
The president has thrown down the gauntlet. The men (White men, of course) must be afraid of women. Despite the fact that The Golden Rule is still fully in play: Those with the gold, rule.
And the Democrats got played like a violin. I thought that Dr. Ford's case was too weak to be brought up. But once it was, there was a chance to turn things around: Kavanaugh had vowed a Vendetta against every group who opposed him. That's what made him totally unfit for the Supreme Court. But the Media (and women) kept making it all about sexual assault and drinking. Tragic. Why couldn't the NYT see through the emotion and proclaim the real truth?
2
Wow. So many disclosures of rape have come out over the last 5 days. I knew there were many, but even I am horrified. It's just so wrong.
10
This is no longer a 'he said, she said' moment. This hearing has exposed Judge Kavanaugh for the man he is. A mean, vindictive, always angry, troubled person with a serious drinking problem.
You can look the other way and excuse his youthful testosterone
driven bedroom mis-adventures but you can no longer overlook the man he has become. Judge Kavanaugh's temperament will not improve with time. What you get on the Supreme Bench is what you see before you.
51
@RYR.G
True. When I was 40, I asked a woman I knew well what it was like to be her age -- 64. She said, You're always the same inside.
7
To hear Kavanaugh suggest accusations of drunken gang rape are twilight zone material suggest he is one of the most ignorant jurists in the nation. Drunken rapes among college students are an epidemic in this nation.
If he insists this behavior is from another world, then I know which world he's living in. One in which men determine the minds the minds of women.
18
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! Highlighting the distinction between sexism and misogyny is very, very helpful as I think about life as a citizen and my personal and professional experience as a woman and a feminist since adolescence in the 1970's.
I hope this opinion piece will gain wide circulation>
7
After I read these comments, I realized I have nothing new to say. So many have summarized my reaction so well. But I do want to that Dr. Mann for explaining this so well. I wrote a friend, "None are so blind as those that choose not to see" in response to her question of why people support trump. You help me understand why people choose not to see. For that I am grateful.
6
As a woman, I would like to give a shout out to all the great men I know, from my spouse to my friends, to young people I meet and to great guys I will never meet. You are much appreciated.
6
Last fall, I made a t-shirt at one of those custom-made t-shirt sites where you can put a design or words on the shirt. My t-shirt says "I believe the women." It is a quote from Senator Mitch McConnell about Roy Moore's accusers. So I fall into the second epistemological camp. I wore my t-shirt last Sunday morning when I went into a Dunkin' Donuts in Arizona. The teenage boy at the counter who took my order didn't seem to notice the shirt, but a teenage girl also working there came over and said, "I like your shirt." I just said thanks in reply.
To be honest, I am a little scared to wear this t-shirt in Arizona as opposed to at home in Brooklyn or in California or D.C. That I am scared really depresses me.
25
@Richard Grayson
Pima County has one of the most progressive responses to domestic violence in the country. We have one of the foremost researchers of rape at the UofA. I myself informed over 40,000 teens here about avoiding rape and domestic violence under a federal grant.
I guarantee you you will find more people here are woke, but I can't speak for the sleeper cells. DKE can't even keep a house much less a mount another conquest in Tucson. If you want to avoid those who would menace you for wearing such a shirt, consider staying away from the same places that are rewarded the Patriarchy.
I hear what you are saying about fear. It is real. My brother talked yesterday to a guy whose friend tried to stop them, the young men raping women at the house where Swetnick was raped. They beat the hell out of him. The Patriarchy will exact revenge from anyone who offends it.
A stunning, incisive, critical piece. I’m grateful for your command of diverging realities and the mechanisms that support them. Your brilliance is necessary, and clearly hard won. It’s inspiring to witness your strength of purpose after such a devastating experience. Thank you for sharing.
6
Back in the 1890s, feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her fellow travelers produced the Woman’s Bible which analyzed and mocked the casual misogyny that appears so frequently throughout the Scriptures. They argued that much of the legal disabilities women faced were simply a holdover of a Bible-based value system, where women were considered property.
It would appear that many Americans who claim their value system to be Bible-based, also choose to believe Brett Kavanaugh over Christine Blasey Ford. A coincidence? I don’t think so.
17
@WmC. The roots of patriarchy and misogyny are in Christianity. The Catholic and Evangelical churches still insist on pushing a subordinate role on women - confined to the home with children, now referred to as 'complementarity'. Women AND men should abandon these archaic institutions who would force everyone into a 1950's lifestyle, and live their dreams.
3
President Trump recently opined that we are now living in an era when young men would need to be more fearful of being falsely accused of sexual assault. As someone who frequently omits or misuses words, President Trump might have been more correct in saying that men must now be more careful of being "correctly" accused of sexual assault.
As the many women coming forward to tell their own stories of past sexual assault can attest to, women have been subject to this kind of assault since time immemorial and in a male dominated society, their attempts to tell their stories have been met with dismissal, disbelief and/or blame ("she should not have acted that way," "She should not have been dressed that way," "She got what she deserved").
Its also worth noting the difference in behavior of Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh before the Senate committee: Dr. Ford: polite, apologetic, direct and calm in her testimony, while Judge Kavanaugh was aggressive, evasive, emotional and confrontational in his testimony. If their behaviors were reversed, Dr. Ford would likely have been dismissed as yet another hysterical woman, whereas Judge Kavanaugh has been lauded for his manly defense of his family and character.
We may never know for certain whether Dr. Ford or Judge Kavanaugh's version of events is correct, but it is apparent that much more progress is needed in how men treat women, and how society responds to a woman's claim of sexual assault.
5
@Scott B
And my own personal favorite: "She really wanted it."
Until I read your opinion piece today, I had not really connected
the dots of how misogyny works. Also though I knew of so many #ME TOO cases, did not comprehend the magnitude of them. Thanks so much for you very clarifying piece. I am a survivor, did not tell anyone, it was my father's childhood friend, I was 4 . Even at that age, I knew I would be blamed if I told my parents. My attacker tried to convince me I liked it. My parents never found out. One brother berated me about my life and who I was, (I got into therapy and never did drugs, was a single mom,actress and playwright) But he did not like how I was treating our mother. I kept away from her because she was cruel. And I remember him saying that the only thing which could explain my behavior was if I had been sexually abused. I told him I had been, and that shut him down and he did not want to know who, where, when, no support. As I am writing this I realize, even though he was younger than I am, he always tried to play the white male patriarch with me, lecturing, demeaning me, at the same time desperately trying to impress me.
My heart deeply aches for what you went through, and now understanding it is very common on campuses, it aches for all of us. I am grateful to hear another person admit that the only way to survive was not to tell. Till now did not fully realize how the demands for "Why did you not come forward?" were said for mainly for battering purposes. Thanks so very much!
13
Congress should censure Trump for his conduct at the rally. An official condemnation or denouncement is necessary. It would make clear to him and the citizens of our country that decency is essential in those who hold positions in the government. Especially the president.
10
My assault was known to the entire community shorty after it was reported, but I still felt the responsibility to make others OK with it by minimizing and discussing it as if I was never hurt by it. That was not my responsibility, but the patriarchy demanded it or I intuitively knew I would be banished.
Guess what. I don't care if my pain bothers you, now. That's your problem. I can be polite about it and let you know I know it discomforts you, but that's on my assailant, not me.
13
Appreciate the deliberate structure of Ms. Mann's column, establishing a clear representation of what she means by "epistemic worlds." Her choice of words is important: "epistemic world" is a touchstone for differentiating one framework, with its values from another. Hence, an "old school, male privilege dominated and misogynistic in its assumptions concerning "good" (i.e. compliant) vs. (uppity) women and a newer framework, informed by the women's movement where women's testimony is accepted as authentic because it's rooted in empathy of shared experience. When she seques into her account of her own experience of assault, she's giving us that experience so as to make absolutely the case for the epistemic conclusion she wants us to draw. The evidence she supplies is devastating and what seems to be a highly accurate description of the means and methods of systematic assault. These were practiced rapists; a "get that tequila down their throats" approach to disabling and then victimizing female victims. All of this, makes the Republican "hurry-up" of the confirmation process all the more cynical and ugly. In a way they have to rush this thing. Kavanaugh could not have played the part of an abuser exposed better if he'd been carefully cast and scripted for the role. Boys being boys? I don't thinks so. Thank you for this much needed "mind map" of our political landscape.
19
Professor Bonnie Mann's eloquence in this NYT opinion piece is absolutely critical in its content; a succinct and important public description of misogyny and overall white male dominance in our society that I have ever read.
This philosopher has managed to keep her mind and spirit intact while living decades with the horrifying repercussions of having the core of her being ripped apart through the ultimate degradation and physical trauma of...I can barely write the words: "gang" rape. These are just words but when one actually envisions what happens to a woman physically, spiritually, emotionally and mentally (all distinct and separate parts of us all), it is almost unbearable to realize. Her courage and stamina are beautiful.
The points she raises about white male misogyny and domination of all women's lives should be thoroughly absorbed and reflected upon repeatedly--it's real.
The "set up" of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee's well-worn machinations of white male privilege are well defined, but I would go further to include the entire system in which women live: a construct for and by white males that was, and is, intentional. This system, known as the patriarchy, has to do solely with power and of controlling all facets of life, as Professor Mann puts it, representing the first "epistemic world."
Yes, and women have an epistemic world of our own, within ourselves where we find solace and strength--the female core that is often aware of misogynistic domination.
298
@TORQUEMADA
Obviously, this story today is not about men going to war and women being freed of the duty. But if it were, please remember the brave women of Europe -- some in my own family -- who died fighting during the wars you cite.
1
@Cate
Of course if women could just report these things when they are still fresh, when the facts can be marshaled on their side, they might find that law enforcement and the general world of men would suddenly take action. No man will let something like this happen to one of his daughters, or nieces, or relatives without taking some kind of action. Will this be embarrassing for the woman? Yes, but get over it. The men who do this to women have to be confronted by other men when they do this to women.
2
@Cate
The latest escutcheon attack-driver for cultural Marxists--"white male dominance", "white male privilege"?
Does "dominance-privilege" include the engineering that produced Armstrong's walk on the moon? Gaits, Jobs, the Google boys, et al.?
2
It sure feels like we women are being slapped down good and hard.
I am angry, to the point where it's beyond anger.
The abuse of private American citizens by the President and the GOP Senators is horrifying and wrong; it is how Nazis behave.
I am praying that Flake, Corker and Murkowski stop this now.
This is beyond Kavanaugh who in any case is just wrong for the Supreme Court; his behavior in the Senate hearing disqualified him by itself.
This is about raw power.
And it's about raw power now being used against the powerless, against women, children, rape survivors, immigrants -
Where does it end?
36
The modern left wing in America and its definition of misogyny?
It's probably impossible for a man to not be considered misogynistic according to the modern left wing in America, unless of course conforming entirely to the left wing view, for the left wing is entirely predicted on a nurture over nature view of existence. The modern left wing denies almost entirely a biological/genetic/evolutionary psychology view of existence, and like previous nurture over nature views of existence such as religions such as Christianity, believes a person is almost entirely malleable and if not conforming to the system then obviously it must be the person's fault.
Nurture over nature views of existence are pernicious because they arise as idealisms and among a core of people who declare that all other people must be shaped as themselves and if a person does not conform it cannot be for any other reason than not getting with the program. In America today the left wing declares all races, sexes and so on as equal in ability, builds a core team of people who average out, approximate each other, and then declares all other people who cannot fit in somehow as just not fitting in, not willing to be subjected to the necessary successful nurture method promulgated.
It's frankly a cowardly view of existence. Under the guise of bridging divisions between people it actually forms a tepid average and bears no responsibility for the plight of those who don't fit in. Count me entirely out.
6
@Daniel12
Did you read the entire opinion piece or stop when you saw the word "misogyny"? The author told of her experience being gang-raped. You never addressed that information let alone expressed any compassion for her. Thanks for displaying the very self-centered thinking that contributes to more sexual crimes.
10
Frankly, I thought what you had to say was incomprehensible, but I will count you out.
7
@Daniel12
By making this argument you seem to imply that sexual assault is simply a natural phenomenon. Was that your intention? If so, count me out!
12
Personal experience has no bearing on Kavanaugh's guilt or innocence. The fact is Ford has no corroboration, no contemporaneous report, has "evolving" memory and has lied to the senate. It's a political character assassination on Kavanaugh orchestrated by dems who will stop at nothing to derail his nomination. Whether Ford is complicit or an unwitting weaponized individual victimized by her faulty memory I can't say.
3
I believe her. I do not believe Kavanaugh.
3
@Zejee really. She has lied to the senate (fear of flying, who she'd talked to about the "assault"). Either she or her lawyers lied about not knowing the senate said they would come to her in CA. She has not only no corroboration for her story, but those she names as being at the party won't corroborate her story. She doesn't remember anything that would allow Kavanaugh to refute her accusation. She hasn't provided any evidence of the psychological trauma she says she suffered (bad grades, behavioral changes). She didn't come forward in 2012 or 2013 when this came out in therapy. She and her husband didn't see fit to seek legal redress at the time. She continued to party on in HS even though she was assaulted (her claim) at a party. She has established a go-fund me page that has over a million in it. Her old boyfriend says she coached her friend on how to pass a polygraph. As a psychologist she knows polygraphs are pseudoscience, yet she took one (a stunt).
At the same time, other allegations (see MO, from way back in history that can't be disproved) have no credibility. And for all his adult life Kavanaugh has never had any accusation of sexual misconduct come forward.
And you believer her?
I can't disagree with anything in this article. I wish only to emphasize what is to me the most important point it makes. It's quite clear from what they say that even many (if not all) of Kavanaugh's supporters believe Ford's accusation. So the argument between his supporters and opponents is not about what he did, but about whether he and others like him should be allowed to get away with that kind of behavior. Those "centrists" (or whatever they call themselves) who keep insisting that Trump supporters are not all racists or misogynists and that the rest of us can and should engage in dialog with them need to answer this question: Can we have a meaningful dialog with people who believe that Kavanaugh and men like him should be allowed to get away with that behavior?
9
..."misogyny works by differentiating between “good women” and “bad women,” by rewarding the good ones and punishing the bad."
Some may consider it understood, but let's make sure everyone gets it: The "good women" in too many cases are those who tolerate misogyny for whatever reason. That doesn't make them "bad women", it just points out their vulnerability.
6
Dear Dr. Mann, excellent analysis. But aren't you worried that at some rally in West Virginia Trump will call out your name and you will live the rest of your life like Rushdie has? That is America today.
5
@Greg Jones
I used to believe because my parents immediately reported my abduction and molestation that I was not of the class who are disbelieved. Then I learned Swetnick must wait a month for the police to produce her report of being gang raped. So I contacted the DC area PD who took my report and investigated my case, and they can't find any record of it.
I am now Dr. Mann. I am any woman who has reported to police and they botched it. Trump can call me a liar, but my entire elementary school knew there was a menace in our community, even if the authorities couldn't do anything about it.
I am incredible, but I will hold to account those who failed me systemically.
Did anyone reading this report sexual assault to police before 1990? If you don't check, you may never know they pitched it.
I gladly welcome Trump's slanders. My brother often sees Dr. Ford's father, so I will ask him to share our pain with him so he knows had there been a report, it might have been spiked.
Go ahead, report, but don't forget to follow up to see they haven't dropped the ball.
Power and Politics go hand in hand.
If you think changing the ethnic or gender makeup
of those in power will bring about a true revolution
you are, sadly, mistaken.
Examine how powerful mothers, and fathers,
defend their children when their children do something
very wrong.
They hire the best lawyers and insist their child is innocent.
As women increase their numbers in the power structure
they shall assume the mantle of power and privilege just like
all those old "White" men on the Republican Side and most of the
Democratic side of the hearing. And when people of "Colour" also
find their way into positions of power they shall do likewise.
Professor Mann, you teach Philosophy, you know your fundamental goal it to distinguish necessary truths from
contingent truths.
That the vast majority of politicians seek power
rather than justice, is, all too sadly, a necessary truth
about the human condition,
5
I have always railed against the patriarchy since I was a child, and I have rejected it my entire life. I have never been assaulted, but I have experienced discrimination.
I do not see groundbreaking change with how women are being treated in the workplace or in their personal lives. I see only baby steps.
I think with #MeToo we are seeing restlessness, and a larger acknowledgment that we cannot be silent anymore.
I hope women like Dr. Blasey Ford will not shrink from this misogyny. Women need to steel themselves and force everyone to confront it.
What worries me the most is that sometimes women sabotage each other; last night in a Trump rally I saw multiple women holding "Women for Trump" signs. Who are these women, and why are they doing this? We have so many men who support women, and yet these women seem so complicit in this evil.
As women, we must also understand what motivates these other women to support men who obviously think women are worthless property. Men support each other's worst behavior. Why can't women support each other's best intentions to improve their lives?
5
A question, and NOT a rhetorical one! Can we, women (and of course men too) sue Mr. Trump for emotional distress? I wake up every single day and I hardly can breath about a new low this man, "our" president is able to inflict upon us. Today, it was his mockery of Dr. Ford. Can we, the citizens, begin a "class action" or whatever its name against his man? The atmosphere of racism, belittling and hurtful mockery has taken a big toll in many of us! It has to be stopped. It has nothing to do with different political views. This man IS insulting us, directly, every day. Is there any lawyer available to prosecute this man?
7
Most illuminating and both brave and generous. Thank you.8
4
Thank you for speaking out. Right now these epistemic worlds are colliding rather violently and unfortunately the inhabitants of each world have nothing in common except physical form. I say we take our me too world and swallow the other callous, cruel, misogynistic world till every person there is surrounded by me toos and cannot give voice to their views. We need to smother out their thinking slowly but surely with our loud actions, words and unity. In the end we need there to be just one world view, one that is honest, fair and compassionate.
1
Thanks for the useful distinction - this battle is about who controls "meaning" and not the facts of the matter.
It seems like the Black Lives Matter movement is about something similar. Do authorities have impunity to protect police who kill black people with insufficient cause.....
The world is changing, and regardless of the outcome of this current fight, the old structure will continue to be eroded.
7
Like it or not Trump plays to his believers and they love it. Mothers with sons are thinking how would it be if someone accused their son of being an oaf in high school. People putting theirselves in Kavanaugh shoes and are sympathizing with his plight. Dr Ford as credible and sympathies as she was left so many gaps in her story that Trump thinks he can run a freight train through. The Me Too movement is going to have a backlash if accusers have no corroboration. Some people look back on their high school days and thank God they survived them not in prison or dead. My bet is The Judge gets confirmed and he takes this dark cloud with him to the court.After the coup the court participated in with Gore v Bush its luster is only diminished more. The court has become a rubber stamp for the party that brought them to the dance and we need to stop kidding ourselves about it.
5
Thank you, Ms. Mann, for this mind-blowing, thought-provoking column, and for sharing your harrowing experience.
I agree with Charlie Pierce who says in a blog today that the video of Trump's speech in Mississippi mocking Dr. Ford should be played and re-played throughout the election season and all the way to 2020. This shocking, disgusting video may be the Democratic party's best PR weapon. Seeing it will fire up the troops and maybe even sicken some of his supporters. Especially the supporters who live in Mississippi and will be forced to see their smiling, laughing faces every time Trump debases himself by mocking the brave Dr. Ford.
21
A narrative based on misogynistic principles stemming from patriarchal systems and institutions has no place in a Government purporting to govern a populace of gender, race & religious free peoples. We are at a precipice, we can climb that cliff or fall off it. It comes down to who controls “meaning” in the “epistemic world” of the Supreme Court: meaning is manifested in cases decided given the effect of law. This nation must demand a thorough vetting of all judicial appointments, beginning with J. Kavanaugh. We must demand a thorough FBI and Senate examination into all evidence surrounding allegations regarding his character and lack of “moral turpitude.” Then the Senate must consider and debate his "epistemic world".
This is a time of reckoning for our nation like we haven’t seen since the 1960s. Yes, men should be scared, Mr. President. We are all scared because we are seeing the dark ugliness of what has been hidden for far too long. We are examining the raw truth of pain inflicted by individuals enabled by outdated harmful beliefs. Trump is the shadow material of this nation’s soul. By shining light on Trump and the dark ugliness of misogyny and its supporting belief systems (patriarchy) we, as a nation, are tackling our demons. And like any addiction, once it is recognized, we can begin to heal. Let’s take control of our lives, no longer act on autopilot & hold elected officials accountable by testing their epistemic world!
1
The total acceptance of excessive drinking for me strikes at the heart of the issue. Assuming these men...or all men..feel superior or entitled, without the happy, thrilling, buddies all customs of "lets get drunk, and obnoxious, and puke", would there be so many cases of rape, assaults and other physical abuses of women? I am referring to what is now referred to "date rape". It seems to start with the idea that drunk=everything we want to do is now ok because we're drunk. EVERY discussion onTV by men refer to those years of drinking as the NORM..its not disputed, it is accepted and never criticized or examined. That custom has also led to the deaths of a few college fraternity "pledges". Isn't it the drinking that should be put under the microscope?
22
@jdoe212
In all the efforts colleges have made to reduce the incidence of rape on college, alcohol binging has been their biggest target. But try getting around the alcohol industry if you want to live free of drunken rapists. They are happy to enforce the "college experience" as one done under the influence.
Kavanaugh was never legal to drink beer until he was 21. However, anyone can drink if a parent or teacher are present, and thus the patterns begin.
2
@jdoe212: What about the women and girls who are raped by men who aren't drunk? Yes, alcohol is a big problem, but not every man who gets drunk rapes women either. And excessive drinking (underage and otherwise) is already under a microscope.
Years ago, when I was in college, I was taking a course at another college. I took the bus to the other campus in order to do the reserve reading and turn in a paper, then took another bus to return to my own college. The bus was full but quickly emptied so only 4 of us remained. At the next stop a pack of drunken and still drinking frat boys got on. I was sitting in the front near 2 other men; the only other woman was sitting in the back of the bus. The frat boy pack immediately surrounded her, harassed her, and started groping her, pulling her hair and clothing. She was protesting and trying to get away, but they were pushing her down. The 3 of us in the front didn't dare to confront the pack--there were 10 of them and they were drunker and stronger. The bus driver (also a college student) finally pulled over and told the frat boys to take the beer off the bus. They protested but complied, and as soon as the last one got off, he closed the doors and pulled away, leaving them looking shocked and confused. I never told anyone what happened or what nearly happened. This occurred on a Thursday in the early evening, but the partying began early and they were looking for a victim. That bus driver was a good guy.
This is a war on women. Trump has declared his contempt for women and invited his base to join his war. We are under attack from the highest level in the land; with the lowest lowlifes in the land joining forces with the most powerful. Women will be forced to defend themselves. There must be an uprising of women. In any other workplace an employee would be up on EEOC charges for the kind of attack, insult and lies that Trump now hurls at all women, and at specific individuals. Mocking your customer base would cause anyone else to be fired. He must be impeached now. Women will not survive the rest of this despicable woman-hater's term.
I am a pacifist, would never touch a gun, but I am ready to do so. This has become an out and out war against women. We will not be defended by the dirty men in power. And, the women in power are too corrupted to count for much. I hear no voices of outrage. I see no women walking out on Congress in protest. I see no Democrat men or women walking out, as they should.
33
While I agree with the epistemic analysis, it strikes me that this is also about the family sociology of ethics training. I too allowed alcohol to drive idiotic behaviors during freshman year of college; so did friends and acquaintances. But most of us, capable of damaging property, stopped dead at the notion of invading another's personal space, particularly that of young women. If it ever did enter my mind, the idea of sexual assault was immediately rejected. I owe a debt of gratitude to my father for that ethical foundation. In that sense, this does become personalized for men, and clearly, Mr. Kavanugh was deprived of some ethics inculcation from which I was lucky enough to benefit.
11
A helpful and forthright report and characterization of our struggle with misogyny. It is my view that this problem is wrapped up in our Republican Party and this is being recognized by more and more of our population. Reports abound of large numbers of women leaving the party, married and un married. What we may be seeing is the waning last blast of this behavior trumpeted by any party. I expect the Republican Party to pay a lasting penalty for this current showing and perhaps an eventual demise. This may be only a hope but evidence is beginning to give credence.
13
Thank you, Professor Mann, for this thoughtful, incisive and brave column. You've helped me see the deeper, entrenched world in which meaning is appropriated. And I also want to say, I am so sorry about what happened to you. Thank you for telling your story.
15
@cgtwet
I agree!!!
2
Misogyny is defined as a hatred of women, and rape is the tool of misogyny. Rape is power and hatred; it's not about sex or physical strength, as many men believe. Many women are able to fight off an attack when not made purposely unable to function through alcohol or drugs (Bill Cosby.) But of course, the presence of drugs or alcohol can be used against a woman, because drinking or using drugs is done of one's own free will.
Many women don't believe misogyny exists, because they think it hasn't or doesn't affect their lives. They don't see cat-calls as misogyny, or unequal pay as misogyny, for example. But it does affect all women's lives, everyday, in every sphere of life.
I believe women's history should be part of the history curriculum as early as middle school. What was life like for women in the Middle Ages? What did women do during the 2nd World War? Why? Learning how a world dominated the male perspective and a deep-seated hatred towards women has affected women throughout history and teaching how it came to be this way, would be one way to hasten it's end.
20
I believe every word... I do wonder though, why not mention the attackers name, "my sister's boyfriend" isn't something one can work with.
Where is this animal now, and who were the friends?
It may be too late to prosecute, but it's not too late to shame, to let the world know who these animals are.
I hope you find peace.
14
@Thom Boyle
Look at what is happening to Dr Ford right now.
That answers your question.
7
Look at the crowd at Trump's rally last night. Look at how the women of all ages reacted with applause, laughter and glee as he ridiculed Blasey. Women who were handpicked to be in the background for his entire speech and were at least 50% of the crowd.
So, can women be misogynists? By accepting and championing views of Republicans like Hatch, Grassley and Graham? By agreeing with John Kelley that women are best being "worshipped"?
There's a big problem in this country with misogyny, no doubt about that. But women are an important part of it and that issue is rarely discussed. Phyllis Schlafly and her kind haven't gone away, they haven't gone anywhere, they're thriving.
And they couldn't care less if you were sexually assaulted or raped. Not one bit.
82
@Lou Good Horrifically sad and true.
3
@Lou Good. I wonder how many of those "token" women have been assaulted, mistreated or been undermined by the men in their lives. Either they've totally squashed those incidents in their lives or they are completely clueless of today's world. I feel sorrow for them and contempt at the same time.
3
Beautiful. Thank you for writing this.
9
We're not engaged in "sort of a civil war", we ARE in a civil war, one in which shots have not yet been fired, but may well yet happen. And not just because of the misogynistic beliefs held by a small, but very powerful group of men, but for the broader cause of a clash of belief systems, fear-based conservatism vs. the majority. Misogyny is just one facet of this larger war. This doesn't diminish its importance or the need to combat it, but to understand that the fight is much larger and more critical to protecting our society, and even our republic.
Trump is in open violation of his sworn oath to protect and defend the United States - which includes ALL Americans, not just the ones that vote for him, as he apparently believes. He is instead a cheerleader for insurrection, stirring up his base to oppose the "Others", the rest of us. If we had a Congress that wasn't already beholden to Trump, and which would do its job, he would be impeached and imprisoned already. But since the Republicans control all branches of government, and they're interested only in maintaining and expanding their power, they won't lift a finger to oppose this treason, and as such are guilty of it themselves.
This election may be the last chance that democracy has for re-establishing itself in America. If the Republican stranglehold on our government isn't broken, and the will of the majority isn't heard through the ballot box, Trump and the Republicans may reap the insurrection.
51
This article should be required reading for all men, but particularly those in the Republican party who question the legitimacy of Dr. Ford's accusations and their timing and are going to proceed to confirm him as a justice to the Supreme Court. Thank you, Ms. Mann for your bravery in sharing your story of sexual assault and for attempting to put this awful moment in American history in academic focus.
31
I want to agree with this, but the argument is too flimsy. There has not been a concerted effort to discredit Dr. Ford as a "bad woman." Trump made a few mocking comments, fewer frankly than you'd expect, after first praising her a few days earlier. Kavanaugh himself showed no ill will towards Ford. She has been treated well.
As to who questioned her, first you state: "That photograph of the panel of 11 white men who represent the Republicans on the judiciary committee ... is the visual representation of the kind of institutionalized white male power that is supposed to be receding into the past."
Later you state: "hiring a sex-crimes prosecutor to question her discloses the real purpose of the process."
Well, you can't have it both ways. Either the 11 white men question her, or the female prosecutor they hired question her. It sounds like this piece is grasping at straws to find entrenched sexism in a process that was actually remarkably fair. Despite having no evidence for her claims, Ford was given a great deal of trust and respect, now followed up by an FBI investigation. Not everyone who makes an allegation with no evidence to back it up is taken so seriously. Ford certainly seems more believable than Kavanaugh, but that's based on psychological impressions, and other people might interpret the hearings differently. Since no evidence has been presented, that does not necessarily make them irrational misogynists.
7
@Samuel Russell
Is this sophistry? I think it's a form of it
When you go deliver a complaing of bad behavior to the police they go and investigate your claims.
The senate never did this. The hearing(remember "hearing" of the accusation) was set up to cover these very old white men's backsides. It was clear that the fix was in for Kavanaugh, that's why he had such temper tantrum and showed who he was: an angry, entitled, drunkard with a stunted sense what's appropriate, and liar.
15
@wanderer Thank you for reminding me that Russell's comment is sophistry. It's filled with minimizing the Republicans' assault and includes a glaringly false dichotomy (meaningless stating either the 11 men or the prosecutor).
@akhenaten2
Sorry for the glaringly false dichotomy. Who do you believe should have questioned Dr. Ford?
On behalf of us women who support each other, care for each other, protect each other, thank you, Dr. Mann. Your story like so many others is poignant and heart-wrenching. You wrote, and I paraphrase, that if this nomination, i.e., Kavanaugh, succeeds, our human rights as women will be set back for decades. Yes and no, I believe. The yes "aspect" is the reality of this conservative Supreme Court with the admittance of an obvious misogynist who is partisan and dangerously ideological, vindictive toward Democrats in general, mercurial, and with a checkered past. But the other side, the reason that I believe we will not fully take all "three steps backwards" is that we are mobilized and determined more than ever to end years, even centuries, of sexual exploitation in one form or another. We have it in our power to flip this Congress, at the very least the House, if not the Senate also. And we can do it. We have it in our power to rid our nation of an adulterer, a philanderer, a liar, an amoral Mr. Trump. Let us not get discouraged. We are a mighty force against this heinous male dominance and power too long harassing us.
27
@Kathy Lollock I agree. We do have the power of the ballot box and other powers. Realizing that is the first step toward making real change. And to those who say we are 'attacking' male privilege I would say, no, we are finally defending ourselves from THEIR attacks. They just don't like it.
3
Did the author ever come forward to expose her rapists? The artivle would be truly powerful if she named names
4
@Siple1971
Look at what is happening to Dr Ford.
That explains why no names should be used in opinion pieces.
3
This is one of several powerful first-person stories and editorials that I have read in the past year. When will some people finally listen?
12
Your piece is excellent, and I respect your courage in telling your terrible story. But you talk about division into two epistemic worlds, one commanded by privileged white men, and another into which, generalizing to abbreviate, would include women abused or contained by men in the other world.
I'm not sure many black women are not facing equal misogyny from many black men, but my issue is that the world of privileged white men is 50% made of women. If the mothers, wives, sisters and daughters of those men would say to them everyday that they are ridiculous, dangerous, irrational and make them feel ashamed of their sons, husbands, brothers and fathers, it would be less easy for those men to persevere in their behaviour. Women are as complicit in the behaviour of those men as if they were men themselves. They enable their men to think that 'true' women don't behave like Blasey Ford, "my mother/wife/sister wouldn't do it". A look at the women at any Trump rally, or in the Trump environment and family, confirms this.
Women who want to be free individuals in command of their lives are almost as affected by the actions of their own gender as they are by men.
15
and why does the new york times call the author ms. Mann ? is that her correct title ? most professors have PhDs. and shouldl be called Dr. what is her rank ? you would never omit this type of information if the author had been male.
13
I sympathize deeply for the abuse Prof. Mann suffered while younger, and I have no reason to doubt that it happened as she says. Crimes were committed, the perpetrators should be prosecuted to the extent of the law.
"...women who are now confronting its well-oiled machinery of misogynist annihilation." The last sentence is the best. I disagree that the path forward is for women to successfully reframe meaning through a epistemic lens, or more plainly, talk sense into the abusing men so they stop abusing. No, men understand power and fear, especially the ones committing the atrocities. Women should be, and are, building their own well-oiled machine for annihilation. For you to win, they have to lose, women must put aside what looks (to me) to be self-defined constraints coming from their deep-rooted (the source not being relevant here) need for "everyone to get along".
Men are simpler than you, our minds are more linear and we are much more attuned to hierarchy and dominance displays. Use that. Laugh at us and we cower. Level credible threats (backed up by a history of scorched-earth retaliation) and we retreat. Men have no right to treat you that way, ensure there is an unbearable price to pay when they do.
That "all men don't do that" is now irrelevant. Ideas of justice are not relevant. The conservative men have already established that there is only power.
16
Professor Mann, I wish you would name your attackers.
Yes, I know it is a lot to ask. But until and unless we are ready to face down the shaming protocols that have been thrown at us, this will continue through the next generations.
Women may be too afraid to speak out when young and vulnerable, or still too close to the even. But the time has now come to let them know that their acts will stalk them all their lives. They now need to think twice before they can walk away with impunity.
This is the true message and the real power basis of #MeToo!
10
In far away lands women who report having been raped are executed or imprisoned for adultery, forced to marry their rapist and shunned by their families and communities. Their punishment for speaking is clear, harsh and undeniable.
Here in our "civilized" country powerful men still feel entitled to erupt with rage in their attempts to silence women. Their tactics are less brutal but the intent is clear. Dr. Ford was the perfect foil to their misogyny because she was so adult, so calm, so rational, so NICE. Backed into a corner Kavanaugh and the senators had to find a new villain . . . the Clintons! I almost expected them to endorse the Pizza parlor child sex ring conspiracy in their frenzy to vilify a woman, any woman, as a harlot, as proof that woman are not to be trusted with the reins of power.
37
@ML
Your comment reminds me of the Mudsa Legend.
She was a beautiful woman who a man tries to rape. She runs into the Temple of Athena begging the goddess for help. The man catches her and rapes her by the later. The goddess gets angry and turns the beautiful woman into the monster Mudusa.
I still have a problem with that myth.
1
I forgo the ritual of sympathy and apology that's become common with these pieces. It hits close to home for you. You say privileged whites did this horrible thing to you casting a shadow once again not only on Kavanaugh but all white males. Privileged or not. If the nytimes printed a story about a woman raped 40 years ago by a black man would she be allowed to make generalities about all black men? I do carry a strong dislike for some of the privileged. Privileged white women too.
It's not that I don't believe this crime happened but your story fits the left wing and feminist narrative so perfectly. You have to ask when privileged white women are treated o poorly how's life for those not so privileged? Do they matter.
1
Oh to be sure. All women are subjected to sexual harassment— far more frequently than most men will ever acknowledge. But even my own daughter knew to stay away from frat boys. They are the worst.
7
This article is pathetic. It is sexist and racist to say that "privileged white men get to do with impunity what other men at least have to think twice about..." referring to assault or harassment. No we don't. I think twice, thrice and four times before even approaching a woman. The casual racism and sexism against white men on your opinion pages is out of hand. First she says the president admitted to sexual assault; he did not. He admitted to getting consent to do what you construe as sexual assault. Any opportunistic woman who probably enjoyed it at the time or at least consented, would now come out against him because people are leveling accusations left and right now. By the way, no one is coming out against him in that way. Telling. He should have every right to sue this paper for libel and defamation of character. Why the left is so willing to stoop to the level of constant character assassination and mob rule is understandable, they are angry at the successful, but why this paper is willing to do so is beyond me. Maybe this paper is catering to the angry mob rather than reporting news.
9
and then we have President Trump mocking Dr. Ford......
8
@PJ ABC Another classic example of the misogyny of which the author writes.
7
Yes, men of all ages should be afraid...just like most women have been since the beginning of time.
What goes around comes around?
29
Professor Mann’s piece was a very useful explaination for me, and I am grateful. I have for some time now maintained that Trumpism, a species of fascism, is inherently misogynistic. We have seen that that is the case in bold relief in recent days. We will see many excuses and rationalizations that this is all an attack on maleness and masculinity, as we already see from some commentary here. I can assure you: such behavior by men is anything but....
I also want to express my sorrow for the violence that was committed against Professor Mann. Her account is heartbreaking.
14
Time for women to get militant again.
If we lose the Court, I suppose we just have to move on to the Constitution.
19
Thank you for presenting your truths. I agree with other writers that your story should be required reading for all Senators. Sadly, though women are over 50% of the population, our safety and sanity are not priorities.
8
Dr. Mann, I'm sorry that you have a #MeToo story to share as we continue to hear story-upon-story of abuse, harassment, and assault. The poignancy of your personal story balanced with the analysis of the misogyny framing much of the discourse provides the clarity we need in understanding that the personal is political.
Imagine if the candidate for the Supreme Court were Brenda Kavanaugh and imagine that a woman came forward accusing Brenda of sexual assault in high school and imagine Brenda's yearbook touting her drinking exploits and imagine college classmates sharing stories of Brenda being a slurred-speech, mean drunk and imagine Brenda lashing out at the Senators conducting a hearing and imagine a slew of Republican Senators worrying over whether these youthful indiscretions (some of which are, after all, a mere matter of she-said/she-said) should ruin Brenda's career. Imagine.
7
I believe Dr Ford. I do not believe Kavanaugh.
6
@Julie Haught
I'm pretty sure that if the Supreme Court nominee were female, and a male came forward accusing her of sexual assault, that man would be given far less credence than Christine Blasey Ford. In all likelihood he would be mocked ruthlessly from both sides of the aisle.
2
Donald Trump is the epitome of rich, white, male privilege being threatened, as is Brett Kavanaugh.
Why would Mark Judge, who wrote a book entitled: Wasted: Tales of a Gen-X Drunk that offers gory details of his-- and Kavanaugh's 'glory years" at Georgetown Prep not be called to the senate hearing?..... Male privilege?
Why would the GOP's special interviewer Rachel Mitchell have her line of questioning of Kavanaugh abruptly stopped--- after asking about an infamous July 1, 1982 party--on his calendar--and-- within the week of Dr. Ford's claims?
Why would Mr. Trump mock Dr. Ford, as if chants of lock her up were anticipated at his sadly demeaning rally? Indeed, misogyny rules---straight out of The White House. As was the process under McConnell/Grassley----->misogynistic and illegitimate.
16
Misandry is not the answer for misogyny.
4
Women have been silent for too long. Speaking out against sexual harassment does not mean women hate all men.
31
@Zejee
If that is all that this entailed, I'd agree. Reread wording. All women must be believed equals all men must not be believed. Culture of rape implies more than the mere existence of some men who have raped. All men just need to shut up and step up, which is the attempt to shame all men (all people) to think and act one way. Men can't understand. The whole notion with Kavanaugh is that he fits the profile of the angry, privileged male means there is a type that is widely accepted.
Important insight, but only the tip of the iceberg. Equally destructive of our society is racism, an integral part of our values dating back well before 1776. Either we "go back to the good old days" something probably impossible as awareness has been stimulated on both issues, or we have a meaningful dialogue/debate on the state of our society and what to do about it. There are real reasons to believe that our corporate/materialist society is not able to address these issues, in which case we are on the road to following the tsars into an historically meaningful institution that failed to survive.
3
Women have an unprecedented opportunity to call out misogyny, the result of a particularly ugly form of machismo deeply embedded in US culture. To be effective in shaping the age and moving the country beyond Marlboro Man, violent team sports and other uniquely American role models which act as planks in the platform of misogyny women need to be effective as well as right. The issue with #Metoo and other efforts to effect change is that they conflate clearly egregious and illegal actions like the experience Mann recalls with much more nebulous and distasteful but culturally normative (at least when they happened) behaviors that the "privileged White Men " can latch onto.For example, calling anyone who complains about such treatment a "survivor" disrespects the holocaust, those surviving cancer and the women who experienced what Mann did.
3
@Observer
The point of calling those who suffered this Survivor is many do not survive the incident IE: self mutilation suicide mental illness the inability to trust others inappropriate lashing out at folk on and on.
I agree there is a difference between the Holocaust Coming back from war and Sexual Assault and abuse. But the folk who experienced these things are indeed Survivors.
4
Lewis Carroll understood this: QUOTATION: “When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that's all.”
5
It's difficult for me to express my feelings of outrage toward a party that wants to take birth control and choice away from women then make it okay to rape them.
Think about that.
60
Bonnie Mann has a wonderful column, but let us remember that not all Republicans and Trump supporters are OK with sexual assault. What they ALL want in a Supreme Court justice, and why they ALL stick with Kavanaugh, is a reliable vote for both corporate interests, their right to pollute, exploit workers, mislead consumers, buy elections and, the social interests in the GOP coalition that wants to play with guns, impose religious rules and dogma on everyone. Thus there is little chance to stop Kavanaugh since the GOP and their coalition of economic royalists and social right-wingers controls the Senate and if they stick together all the protests, wonderful insights such as in Prof Mann's columns, and all the indications of Kavanaugh's lying and sexual aggression will sadly count for nothing. Only voting the Republicans out can help.
24
I am in my seventies, and no matter what my experiences with men were like, I always knew viscerally that men were physically stronger and almost always bigger than me, and that making certain men angry would be dangerous. In elementary school, I was chased home every day by a big boy. I was afraid of him. When I told my mother, she went to the school principal, a woman, who said I must have been flirting with him. My mother repeated this to me in a way that I knew she believed it, and I was silenced. I didn’t think it was true. The boy repulsed me, but nevertheless I felt blamed and ashamed. So this was the norm, This remained the norm, until just recently when women are fighting back. I was too young to speak truth to power, but if my granddaughter comes to me with a similar story, I will believe her, and fight for her. Women should be believed.
35
The President's misogynistic remarks were made during same news cycle that reported only 4 white supremacists charged for Charlottesville and historic Trump family tax dodges. There's an 8 minute wait this morning for WH comments. My hope is the lines are flooded with folks calling Trump on his rank behavior. Phone WH at 202-456-111 or Conogress 202-224-3121 to speak with your Senator, Representative or Party Leader. they all count the number of phone calls.
3
This is why for me, as a woman, this election is vital. I do not agree with the Democratic Party on many issues. I consider myself center-right.
But we can't talk about fiscal policy when one side makes the maintenance of old gender and racial hierarchies the very sine non qua of its existence.
And we can't talk about policy when that side utilizes misogyny to keep women in our place. Particularly odious is the conservative use of female voices - of evangelicals who boast of their "purity" but then present themselves as sexy like Allie Beth Stuckey, of bullies like Michelle Mallkin and Laura Ingraham.
I used to be a young woman in movement conservatism myself. I saw how the game is played.
Put down other women, play the morally superior mean girl, agree with the men - and you get a pat on the head and your voice is elevated. You get told how "independent" you are. You get a share of male power, so other men can point to you and say "See! See! A woman who agrees with me!" while they berate their own wives and daughters.
The more outrageous you are in defense of men and male power, the greater your reward.
But the minute you voice opinions that diverge you are Feminazi non grata.
There are certainly women who hold conservative views authentically and honestly. There were once many mature, intelligent, independent women in the GOP.
But within modern conservatism women are nothing but sexed up political human shields for men.
I'm voting D Nov 6.
49
The Republicans aren't fiscally conservative anyway.
Dr. Mann, thank you for your words. The victims of assault feel the same way you do, shame, despair, self-loathing for many reasons but the constant is men blaming woman for getting themselves into those situations. Never once do men look at what they have done and blame themselves. This is especially true with wealthy young men who like Mr. Kavanaugh believe that they are princes and can’t be troubled by such nonsense. If the woman didn’t want to be there she shouldn’t have been. Women see how others are treated when they come forward with their stories of horror at the hands of the young princes. No matter what they say it is pretty rare to see someone actually take them seriously enough to bring charges against the prince. And even when they do, judges look at the harm it will do to the young man who was only sowing his oats and didn’t mean it, come on he was drunk, he didn’t know what he was doing. The presidents true nature came out last night, he has no respect for woman and they are all liars look at the 19 woman who accused him of sexual misconduct and assault. He brings out the worst in everyone, even woman who support him. It is time for woman to stand united and strong and say no more we won’t be marginalized we will be heard and we will vote you all out and hopefully do a better job than you.
13
Now I get it. I have said to friends for days now that I cannot understand why anyone would doubt Dr. Blasey's testimony. "Why can they not see she is telling the truth?" Her testimony was so transparent to me that, truly, it boggled my mind that anyone thought it was fiction. If what you say is true, Ms. Mann, and I believe it is, then we are in for several centuries of difficult times until there is any degree of equality. But if one lives in a different universe, a totally different universe, then this explanation makes sense. It even explains all kinds of abuse of others: African Americans, immigrants, Jews, women, foreigners, the poverty-stricken, physically and/or mentally challenged, sexual minorities and all of "the Others." It explains, but does not justify, abusive behavior. This is why we have Allah, Yahweh, Christ, Buddha, Confucius, Richard Rohr, Martin Luther and Martin Luther King, among others. This epistemic world of angry white men will not last forever; too many of us are mystics, saints and prophets for the "second epistemic" world to survive into infinity. Thank you, Ms. Mann, for a brilliant elucidation. A deeply spiritual life is the answer. This mysticism, non-duality, oneness will envelop the planet. In time. In due time.
4
What is encouraging, a sign that there is change, is that you weren't able to even share it with your own sister on the way home by bus, whereas now you freely can tell your story to a global audience.
10
No one wants to believe how easily some young men can slip into really horrible behavior.
6
“Well behaved women seldom make history.” — Laurel Ulrich
History is being made/rewritten by audacious and rightfully enraged women who are engaging in acts civil disobedience on an unprecedented scale worldwide. Well meaning men need to join us as genuine allies or suffer the wrath that will no doubt intensify until the putrid patriarchy is finally toppled.
3
"...All dark traits - [psychopathy (lack of empathy), narcissism (excessive self-absorption), and Machiavellianism (the belief that the ends justify the means), the so-called 'dark triad', along with many others such as egoism, sadism, or spitefulness] can be traced back to the general tendency of placing one's own goals and interests over those of others even to the extent of taking pleasure in hurting other's -- along with a host of beliefs that serve as justifications and thus prevent feelings of guilt, shame, or the like." (https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/09/180926110841.htm).
Kavanaugh's anger stems from being publicly outed at one of these shameless, privileged frat boys who thinks he *deserves* to be appointed to the Supreme Court, no questions asked. And if you're an angry drunk, sorry that is who you are; alcohol is akin to truth serum.
Rape and sexual assaults are the only crimes in which we grill the victim and disbelieve them - compare it with any other crime like a mugging or just physical assault, where we presume a crime was in fact committed; not in sexual assaults. We always victim blame. It's how the psychopath males interested in keeping power keep the rest of us in "our places" and absolving the perpetrators of any responsibility or guilt.
16
This gets right to the heart of what is happening here in our United States of Racism and Misogyny. The White Patriarchy will have to be stripped of much of its power-- women and minorities working together can make this country a better place for everyone to live in.
4
Trump has no sense of shame. How can he look at himself in the mirror? After mocking the courageous Dr. Ford. And others like Professor Bonnie Mann. What is wrong with so many American voters both male and female enjoying and laughing at Trump’s tawdry performance. Trump you are not the comic in chief. You are the President of the USA. For once act like it. Please!
3
It’s not just patriarchy, it’s CLASS. When I was growing up in Flyover Country, we all knew that the rich kids could get by with doing stuff that would have gotten my middle-class brothers sent to Juvenile Court, or worse. We also knew that because of their wealth and position, those rich kids would be the leaders of our city and our state, when they grew up.
It didn’t matter how many cars the rich kids stole cars for joyrides, how many times they were drunk and disorderly, how many times they forced themselves on girls and got them pregnant. After they had grown up and “matured,” the slate was wiped clean, and they were respected statesmen. Whereas if my brothers had been drunken louts, or, worse, if I had gotten pregnant, my whole family would never be forgiven; we would be “white trash,” and that’s forever.
Evidently, for the Republicans in Congress, the old rules still apply.
21
Your philosophic discussion is interesting but is not necessary to understand the reality of modern day society. This is simply a case of people, in this case males, excercising the power they currently have over what generally is considered to be the weaker sex, physically. All the talk about women being equal to or superior to men in all other respects is irrelevant and will not change anything as long as the prevailing attitude in our society is that at the end of the day might makes right.
7
@Jay Orchard
It helps to understand the mechanisms in order to deconstruct it. Power abused is power wasted.
Before the 1980s, police ignored domestic violence. Today, it is not that easy to do so. We are moving the goal posts so that one day, everyone will be able to take the field. But we have to understand how they do it to undo it.
I see you get the reason for this brutality, but do you believe we can do nothing about it?
4
@Jay Orchard
Rape and misogyny have nothing do to with physical strength or the fact that men are physically stronger than women. Men love to site physical strength and women being the "weaker sex" as the reason sexism exists. In fact it is beside the point especially when it comes to physical aggression. It is an old - and sexist - mind set.
I haven't hear of "all the talk" about women being equal to or superior to men. Women are talking about their experiences living in the world as women.
4
Thank you for your astute commentary and your brave sharing of your own experience. For most women, right now, we, like Dr. Ford, must be our own expert witness, our own commentator, and our own rememberer.
12
The secret is found in Freud’s primal horde, where the wise but victimized sons formed a union against the brutal father then killed and ate him.
Women would be wise to do the same, form a union that is.
But 41% & 51% of all women and white women voted for Trump, respectively.
1
Interesting op-ed, which began well, but is clearly a diatribe of #metoo and #believethewoman. When you reveal that you are NOT a "neutral observer", but someone who has never forgotten a traumatic incident, you're nothing but a partisan. There is no "truth" in this situation. There is merely fairness on all sides. Kavanaugh is the one being destroyed to get revenge for all the women, and their various problems of years ago. The standards of evidence are totally thrown out, the bar for reporting nonsense is lower and lower, and the triviality of reports (throwing ice in a bar? Holding a red cup?) just is amazing and wrong.
Kavanaugh must be confirmed, simply to clearly state, once and for all, that the lies and false testimony will not be successful.
Ms. author fails to mention how many young black men suffered lynching or jail because of unproven rape accusations! Is that the world we want to go back to? When just a women's word is enough?
I'm sorry you were gang raped, but I suspect that you were not the first rape in the lives of those men.... nor were you the last. I hope that a better resolution can still be found after all these years.
But I must disagree with you on one point: Your last one, where you say that if Kav The Caveman is appointed to the Supreme Court that women's rights will be set back for decades.
I suspect that the opposite will happen/is happening.
I suspect that the one taking the beating in all of this will be the Supreme Court. Now it will have 2 sex abusers on the bench.
Every ruling it hands down will be a joke. Sooner or later the men of this country will realize that any man who despises women, also, in the long run, hates men, too.
Right-wingers hate, that's what they do.
Women are just handy, but men are their target, too.
Women today understand that the murder of the Equal Rights Amendment by the Righties was no accident.
Righties fully mean to NEVER have women be equal within the Constitution.
That's what Kav's role is: Keep 'em down - by force if necessary.
Outlaw Roe so they never ask, "What do my genitals have to do with law? Why is this a rigged game?"
This is a rigged game called "Keepin' wimmin down".
There are no "good girls, bad girls".
There are only "patriarchal women v. equalitist women".
When trump mocked Ford last night, the women around him held up signs: "WOMEN FOR TRUMP".
Patriarchal women, upholding the patriarchal rule.
THAT'S what will fall/is falling.
12
That's a terrific explanation of the difference between sexism and misogyny. I'd like to go on an academic rant about the nuances but I'm absolutely destroyed by the second half of this story. Where do these people come from? What demented subculture formed this behavior? Why are people defending them? Maybe I'm too young to contextualize the culture at the time but I honestly don't understand. This makes no sense to me.
14
Thank you for this brilliant piece.
5
Sorry to say this is not my fight,Black women it seems are always left out of the conversation!
Thank you very much for this, Dr. Mann. One of the problems with this divide between worldviews is that women have for centuries colluded with male power because they had to. It was go along to get along at the risk of our own lives. Now that everything is out in the open, the males in power are shocked, shocked that women would dare to confront them. This problem has been centuries in the making and solving it won't be easy. I dare not say impossible, but the gender wars have never been this open or those in power more willing to put us back in our places.
602
@Bronwyn The days of male dominance are over. They better get used to it. What are they going to do? Cause more wars so they have to protect us from them? Male dominance has been disastrous for men as well as women or anything that lives on the planet.
12
@Bronwyn Excellent comment!
@Bronwyn
The more women who speak out to tell their stories even after decades of silence, the more woman will feel empowered to rise up and say "Enough" and "Time's Up"!
1
Epistemology is fascinating and will forever be an area in academia for advancing another nuance regarding what we call knowledge, truth and/or belief.
But for most people including professional philosophers that realize one can actually apply philosophy in practical ways, it really boils down to listening to and following your conscience.
Yes, some people willfully disconnect from their conscience -- (wealth, and cultural or political power seem to promote such a disconnect throughout history) -- and such may be lifetime reclamation projects, but most of us can listen to it if we choose to.
And our conscience is a pretty good natural guide to follow in almost all areas of life. It generally gives us a pretty good sense of what is honest, responsible and kind. And when we should wait and learn more before doing something.
It clearly tells most of us that treating women the way some men, especially powerful men do is not just wrong, but horrifically wrong.
No Kavanaugh should not be confirmed as he is unfit.
And I hope all of us self-reflect and re-dedicate ourselves to following our conscience, our innate sense of right and wrong.
If the majority did that, much in this world would change for the better, especially for women, but for most men too. I hope it happens.
10
It is very hard to unravel deeply ingrained societal expectations from what is factually "true" or "false," even in our own minds. Especially in our own minds.
Looking back at my upbringing, I absorbed "truths" like:
Men have such powerful sexual impulses, they can't be expected to control them. So, it is a woman's fault if she puts herself in a position where a man might overpower her and force intercourse on her.
Men actually have fragile egos, and so women should treat the men around them (all men, but fathers and husbands especially) with a demonstrated level of deference in order to maintain the man's struggling self-esteem.
There are some things men are simply incapable of fully understanding or appreciating (children, housework, concern for other people) so women have to take care of these things or they won't get done.
If a woman says things that are too intelligent, people around her will display negative reactions and she will be avoided and not liked.
I can sit here, as an old woman, and see the injustice of the above sentiments, and yet realize I have lived my entire life with these beliefs inside me. I don't want little girls to be taught these "truths" any more.
119
@Madeline Conant. Right on! It has been my practice for the last 40 years to whisper into a little girl's ear that she is good, she is powerful and she can do anything. Now as these young ladies are coming of age, their mothers are reminding me of those whispers into their daughter's ears. I raised two sons. At no time did I let them feel as if they were superior to me or any other woman. Since they're both married to strong, independent women, I think I did a good job. It's time all parents raise their children equally, to tell daughters that they shouldn't settle for less and to tell sons that they are not the masters of the universe. Only then will future generations feel true equality!
1
@Madeline Conant
Well said. We must be the same age. I lived the list of beliefs, held as "truths." Today I don't know any young women who hold the same. I know young men who would be insulted by them. But I find I still must think twice.
Thank you Dr. Ford and Boy Brett for the excruciating, televised hearing. I see more clearly now.
1
We are in an epistemic war of the worlds only there are more than two. These include the ones that the author names. But there is another, pervasive, abusive one where men are powerful villians and women are victimized and need special advantages, except when the system already benefits them. There truly is a war on men, even if much of what Bonnie Mann says is also true.
1
@MHW If there is a war on men, then it is a war created and sustained by men, not women. Men are the victims of other men "behaving badly", at the expense of women.
7
@MHW there's a war on patriarchy, not a war on men. If it's uncomfortable to witness and be affected by it, it should be. It's ripping away the comfort of basic beliefs that sexual difference (as it's conceived of) comes along with difference of worth and agency.
Laurie Penny articulates this better than I ever could:
"It turns out that this isn’t about individual monsters. It never was. This is about structural violence, about a culture that decided long ago that women’s agency and dignity were worth sacrificing to protect the reputation of powerful men and the institutions that enabled their entitlement. Everyone, including the “good guys,” knew it was happening. We just didn’t think it was all that wrong. At least, not wrong enough to make a fuss about, because the people groping their callous, violent way through life knew they’d get away with it, and most of the men around them were permitted the luxury of ignorance."
From: https://longreads.com/2017/11/07/the-unforgiving-minute/
4
@MHW
You are plainly identifying being a "man" with occupying and defending (as if taking up sides in a "war") the first epistemic world Prof. Mann describes. That is, you simply wish to claim for all men the power (to dominate and use women with complete impunity) which that world affords in greater measure to privileged white men. You haven't described a third epistemic world, you've just offered a cruder and even uglier version of the first.
2
Thank you for this essay. It’s heart-breaking.
But please, let’s not assume that the 2017 #MeToo Movement is a revolutionary breakthrough.
We women who are speaking now are echoing the demands, the pleas, the rage of many women who’ve gone before us and helped clear the path.
Suffragettes. 1970s feminists. And friends.
We look around the world and see so many orthodox cultures, religions, that elevate men and imprison women.
It’s going to take a long time to fight this battle, and I personally doubt it will ever be won.
But. Let’s keep fighting.
14
I understand that misogyny is a feminist tenet. But I think it is an oversimplification that does not capture the complexity of Kavanaugh’s abusive conduct. Kavanaugh has gone out of his way to support female law clerks. He coaches his daughter’s basketball team. He is hateful toward some women and supportive of others.
I take “misogyny” to mean hatred of all women. That is too simplistic. I don’t think Kavanaugh is best labeled as a woman hater. Whatever motivates him is reasonably complex. MIsogyny is a label that better fits a lifelong serial offender.
@michjas, Prof. Mann acknowledges that complexity through her definition of misogyny in the 8th paragraph. She defines it differently than you do, but I think her point dovetails with yours.
5
Quite a few comments about the need to VOTE in 2018 and 2020.
The real change comes when there are more ("bad"? "good"?) women in positions of power, whether those be in culture and entertainment, law, medicine, business, or politics and statecraft.
Republican men are managing the levers of power in this photograph. Whether their actions attain their objectives in the long run remains to be seen.
With more women on the Judiciary Committee, we are more likely to get a procedure put in place dealing with allegations of criminal wrongdoing which eliminates such horrific theater as this Kavanaugh "confirmation".
4
Thank you, Professor Mann, for adding your voice to the chorus that must be heard and understood by our society. I'm sure it was a painful decision to speak about such a devastating and personal experience. You are to be commended for your bravery. It would be comforting to think that stories such as these will change our present society but I fear that it will take a long time and many alterations to our view of a moral world for that to happen, given present circumstances. But it's a start.
9
Nice essay. Thanks for sharing.
Your writing about having to lock down the shame was especially powerful.
I am afraid that Trump is so toxic he is setting free a poisonous, evil strain in our culture.
5
This column should be required reading for all 100 Senators before they vote on the Supreme Court nomination.
As a Canadian law professor, I am surprised that a person facing such credible charges could still be considered for a lifetime appointment to the Court.
As a person whose sister was sexually assaulted and murdered, I am appalled at the mob cheering your Demagogue as he attacks an assault victim.
America, have you no decency?
242
@Calvin Sandborn . "....required reading for all 100 Senators before they vote on the Supreme Court nomination."
I second that.
8
@Calvin Sandborn
"America, have you no decency?"
Um......
As a matter of fact, he wasn't really "attacking" an assault victim, as it were, he was simply questioning some "inconsistencies" in her story.
And if that isn't enough for you, unimpeachable truth teller Sarah Sanders completely backs him up on that.
So that ought to settle that.
And maybe you hadn't noticed, but this nominee not only went to Yale but he likes beer, a lot.
He's been through quite enough, so please go back to Canada and mind your own business!
@Calvin Sandborn
What do you expect from a country that elected (sort of) a man who had bragged about assaulting women?
Walking with a friend this morning, I had a hard time articulating the sense of foreboding I was feeling. All I could say was, "I feel like if he is confirmed, it will destroy us on a psychological level. I don't think the opposition will be galvanized. It will be such a victory for the system, and there will be no point in trying to change it."
I am an alumna of an esteemed women's college. I chose that college over an Ivy league university or any co-ed university for several reasons. One was I was determined not to be raped. My mother's stories of her time at college were all the evidence I needed that college boys were very, very dangerous. As a woman who only endured harassment (by the grace of God I succeeded in not being sexually assaulted,) my life has been shaped by the threat, the policing action of misogyny. Let's be honest, all women's lives are (even women who work to protect the system because they have gained status from their relationships with the elite white rich men who rule.)
When the author concluded, "If this nomination succeeds, women’s human rights will be set back for decades," I felt terrified and vindicated all at once. That was what I was trying to articulate this morning.
I recognize I am talking a lot about feelings here. It's intentional. I am writing this with a distinctly feminine tone. It's time to be unabashedly a woman. Women's rights ARE human rights. We women, of all colors, creeds, and sexualities, constitute complete human beings.
87
@michelle
I wish I could "like" your comment 1,000 times. Yes, it is time to be unabashedly a woman. Thank you for giving voice to my feelings--exactly.
1
Sharp analysis. I disagree on only one point: "women's human rights will be set back decades." The long view is that the status of women is improving and not even the desperate measures of angry white men--or any misogynistic men of any color--can turn us back. As a male, I'm proud to support and advocate for women's continuing empowerment, and there are many, many more like me. It's a slow, agonizing process that includes setbacks; however, to quote Sam Cooke, "a change is gonna come" and is already happening before our eyes.
324
@Jay U Good points, Jay. But why is it always men who insist "things are getting better." Please think about that before you insist you know what's "getting better" for women. This is the only life I have and for all of it, every baby step forward for women has been met with huge steps backward. There's something self serving about men telling women that "it's getting better." You have no authority to do so because you don't live in a body that's so frequently looked at as prey.
2
@Jay U I hope you are right about the time it will take. But changing a long held culture takes a long time and many battles. The culture of men't rights to a woman's body goes back to the beginning of time and is still present in more primitive cultures. We are not immune to that here either.
I agree with you that her analysis is good. But I also agree with her that "women's human rights will be set back decades." I believe she is mainly referring to the representation on the US Supreme Court. It is possible that the court might roll back protections for women that will take generations to overcome.
1
Most of the negative responses to Prof. Mann's piece assume that the Senate's hearings were a trial and that the judge was not proven guilty. It was not a trial but an exposure of his character. His temperament and character to be Supreme Court judge. He failed. He was evasive and boisterous and his reaction supports Mann's analysis of the power of men in privileged misogynist circles. Yes, those men in the Republican Committee acted as misogynists lacking total understanding of women's position.Witness Graham's explosions: brutal attacks on a woman's credibility. Sadly, they ill vote for the judge and continue to disregard women, unless women begin to elect different men. I mean, women who do not support the values of those powerful men and are aware of their own fragile position in this unequal world.
467
@A.L. Or unless they elect women
1
@A.L.
Not "boisterous." Belligerent, aggressive, disrespectful, arrogant are more-apt adjectives to describe kavanaugh and his behavior..
2
@A.L.
"It was not a trial but an exposure of his character. His temperament and character to be Supreme Court judge."
It wasn't a trial, but it was certainly about whether or not the allegations made by Blasey Ford were true or not. Since there is not a shred of corroborating evidence, the lynch mob have changed the subject.
2
Thank you so much. This is brilliant. And explains so much.
For example: Women are a majority so how come they are still not 'equal' to men in our society?
As you explain - many women buy into the role required of them in our culture. And I would add perhaps because many are mothers of sons and they want their sons to inherit their rightful place in this misogynistic society? Or are more afraid of their sons being falsely abc used than they are of their daughters being the victim of assault - which they themselves may have kept secret?
I think equality for women today is as much about women wanting it as it is for men allowing it.
67
@Nancy I still cannot understand why 53% of white women voted for Trump. They had to know what he was.
6
@Bill please keep in mind that it was not 53% of all women. It's 53% of who voted for Trump were white women. I know, still mystifying, but half the country didn't vote at all, so we're actually closer to 25%. Almost every religion propagates the idea of male superiority and the Christian crazies adore Trump, who in their minds personifies white male privilege.
At the heart of male rage is fear of untrammeled female sexuality.
It was Eve who seduced Adam. In patriarchal religions women are controlled by separating them from men in church, mosque or synagogue forcing to to be covered up and most controlling of all by limiting them to sex only when they are most likely to become pregnant.
It is not surprising that women in East Germany under the Communists were happy for they were legally equal in almost every aspect of society.
The Scandinavian countries have similar legal protections for women. But men there seem more secure and less threatened by women then men here.
Could it happen here? Yes for since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 women are taking positions in Medicine, Law and business that they never had before. This has fostered a back lash or reaction that we see demonstrated in the Senate and Trump these past days but that will fade eventually.
I have hope in the attitudes of my daughter and grand daughters that being called man dependent is a slur.
35
@Edward Blau
In the society where people are not equal (eg Communist East Germany) women cannot be equal either (Christa Wolf).
@Edward Blau
Ditch the crackpot religious fables and you'll find more intelligent questions and answers.
For those who insist on ancient desert peasant cult tales, it was a male serpent who tempted Eve and Adam, but it was Adam who raped his daughters of his own volition, as did then, clearly, the sons of Adam.
2
I wish I knew what to say to make the pain of your experience go away. I am so sorry. This kind of inhumanity must be stopped.
58
@Larry Bennett
I find when someone is willing to stand beside someone in pain without trying to minimize it or wish it away, that makes all the difference. No one can make the pain go away, but we can witness its existence, which is anathema to the Patriarchy.
11
Powerful words. I'm glad you can speak about it now. I wish you could get justice. I wish those boys, now men, could be put in jail to answer for their crimes.
49
"privileged white men get to do with impunity what other men at least have to think twice about," Correction: O.J. Simpson, Clarence Thomas, Ray Rice, Bill Cosby, etc. demonstrate that men of all colors have dehumanized women with impunity. This isn't about white supremacy. It's about male supremacy, which exists in every single demographic on earth.
206
@Amy Luna All the people you list are extremely privileged. But it's true that the pattern of misogyny and violent domination pervades all communities. The privileged white community has its own forms and practices that are pretty special, but claims of male supremacy are universal in various forms.
3
@Amy Luna
Just as long as the white men agree! I have to admit, their force is getting weaker, but white men can kill the career of a football player of color just for speaking out about police abuse.
I look forward to the day racism is expunged from the Patriarchy.
5
@Amy Luna
Could it be rather about the privilege given by owning large sums of money?
Still Bill Cosby is going to prison and Trump got elected president.
I would go along with your comment if you didn't generalize to "every single demographic on earth". There are and were many human societies without male supremacy. Of course patriarchy, usually with a violent undertone, does exist in most wealthy and others large societies (India, China, the US etc), and it gets worse with countries that have adopted a nazi type of hatred for a real or imagined other (Hungary, India, Myanmar, theUS under the Trump regime, etc. All Nazi ideologies are based on male supremacy).
However, as an anthropologist I can tell you that patriarchy has not been or is present everywhere and because of that, there's much hope for doing away with it.
Ok Prof., let's go over it again, what common sense and history has taught us.
Pre 1980, sexual harassment/assault in general and particularly in the work force was de facto legal. Post 1980 in law and fact it was not.
Countless women came forth complained, sued and won. I saw many in the large corporation I worked in, including one predator very high up.
As an adult you should have complained and/or started action against this/these predators like so many adult women of your age did.
The only exception to the above rule now are minors or immigrants who suffer this abuse. There should be no statute of limitations on them.
If you start to demonize men or elite men and not the predator you are playing identity politics just like Hillary did and serving up an ego maniac bigot demagogue like Trump on a silver platter to us.
Playing identity politics not only angers the 95%+ men who are not predators but also angers many women ie giving us Trump.
Learn from history professor or forever be condemned to repeat its' worst mistakes.
11
@Paul
I apparently didn't read what you did.
Professor Mann did not state or accuse all men of sexual assault and or rape nor did the Professor say all men behaved in this manner. What the Professor did say that those who do these thing's are frequently believed over the victims.
She did say that wealth and privilege frequently and mostly give these boys and men a protection and that girls and women are not believed and encouraged to blame themselves.
There are many studies published about how Humans react to traumatizing events. The studies cover male and female reactions to sexual assault rape and harassment it's not unusual for victims to keep quiet not remember many details it serves none of us to discount these stories.
18
@Paul ,Your presumptuous lecturing of the professor about her response to sexual assault is a perfect illustration of the problem. The point is not to avoid angering privileged white men in power, that's what we have been doing for centuries. Our historically Patriarchal society has promoted the tolerance of misogyny in many forms and, while it is changing, the vestiges of that are very much alive and well, as the Judiciary committee amply demonstrated.
10
@Alecfinn- Thank you for your reply. Again, you are drifting towards identity politics and blaming all men over women.
Alecfinn, sexual harassment has been illegal in fact and deed since app. 1980. Since then countless women have complained, sued and won.
If you start making excuses, rationalizing, pigeon holing, scapegoating, ax grinding, intellectualizing, portraying women as weak, feeble minded creatures that have to be protected against themselves you start enabling and co depending on the predator instead of doing something about it.
Predators live for that.
1
I am a black woman. Could someone explain to me why so many white women support a misogynistic system that oppresses them? It's not just Trump. I notice this in my workplace where I had to fight to destroy a destructive patriarchal, sexist culture that was passed on from one group of white men bosses to a group of white women bosses. I understand there are benefits to knowing you're not on the bottom but why is it hard to see a system where everyone is free?
823
@kim Maybe I can shed some light on it. As privileged women, we get certain goodies from the system that buys our lunch. And we are pushed to believe that the only way we'll get lunch is by going along.
What would happen to Bret Kavanaugh's wife if she tells what she must know? Compare that with what she'll get as the wife of a Supreme Court judge. She doesn't have any network of support outside of the patriarchy. Maybe she could get one if she looked for it, but who knows?
23
@kim I wish I knew but white women are some of the worst enforcers in the systems. They don't even have to be "bosses" but just secretaries who have been cleaning up messes for powerful men for decades and getting them reliant on them. They really fear women being in power, because they can't hide their own problems by being a fixer for someone else with even worse problems with women in charge. Have fled more than one workplace due to these dynamics. I try to help protect the younger women, but the system is usually most brutal to them. As to women who have power, they normally owe it to a white man or group of white men. I thought about it and after 20 years the final decision to hire or promote me has NEVER belonged to a woman. Ever. Do I really need to say never belonged to a woman of color? People know where their bread is buttered. That's all.
4
@kim. It's hard for me to understand too, as a white woman, but we're all socialized in this world of patriarchy and misogyny. It seeps into all of us unconciously. They are extremely powerful forces. There are consequences to women in fighting it, and some women would rather just flow within the system instead of fighting it. I do believe the conversations that are happening now will create some change.
3
This piece does not make a valid claim, but ad hominem / genetic fallacies. The emerging matriarchy shoves logic to the side, labeling it a "white male" system designed to suppress the other, while it simultaneously lynches anything white and male through various illogical techniques and slanders.
Every time I read that in the Trump tape, Trump claimed he sexually assaults women, I go back and listen to that tape -- the primary source -- and DO NOT HEAR HIM SAY THAT. (And I am a woman!!!)
You deliberately misrepresent what he says, Straw Man. Now I'm no fan of Trump. But to distort what anyone says for political gain is not a place where I care to live.
"What we have been witnessing is the form misogyny takes when the most powerful, wealthy and entitled of white men find themselves confronted by women unwilling or unable to keep silent any longer."
This is a willful misinterpretation of the issue, Professor Mann. What we are witnessing is a return to Salem where mere accusations are taken for the truth -- as long as it's a woman making an accusation against a white man.
This is a human rights issue. And if the emerging matriarchy is one that supports mere accusations as proof -- please take me back to the patriarchy, where we were innocent until proven guilty. Justice that was penned by -- white men.
14
@Ship Ahoy But Trump *was* elected president, Kavanaugh will likely be confirmed, and even if he isn't men will still dominate in every branch, at every level of government.
To say that there is an emerging matriarchy is a willful misinterpretation. We don't have any real power -- we are still just trying to be heard.
1
@Ship Ahoy
" go back and listen to that tape -- the primary source -- and DO NOT HEAR HIM SAY THAT."
I am a man, and I absolutely hear him say that.
1
@Ship Ahoy
You make some good points. Certain Western/Enlightenment/ Anglo Saxon values that we should and do cherish may have been espoused and promulgated by elite white males, including those who upheld the values but did not practice them (think slave owning Founding Fathers, think women first got the vote in 1920). That does not diminish the value of principles themselves, like innocent until proven guilty.
But, but, you are condemning Mann for a position she does not hold! You are ignoring the fact that this is NOT a case of reckless accusation unjustly bringing down a man. First, the women WANT Kavenaugh to have due process. They are prepared to undergo an FBI investigation, a polygraph test, etc etc. It is Kavanaugh and Grassley who are trashing judicial principles and ethics, who are trashing decorum and due process both. Ford wept in pain but wanted to help the American people learn the truth. Kavanaugh wept in self pity and rage because he wanted himself to have the position that will cap his career.
6
Sexual abuse exists and needs to be combated but Ms. Mann ignores a basic principle of justice. Any accused is innocent until proven guilty because anyone can be accused unjustly.
If Ms. Mann was unjustly accused of sexual abuse by one of her students, her reputation would be severely damaged and she would be unable to prove that she innocent.
13
@jck so if you can't prove it, don't report it?
3
@Di
I know someone who was sucker punched and did not report it, even though it was traumatizing. Wonder how many beatings men get that aren't reported?
If you can't prove it, then you seem to be saying we should imprison people based on hearsay?
It's not right that life can be brutal and unfair, but it is a fact.
1
The die has been cast. The Rubicon has been crossed. It's a done deal. Now, it's all sound and fury, signifying nothing. Kavanaugh will be confirmed, and America will begin 30 years of backward evolution, headed for a second Dark Age. But there's hope. In the near future, we will program the human mind in the computer, and this will be based on a "survival" algorithm. This model will provide irrefutable proof of how we have tricked the mind with our ridiculous beliefs about exactly what is supposed to survive - creating minds programmed de facto for destruction. When we do this, we will begin the long trek back to reason and sanity. See RevolutionOfReason.com
3
Professor Mann: Of the me too movement, "...make no mistake — the “old” world represented by that photograph" of the all male, all old men GOP inquisitors "...controls every branch of our government."
Which is a very disheartening, infuriating and baffling fact because control of our government has been enabled, in large measure, by women.
Geez. What's a women's rights supporter to think? Even worse, what is a misogynist to think?
2
Dr. Mann,
What happened to you is terrible, and I hope the process of writing this piece in some way helps.
WRT your analysis of the epistemic worlds, I'm concerned that your piece (and much published commentary in media today) serves to enforce a binary understanding of American culture that is not a fair representation.
"In the first world, privileged white men get to do with impunity what other men at least have to think twice about, and for women who tell tales, the punishment is swift and devastating."
It's my contention that most americans, even most people who voted for Trump, don't view the world this way. By demonizing the right - as Fox demonizes the left - politicians and media seek to represent a gray scale populace in a bi-color format: a black pole and a white pole.
The problem is that these efforts have begun to reshape our country. And that's a bad thing.
Your column - absent stirring narrative of your assault - is an academic way of saying "basket of deplorables."
I watched all of Dr. Ford's testimony, and I have defended her against those who claim she's a political puppet, but I am not certain what happened 37 years ago. To which of your two epistemic worlds do I belong?
56
@Michael Until you have walked in my shoes - as a woman in general, and as a female professional in a largely male dominated environment - and the shoes of all myself sisters similarly situated, you will never understand the essence of what Professor Mann describes.
Despite your clear intelligence, intellectual analysis alone cannot explain or understand the feelings, implied subtext, and repeated aggressions I have endured solely because of my gender in both my professional and personal life. How could you, you are male, and your entire world view and experience is colored and informed by YOUR gender.
It may seem an unfair or inaccurate binary analysis to you, but to me, as a woman, it's spot on.
2
Only one individual in this sad mess has a reason to lie. Believe the victim.
4
@Michael you belong to the first group...Just because you ignore it (or don't see it), doesn't mean it's not happening to women. You clearly have little to no understanding of your own privilege as a man in our society. It would serve you to educate yourself on your privilege as a man benefiting from our patriarchal society.
1
Dr. Mann,
Thank you for an excellent article. You put into words the musing of my mind and heart that I was struggling to articulate. We need to vote, we need to speak and/or write. The process continues.
17
The patriarchy is dying, but not without a fight. They will scream and shout and do everything they possibly can to continue their crimes against humanity (women). This will get much, much worse before it gets better, but it WILL get better. We are not going backwards.
97
Your use of the term "white men" is telling. It appears you are generalizing your horrible experience into anger against all men who fit the ethnic description of those who attacked you. That is the definition of racism, ascribing the faults of some members to the entire group. I think a philosopher should know better, and should certainly recognize that shaming by the use of racist generalizations will hinder the noble efforts to end all sexual assault. It would be far more effective to enlist the support of all the men who overwhelmingly treat women with dignity and respect. Calling them all misogynists does not gather that support
10
@Dr B There is a tribe of rich upper class men who believe they can do whatever they want with impunity. Right now, in this country, it is mostly white men. Trump believes he will never suffer any consequences as did Weinstein and others.
4
@Bill You missed Dr B's point. He's not talking about a "tribe" of "mostly white men". He's calling the author out for generalizing to an entire gender!
While I was an undergraduate student in the late 80s, I had a girlfriend from the US who was an exchange student. When she returned I visited her for 3 months in her college town.
Once back in Europe, I remember commenting on how different relationships between men and women seemed to be in the US to what I was used to, and concluding how tense the relationship between male and female students was, behind all the smiles.
I guess it’s finally emerging now.
15
Pointing out the difference between sexism and misogyny was very interesting and perhaps enlightening. I was particularly struck by the notion of "good women" and "bad women". (We actually saw this during the election when Trump called Clinton a "nasty woman" by doing no more than a male competitor would have done).
A lot of people have been wondering why so many women support Trump and/or insist on believing Kavanaugh or dismissing his behavior even if it might be true. I believe that these women recognize that women have less power than men so choose to align themselves with men. Their main protection is being a "good" woman. As long as they maintain their goodness, they will be protected from the bad things that may happen. That is why, so often, even women blame the women who are assaulted. As long as it is the fault of the "bad" woman, they will be safe because they are "good."
667
@DebraM
But the vote is secret.
@DebraM -- yes.
Stockholm Syndrome is alive! and
doing quite well here in the good ole US of A.
For NOW.
But I sense Women are (finally!) waking UP
to their Oppression / Oppressors.
Let US not forget, Women out-number men;
and there is Great Strength in Numbers.
1
@DebraM
I never thought of it way but that explains my sister. Thank you.
2
I'm one of those cynics who think Kavanaugh will be confirmed.
In that case, we might as well start preparing for the day when more honest people will once again control both houses of Congress and impeach him for perjury. (I assume there is no statute of limitations on impeachable offenses.) Just continuing to go along with this abortion of a Supreme Court is not an option.
55
@Linda:
The statute of limitations for perjury under federal law is five years. Could the senate oust him? That would prove to be an interesting case.
I absolutely believe Kavanaugh will be confirmed. Placing hope in the likes of Flake, Collins and Murkowski is no hope at all. They enjoy the privilege of being in the ruling party. That completely supersedes any so-called white male privilege.
1
thank you for your bravery and analysis.
We need a plan to win this battle.
We need to start with young girls and how they treat other girls.
We have to be strong together.
8
I learned when I was in grad school that the women I shared the campus with lived in a different world than I, that they had fears I would never have and that many suffered assaults and indignities most guys didn't. It was a disturbing realization that shaped my perceptions ever since. Thank you for this piece. I wish every man in the country would read it.
109
@Gordon Gregory
Well put!
The most and longest and continuously aggrieved population isn't political or national or ethnic or racial or religious.
Also a majority.
Reckoning might be slow in coming, but it's coming, and it's virtually guaranteed not to be pretty.
12
This is a powerful article and I wish the world was different and both sexes had equal power and respected each other. Brett Kavanaugh clearly has neither the temperament nor the judgment to serve on the Supreme Court.
However, women have more than 50% of the votes (51.6% in 2016 according to the US Census Bureau), so they have the power to vote anyone out of office, including the current misogynistic Republican leadership.
Why don't they?
24
@Alec: Great question, and one that baffles me as well. I think much of it stems from a religion whose founder's views were later co-opted into another version of maintaining the patriarchy. It is still taught in branches of this religion that women should be submissive to men. Most of these women do not question this tenet, because to do so puts them in perceived danger of their immortal souls.
Over half of evangelical women voted for Trump and the status quo. The life of this world doesn't matter so much, only the tightly held vision of the next. I believe this answers a significant part of the question. And I wish it were not so.
7
@Alec Because there are women who are not dumb enough to believe that "all white men" are misogynists and who are smart enough to see political theater when they see it. Assuming that all women who say they have been sexually assaulted are telling the truth is just ignorant and denying of our history of due process where ALL are innocent until proven guilty.
1
@Alec
Religion and the patriarchal dogma of each cult long ago separated, reduced and held hostage all females into the various groups beneficial to all males. Find one place on the planet that is safe for females. Find one place where men care about this.
1
There is one and only one remedy for this insanity. VOTE. Vote in November 2018, vote in November 2020 and send the misogynists out of the State House, out of the Capital and out of the White House and never let them come back in. "The Base" may be vocal but hard data shows it does not align with what We The People actually want and believe, nor does it fit with what I still believe and hope is the humanity and dignity of our nation. We can't be complacent and we can't be discouraged - it may take a few election cycles - but we CAN get there. We MUST.
55
Thank you for this. It is a relief to open the window on this dark subject by delineating not just two genders, or two truths (he said, she said) but two whole different epistemic world views. Yes! Looking at it this way, we can see in one view all of the feminine, including nature and the compassionate emotions. In the other view we can see the dominance and power complexes that would have sway, in every way, over the first. Thus the privileged white male is now where he feels it is his right to be and he does as he wishes—as we see happening in full view since the election of 2016. The author’s personal experience shows how deeply the young female is influenced by the power of the dominant world. Power, to the feminine becomes the capability to endure. To keep silent. To play by the privileged white man’s rules. To even gain power by joining and supporting him. Holding the bomb of truth silent inside. But—wise men should not be afraid. They should be relieved to have this ugly system unveiled so they can go forward, learn, grow and become whole themselves.
153
@BonnieD.
'wise men should not be afraid. They should be relieved to have this ugly system unveiled so they can go forward, learn, grow and become whole themselves.'
I love this sentence, thank you.
1
@BonnieD.
Another way to look at this epistemology is to realize that women can not fix this problem without the help of men. So women need to help the men around them know what is going on and allow them to do what they can to help. One way of doing that is to report these incidents soon after they happen. Get on the record and make the system start to move. I mean this especially for the dramatic and severe incidents that this writer described happening to her when she was 19. Even if her drunken state would have nullified her charges decades ago it would have put her on the record and put the names of certain men in the record where others could act on it in later years. The average man does not want this type of behavior to continue but if they don't know they certainly can't help.
My father and my father-in-law were accused of crimes they didn't commit. Neither was the same again. I'm still dealing with the financial repercussions of the debt. If you don't remember Duke, reminder: not about privilege, it's about: "sometimes you accuse the wrong person".
My experience leads me to believe Kavanaugh, hers to believe Ford. That's emotion. No one is "credible" because you like their demeanor or temperament, that's coaching. Let's discuss reason.
Dr. Ford deserves respect, every witness does, but no one is above cross-examination. No one is allowed to question her?
First, California Professional Code 2903a says it's fraud to call yourself a psychologist without a license. Fraud is a fancy word for lying. She doesn't have a license. Second, she is a paid consultant for a company with business before the court. This is called Conflict of Interest. The CMO of Sloan Kettering had to resign for failing to reveal conflicts of interest, but Dr. Ford doesn't have to?
She has no evidence. She can't remember anything. He remembers and can document everything. If she could tell us a date, he could prove his innocence even though he doesn't have to. The man's been accused of a felony. He's innocent until proven guilty.
There is no rational reason to believe her over him. Justice is blind. If you didn't know his gender or who appointed him you'd side with him, every rational person would.
We had an election. You lost. This is the result.
Vote!
5
@jkemp
From over here, Kavanaugh seemed to do a pretty convincing job of destrying his own credibility. reminded me a bit of that scene in the Godfather (tame by comparison).
7
@jkemp CBF is a research psychologist with a PhD and teaches at Stanford, as well as publishing research papers. Don't try to diminish her career.
I wonder why Kavanaugh was not cross-examined by the sex crimes prosecutor. And, there was a witness who was never called. In what universe would a witness who could have exonerated him (and who is even a friend--not a hostile witness) not be called? Perhaps one that the accused knew what he would say.
13
@jkemp
What are the odds that both your father and father-in-law would be "wrongly" accused of crimes - civil and/or criminal? There must've been evidence against them or you'd not addressing high legal bills that resulted.
1
Sexual assault in the US is a real problem. Unfortunately, you cannot believe every accusation. Duke La Crosse, Tawanda Brawley, and Rachel Dolezal are only 3 examples of false allegations. This makes it more complicated, to separate the wheat from the chaff, but that is why we have a robust justice system, to adjudicate accusations.
In our Justice system, accusers have the right to be heard - but if all 3 accusers named names, and none of those named corroborate any of the accusations, accusers do not have the right to be believed.
-Swetnick's outlandish accusations are totally unravelling.
-Ramirez's accusation was not corroborated at all. She is also a know liberal advocate.
-Dr Ford's claim was also not corroborated. It was a she said vs they said. Even her lifelong friend did not corroborate the claim. But it is known that Dr Ford protested Trump at rallies, and even coached people how to pass or cheat a polygraph test. Hum. Seems more likely that she presented the accusation as a good foot soldier for the resistance, as her 'civic duty' to the resistance, but not the truth, because the end justifies the means.
Dr Ford was treated well by the male GOP Senators. They were even afraid to cross-examine her or ask her follow-up questions, which would likely have seriously chipped away at her allegation. Absolutely no misogyny there. Do not pretend otherwise.
5
This was a very powerful column that shows why violence against women is the keystone of continuing male power. Many more women hold positions of power in the workplace than ever before. In academia, we are well-paid and tenured, and do not need our husbands or their income to keep a roof over our heads. But as long as men can rape and beat us with impunity we will never hold equal status in society. I very much admire Dr. Mann and Dr. Blasey for having the courage to reveal what they went through, despite feeling a corrosive sense of shame that rightly belonged to their assailants, not them. And I am enraged about the men who are being elevated to power. Trump and his ilk can be voted out of office, but how do we get rid of Kavanaugh?
31
The cure for misogyny is not misandry, stereotyping, and prejudice. It is rule of law and full, due process. Epistemic worlds relieve believers from pursuing truth, and encourage the selection of facts and opinions that fit a narrative. We don't really live in opposing worlds. We do live in opposing ideologies, with lazy intellectual habits and rudderless emotional content. The misogynistic world is quite small, but it is inhabited also by women, some of whom use it for personal gain. There is a reason powerful men of privilege are on their second or third trophy wife. It is not just the goading of male peers that perpetuates their behavior and thinking. This article may be accurate in describing two thought worlds, but it doesn't describe the world most of us live in, and it certainly doesn't describe the world most of us want. Keep in mind the master manipulators in both worlds belong to the 1 percent, financially and morally (immorally?). Most of us are good to each other all the time, however imperfectly. The ridiculous drama being played out now has a cast of self-serving, power hungry individuals who scold men of one party, while electing and defending wicked and notorious abusers of their own. There is no fidelity to a set of principles that the rest of live by. The party of Clinton is somehow the defender of Ford. The party that opposed Clinton is nervously the party of Trump. These people all change epistemology like the rest of us change underwear.
9
Thank you for this lucid explanation of the ways men in power silence women. In the book you cite, "Down Girl: the Logic of Misogyny," the first sample page opens to strangulation as a common assault men perpetrate. The author then moves to strangulation and suffocation to the symbolic silencing of women. And as you say in this piece, in this epistemic world, the mental construct of patriarchy, women self-silence. We direct our rage inwards because the men in power will punish us for speaking our truth.
19
Bonnie Mann's piece bears powerful testimony to the meanings of the horrific spectacle exploding around, and inside, us. Trump, Kavanaugh, McConnell and their buddies inhabit the world of patriarchal misogynist control, in which angry white men and their defenders assume that their lies, their rage, and their hurry to "do it" are justified by some higher order -- in this case, the GOP's control of the Supreme Court, the Congress, and the White House. Meanwhile, Christine Blasey Ford and others are on the rise. Speaking out bravely, these women share an audacity to break the silence by publicly naming their encounters with the hateful violence of the snarling, shameful men who have held power over them-- but no more. Regardless of what happens to the shameful, broken Kavanaugh, this moment of reckoning is shaking up the order of things in our public world.
17
In Mississippi last night President Misogyny himself was giving one of his hate filled speeches, and debasing the character and credibility of Dr. Ford. And to the fanatic applause of thousands.
Included in that rally were hundreds, if not thousands of women also cheering. Why? I have no answers for women who see Trump as some kind of savior, he's evil.
Excellent article Ms. Mann. But if millions of women continue to support the likes of this President, little progress will be made with the #MeToo Movement.
50
@cherrylog754
"and debasing the character and credibility of Dr. Ford. And to the fanatic applause of thousands."
I agree, pretty, pretty, pretty weak.
Compared to millions cheering up the debasement of judge Kavanaugh's character by senate Dems and their salivating lapdog media.
1
It should be noted that traditionally, and still according to the dictionary, "misogyny" means clearly and simply "a hatred of women" (Merriam-Webster Collegiate). Not just slighting them, being biased against them or mistreating them, but hating them.
A feature of the present culture wars is that words are appropriated and redefined to suit ideological needs. "Racism", for example, has been recharacterized so that it is impossible to be racist against whites.
This article redeploys the term "misogyny" so that it suits the present argument while hopefully dragging along some of its original opprobrium. This practice makes dialogue very difficult to achieve.
2
Let's remember Alinsky's insight about changing the status quo: Change means movement. Movement creates friction which produces heat. No heat, no movement, no change.
If you're not making them mad, you're not changing anything.
43
@gandy
"If you're not making them mad, you're not changing anything."
Weird thing, gandy, Apple made no one mad, neither did Microsoft, nor Ford or Tesla (both the scientist and company). Yet, they brought about more change than all the politician loudmouths of all persuasions taken together.
Moreover, change by way of a bigmouth is often destruction of others' creations.
1
Women who escape a sexual attack by whatever means are not adequately counted in the public discourse. From "left early" to "strong no" to public space to any number of avenues of escape this pool of women is rarely considered. Or worse they are categorized as some "good girl" who dressed "properly" or was "too ugly" to count, or too "difficult". In fact they were just lucky that time (many times in reality) and often knew it. The women who turn on other women think they are better, more righteous, and have a "powerful" man to protect them. That powerful man/husband/father may in fact be predating other women but is Mr. Righteous at home. So many decent men never hear the stories and it is time that they do. Number of incidents counts.
12
The demeanor that Kavanaugh showed in his opening statement told me all I need to know about him. His ranting and raving showed just what an entitled man he is. A mini-Trump if you will.
Do we really need another of these men making decisions for women?
Do we need a self-satisfied man making partisan decisions on citizens lives, like Voting Rights, Roe-vs. Wade, Citizens United, Immigrants and of course anything to do with Women's Rights.
Kavanaugh has shown him self to be a misogynist already just by his hiring of women, "who must have a certain look" according to the woman who sorts out who she is going to send to him for interviews for a clerkship.
He has also showed himself to be a liar when he has been asked about "spying memo".
With all of the Republican men on the Committee, I can only hope that
Collins and Murkowski can vote against him. It is ironic that I have to pin my hopes on two women to stop his appointment
I hope they decide to be protectors of their gender.
58
Thank you, and I'm so sorry that happened to you.
8
To overturn the deadly misogynist rule of privileged males, and I eliminate the word "white" because it is the same in any country, any culture, one would have to overturn it in the religions that give the civil government their power.
America, not to mention Eugene, is dominated by religions who say that women are inferior and should never be priests or in charge. Masons, Mormon, Catholics...they have carved in stone that your status is inferior, that you get to sit at the kids table whenever important things are done or discussed.
As long as patriarchy is legal in tax supported religions, then its domination will affect us all, for power is about money, and money is
about being safe from consequences. There is a very good reason the Supreme Court is made of those from patriarchal religions, for they support the domination of a few by the many.
I can vote against Trump or his hirelings this November, but no one gets to vote against the misogynist rule of the "fathers".
Hugh Massengill, Eugene Oregon
37
Thank you, Professor Mann for this awesome article. So many women identify with being subjugated all our lives and with our own stories of being sexually assaulted. Thank you for sharing your truth and explaining why many women never share their stories of being sexually assaulted. It’s a terrible world where victims are shamed and blamed and the assaulters are coddled.
8
What you fear, you destroy. And my conclusion to all of this is that at the core of it, men fear women. Period. And now finally the time is coming where they really should because now there are consequences.
172
Pray God you are right!
@Ann Even more than fear, I think what we're seeing is guilt and then rage as a result of the (probably subconscious) guilt that all men feel for having treated women as objects and second class citizens for so long. When we hurt someone and know that we've hurt them, we want to disappear them, to destroy the evidence--the person we've hurt will then be at least ignored, as Judge did with Blasey in the supermarket.
1
Women, it should be noted, do not have protection under the Constitution. The ERA was blocked. Where does that leave us with people like 45 and k in charge?
131
@Currents Wasn't the Equal Rights Amendment kinda lip service? The Constitution covers and protects all people within the legal jurisdiction of the United States, no matter their gender.
I could be entirely wrong, and if so, educate me. What would an ERA have granted that every American doesn't already have?
1
@Sam Rosenberg
Discrimination against women is *not prohibited* under the Constitution, with the exception of a couple of Titles. So an Originalist, such as K and Gorsuch, can legitimately say women have no rights afforded to them.
It is not lip service, it is the actual statement and protection that something is prohibited. The absence of this statement allows discrimination.
1
@Sam Rosenberg: many other nations's constitutions explicitly state that men and women are equal under the law. Ours doesn't. The 14th amendment states that citizens have " equal protection of the laws", but here is a response from Ruth Ginsberg about the necessity for the ERA.
"[T]he equality principle…is not in the original Constitution.… The equal-protection clause shows up in the Fourteenth Amendment, which is a restriction on what states can do.… The Court incorporated an equality principle into the due-process clause of the Fifth Amendment…. But I suppose the best reason is, if you look at any Constitution that has been written since 1950, you will find in it a statement that men and women are equal before the law. So, I have three granddaughters. I would like to be able to take out my pocket Constitution and say that the equal-citizenship stature of men and women is a fundamental tenet of our society—like free speech. The woman’s equal right to do whatever her talent and hard work enable her to do, and I’d like that to be in the constitution."
1
It It will be interesting to see how women voters react to this pushback of misogyny when we all thought we'd made a big step forward fighting the patriarchy, its roots and consequences. It is always worrisome when women (eg. Convey, Sanders) side with powerfull men who will deny their empowerment but need them to lend legitimacy to their backword worldviews and women-hostile policies.
86
Excellent exposition of the patriarchal, hierarchical dynamics behind the mock trial of the courageous Dr. Christine Blasey Ford.
VOTES are POWER. VOTES can CHANGE the balance of POWER. REGISTER to VOTE. VOTE November 6, 2018.
146
@MC writes:
"VOTES are POWER. VOTES can CHANGE the balance of POWER. REGISTER to VOTE. VOTE November 6, 2018."
yes yes yes!
Focusing on the privilege of "white" men makes it that much harder for women of color to be heard when they speak out against the male perpetrators in their own communities. The philosophy of male supremacy (the erroneous belief that it's men's nature to lead and be sexual subjects and women's nature to follow and be sexy objects) exists is every culture, whether that manifests as women's objectified status being exploited publicly or hidden under sex segregated cultural modesty requirements.
134
@Amy Luna
Amy, male supremacy doesn't or didn't exist in "in every culture"
Right now I'm too tired to provide examples but suffice to say that the fact that it is/was not universal means we can change it.
This is one most the most powerful Opinion pieces I have read in some time. Thank you Professor Mann for making the point of what is at stake so starkly. I know you are right because I have seen the evolution of my behavior toward women as I have come to understand that this is really about power. When I was in high school many decades ago a girlfriend asked me if I thought is was OK for wives to work. My answer was it was OK as long a she earned less than her husband. While I had come a very long way from those beliefs and have actively helped women in the workplace, it took the #MeToo movement and the testimony of Dr. Ford for me to viscerally understand what was going on. We have entered a brutal stage of a battle for power between white male privileged and true equality for women. The old white men like me now realize they are losing because women simply will not yield anymore. Like all battles between the powerful and an insurgent group this will be a very ugly take no prisoners battle in the trenches. I find it fascinating that Trump invokes sympathy for young men in this fight. What he is really saying is how sad that young men will not be able to enjoy molesting women and get away with it any more the way I did. I don't know how young men really feel about all of this but I hope they come far enough that they understand and accept that change is inevitable.
774
@JS Trump has raised the specter that young men will be harmed by treating women respectfully and if women are believed. His statements support Dr. Mann's analysis. Trump, McConnel, and the 11 Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee (Jeff Flake excepted) are whole-heartedly backing the epistemic machinery of misogyny, and are angry because women are telling the truth about one of them. I do not know how any man or woman who believes in the values on which our country is based can vote for them in November.
2
@JS
Almost all young men get drunk and sometimes go too far with the women they are with. But very few men go so far as gang rape. Most men drunk or sober would not tolerate it if they knew it was happening. We need to get past the shades of gray where some men may consider something consensual and the women later consider it rape. (the typical remorseful change of heart that fuels many campus he said/she said accusations)
We can all meet in the description of the gang rape described in this article and we can take action to stop it. White men old or young are not the enemies of women, they are allies, and men who go too far need to be identified and stopped. Women need to work with men and report these things and make the system start to move. The change is there waiting to happen as soon as women report these incidents and demand justice.
@JS
"What he is really saying is how sad that young men will not be able to enjoy molesting women and get away with it any more the way I did."
Spot on JS! Finally a guy who gets it. Thank you!
Now Trump and Trump Jr. are whining that life is so tough on men. Trump Jr. is saying he's more worried about his sons than is daughters because, apparently, armies of women are out there just waiting to accuse his sons of things they didn't do. Even though Trump Sr. admitted on tape that he "doesn't ask, I just start kissing," now he says all the poor men will be derailed because women make false accusations.
The whining Trumps always twist things to make themselves and others like them into the victims. They have no idea what it's like for women, from childhood through adulthood, to always have to be shoving grabby men's hands away.
264
@Linda
And they do not care.
4
@Linda Of all the trumps, I bet Ivanka knows what it's like to shove away a grabby man's hands, even if they are her father's hands!
@Linda, they don't care what it is like for women. Women's feelings might as well not exist -- they don't matter at all. That's the heart of the problem.
1
What is odd about this piece from a philosophy professor is that whatever ones history or perspective or viewpoint, there is a factual truth about what occurred (or didn't) that night in the Kavanaugh case. Finding out what happened (or didn't) should be all that matters, regardless of what Kavanaugh or Ford thinks or believes, or who has privilege or whatever.
No one, least of all a philosopher, should believe either of them without much more concrete evidence. Even a hundred other assaults on other people, or a hundred unfounded accusations, have nothing to do with the facts of this particular case.
18
@keith She is NOT saying that truth does not matter, nor is she saying that pursuing the truth of this case does not matter. She is saying that this particular cultural battle is not about truth per se but rather about belief and why certain groups of people believe him, while other others believe her, based on THEIR worldviews. And that is a fascinating topic.
205
@raymond - agreed, altho' our beliefs - our "truths" - are always filtered through our worldviews.
@keith
When a woman has been sexually assaulted, or gang raped, I believe that they know what Dr. Blasey-Ford is talking about.
They also know what Kavanaugh is. In this column what Ms. Mann points out is 17 year old boys, getting away with sexual assault appear to grow into the 30 something men who gang raped her.
How can you be so blind?
I do hope you do not have any children.
17
Regardless of the analysis put forth in Ms. Mann's essay, the Kavanaugh confirmation IS about truth. The Supreme Court is not a philosophic creation nor an epistolary system. It is a real body, ruling on real law, and having a very real impact on millions of lives. The FBI investigation is precisely a search for the truth, and it is that investigation which will determine whether Judge Kavanaugh gets to sit on the Supreme Court. The reality is that this entire episode has become a Rorshach test for our polarized society, and as such is perceived by some as a battle between the #MeToo movement and male privilege, or a battle between those who support Trump and those who despise him, or those who want a return to the U.S. of the 1950s and 60s versus those who want progressive civil rights, and the list goes on. But the determining factor will reduce to a Senate vote based on whether the FBI finds proof to support the truth of either Ms. Ford's or Judge Kavanaugh's statements.
10
@PeteAt this point in time, we don't know the truth and there's a strong possibility that we never will, and in addition, even with a good chance of knowing, there will be many who find ways to deny it. So the whole context rather than just the facts seem important, as so ably spelled out in this essay.
39
@Pete While I don't disagree with you entirely, there is one key point on which that I vehemently disagree with you. The Supreme Court is a real body, but its creation was based on a philosophic and epistolary system with some aspects of conflict embedded in it.
The fact is that we as a people have never fully agreed about the meaning and the purpose of the Court because we have never fully agreed about the meaning and the purpose of the Constitution. This debate does reflect, as Professor Mann says, a conflict between two view of women, but it is part of a larger debate about two or more views of the meaning of the Constitution specifically and the American experience more generally.
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@Pete The FBI will not find proof to satisfy either side. Not enough witnesses are being interviewed, including Dr. Ford or Judge Kavanaugh. Proof beyond a reasonable doubt is found by a jury based upon numerous factors, including testimony, corroborating documents and most importantly, the collective common sense of the jurors in interpreting that evidence. The jurors in this case are the American public and they have thrown collective common sense to the wind. Trump supporters do not have a problem with a judge who has exhibited crass partisanship, a willingness to lie, and the complete lack of judicial temperament and demeanor. For them, the allegation of misconduct will be refuted by the FBI report and that is the single issue. For those who think the phrase "sober as a judge" means something, the FBI report will be a cover that allows partisans to proceed to vote yes, despite what they saw and heard at last Thursday's hearing. The FBI "proof" will not meet the burden of a preponderance of the evidence for either side.
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I'll be brief. The meaning that Professor Mann refers to is quite simple. It is, I own you. You are property. I can do with you what I wish, especially with regard to my sexual satisfaction and my desire to exert power over you. My needs supersedes your control. I am strong, you are weak. My strength is rooted in my control over you.
Women for Trump! Woohooo!
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@Bruce Rozenblit...If a woman does not own her body then she is a slave
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@Bruce Rozenblit
" It is, I own you. You are property."
Have you ever met a man seriously espousing this POW? I have not, not counting clinical settings.
It's but a product of liberal media masturbation. Sick? Yes. Disgusting? Yes. Relevant? No.
"If this nomination succeeds, women’s human rights will be set back for decades. "
My question now are, will women continue to come forward, when doing so prompts counter-attacks from the men?
It appears "MeToo#" was successful in the world of entertainment, but not in politics.
And, it's more than a simple"battle of the sexes," it is a battle for the very notion of accountability.
Last night the president--he of the Hollywood Access tape--went all out to attack Christine Blasey Ford. The crowd roared in the same manner as ancient Romans watching two gladiators fighting to the death.
So now, Donald Trump--and to an even greater extent Brett Kavanaugh, who claims to be a "great advocate for women"--have re-framed a debate that seemed settled just a few months ago: that forced sexual advances ares simply wrong.
They have given all men permission to attack their victims and align themselves with a new male culture of self-pity. Victims are discarded as perpetrators claim victim-hood for themselves. It's another way this presidency has made America even more "Alice in Wonderland" than ever.
Is anyone but me astounded at the turn this whole thing has taken, where men who perpetrate outrage claim to be "victims" of smears by unhinged women?
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@ChristineMcMo. Excellent observation. I hadn’t thought of that — this spectacle may have stopped me too in its tracks.
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No it won't. You have just generated much more violent rage.
@ChristineMcM
There's a word for this sort of behavior where perpetrators of sex crimes claim victimhood against the actual victims of the sex crime:
Narcissism
Are we REALLY surprised that the Malignant Presidential Narcissist has nominated one of his own?
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This article explains misogyny and the enforcement mechanism of patriarchy better than anything I’ve read before. Prof. Mann is right, many of us understood this viscerally at an early age, and knew we’d best keep quiet about what was done to us.
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Draft Dr Mann,
I agree except that if Kavanaugh is confirmed it is not the end. Like after so many wrongs by the misogyny there will be another vote in November. Good citizens will do their duty as they did after Clarence Thomas and W. Bush. The fight for liberty and justice for all goes on.
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@Daniel
And Clarence Thomas is still on the court and people are still dying because of W. Bush's wars. I envy your optimism.
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Dr Mann, I completely agree with you except for one point. If Kavanaugh is confirmed it is not the end. There is an election in November and another in 2020. Good citizens awoke after Anita Hill and the W. Bush years. It is an endless fight for liberty and justice for all.
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@Daniel
Yes, someone did awake after HIll---and elected a man accused of rape, exposing himself, and using his office for sex. Turns out most of it was true. And he was re-elected.
Professor Mann, thank you so much for this important commentary. The distinction you have made is elucidating and empowering. I believe that far more than 1 in 3 women will have experienced some kind of sexual assault; it is some profound, socially inscribed sense of entitlement that leads many men to believe their dominance is organic to the order of things. I've been assaulted twice in my life, and have sought ways to go on living beyond them. I don't want my daughter's life to be adjudicated by a man like Judge Kavanaugh, who, with the words "What goes around comes around," has directly threatened to punish those of us who feel that women have been subordinate to men long enough.
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@anon Sorry for what happened to you- if it helps, I've been there too, lots as a kid. But I have never felt the slightest sense of entitlement or dominance in anything, least of all dealing with women and their bodies, nor has any of the hundreds of guys I've known. I've mostly worked for women and try to defer to them in everything.
This social inscription you speak of never made it to my neighborhood. No guy I know hates women or feels superior to them; just the opposite in most cases.
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@anonTruly a great piece of writing. My wish is that some of the Republican senators read this and act accordingly.
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@anon
I have a question: Do any of these 1 in 3 women that are assaulted in their lifetimes tell the men in their lives? If they do, what happens?