We have reached a point in our political landscape where the two factions desperately want to take each other down.
The Kavanaugh hearings have been a very emotionally charged topic due to our varying experiences with sexual assault, so much so, that I have witnessed a great deal of hostility toward women on the right for having a different approach to confronting this issue than what certain feminists have demanded we take.
I have watched as conservative women whom I greatly admire and respect, shared their gut wrenching stories of sexual assault and were met with arrogance, condescension, belittling and snotty responses.
Yet according to this new wave of feminism this cancels our womanhood diminishes our experiences. Does anyone see the double standard here?
To scoff at the pain and experiences of a fellow woman because she is a conservative, or because she does not approve of the approach some are taking in this recent case, betrays a partisan bias that is counterproductive.
It is clear that some (not all) women are projecting the pain from their own experiences onto this case which is causing them to reject objectivity when listening to and processing the information presented.
Here’s the problem. If the accusations were in relation to any other topic, and if they were against say, a liberal judge, would folks still believe an accuser’s testimony with no corroborating evidence, gaping holes in their account and multiple significant alterations to key details which directly counter their own previous accounts?
I seriously doubt it, nor should they.
The fact of the matter is that we have reached a point in our political landscape where the two factions desperately want to take each other down. They are often willing to do almost anything to bring about the destruction of their political opponents, even lie and make false accusations.
My concern with the stats folks are throwing around to minimize the frequency with which men are falsely accused, is that they only take into account situations were it was proven to be a false claim, such as DNA evidence or a confession of lying by an accuser thereby overturning a conviction, etc.
Just as the number of women who have been sexually assaulted is skewed to appear lower that it likely is due to lack of data, I would argue the false accusation stat is also skewed in the same way.
However that is not even my point. My concern is not what the false accusation stat currently is, it is what the stat will become — if the precedent is set into place — that no evidence, no corroboration, and no witnesses are needed in order to destroy an opponents career, family, reputation, public image or whatever the accuser wants to destroy for any reason — with any type of accusation — whether sexual in nature or otherwise.
It is naive to assume that people are not capable of such things especially since we see it with our own eyes with ever increasing regularity in this social and political climate.
This is why I treat everyone the same regardless of gender. I do not give special deference to a women just because she’s a woman nor a man just because he’s a man.
One gender is not better than the other, one gender is not more trustworthy than the other. We are equal. This appears to be where we disagree.
There is a great deal to be done to protect women from sexual assault, but previous injustice is no excuse for perpetuating injustice on to others.
Tina Freitas is an activist in the conservative movement advocating for greater individual liberty and equal protection before the law. She lives with her husband Nick and 3 children in Culpeper, Virginia.