When I was younger, I may have been intolerant about her going to work for Thomas a second time despite the sexual harassment. But now that I've watched the Donald Trump Sexual Harassment Scandal unfold, I understand.
Back in the 1980s and 1990s, sexual harassment had to have been nearly ever present, compared to now -- especially if you were working for a powerful white man or a man who aspired to be a powerful white man in Washington D.C.
In the 1980s and 1990s there was still this attitude that a woman should prove her ability to do "a man's job" by being able to take whatever was being dished out in the workplace --even though men never suffered the indignity of sexual harassment.
In fact, being a woman working in Washington D.C. had have been a lot like working as a beauty pageant contestant or a model in one very specific way: Working for one man was probably just like working for another man --unless you were extremely lucky. The intensity of the sexual harassment is probably what varied from job to job to job.
Hill deciding to work for Clarence Thomas a second time was probably a decision to work for the devil you know rather than the devil you don't know.
And while I always believed Anita Hill over Clarence Thomas, I'm a little ashamed I didn't really understand how limited her choices were until just now.
Likewise, the women Donald Trump has harassed didn't come forward until he claimed on national television that he didn't put his hands on women and kiss them just as he bragged about in that 2005 video.
Some of these women heard Trump lie and say he didn't sexually harass women. And some or all of his accusers probably said to themselves. "You liar! You did it to me."
So now we know he walked in on half dressed and naked teenagers as owner of the Miss Universe Pageant.
And nobody's mother or father knocked him out. Too powerful?
Rolling Stone Magazine has put together a timeline of his sexual harassment as the owner of Miss Universe Pageant, which includes his walking into dressing rooms while girls and women are not dressed. Yet this powerful(?) magazine is too scared to put the words "sexual harassment" in the title of their article. Rolling Stone called what he did "creepiness" instead.
A Timeline of Donald Trump's Creepiness While He Owned Miss Universe
Sexual Assault is so insignificant to men with power that Nate Parker and Fox Searchlight didn't bother to find out what happened to Nate Parker's victim despite (1) Jean Celestin, co-rapist and co-writer of Birth Of A Nation actually being convicted of rape and (2) the victim's suicide attempts during the trial.
Nate Parker and the studio tried to drop the story late on a Friday in a way sympathetic to Parker, like Parker was the victim. And his studio didn't even bother to find out what happened to the woman who testified at a successful conviction of his co-conspirator -despite her suicide attempts at the time?
We should all know what Nate Parker is by now. He said he didn't think of the woman again. But the studio had to know that Jean Celestin's conviction was overturned after enough money was thrown at the legal system by way of purchasing a more expensive lawyer. There's no way the studio or the public relations team didn't know Parker's legal troubles on this point were serious.
And it didn't occur to anyone at Fox Searchlight or Parker to check to see what happened to the woman that made the accusation?
I know women who were sexually assaulted and/or raped who can't really talk about it 30 years later. But a lot of men don't know or don't care about this. That must be why people kept asking about why Parker didn't apologize instead of why Parker didn't go to jail for 15 to 20 years.
If sexual assault is this insignificant to the men that rule the United States (rule the world), then a woman can't report it without preparing for major blow back.
And that blow black, that punishment, a woman will get for daring to accuse a man of something insignificant in male minds but potentially career wrecking for a man on paper, that woman's punishment will be a heck of a lot more significant than the harasser's punishment -- if she cannot conclusively prove the harassment.
That's why Anita Hill and the women accusing Trump didn't come forward until they felt something important was at stake like a Supreme Court seat and a Presidency. And though Anita Hill "lost" in white male dominated courtroom and Clarence Thomas was confirmed, Anita Hill changed our world.
That's why I'm ashamed I kinda didn't realize Anita Hill's career was as vulnerable to male oppressors as women whose job it is to have their beauty and more specifically their breasts to waist and waist to butt ratios visually measured and compared to other women -- not until just now.
THE ANITA HILL EFFECT WE'RE LIVING IN RIGHT NOW
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Not only does Donald Trump know how rape culture operates, he uses his money and his power to take advantage of it.
In the past 24 hours, we’ve witnessed a master class in the way powerful men get away with assault, harassment, and abuse of their power. During his first speech since his his accusers went public, Trump told a crowd of his supporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in West Palm Beach that he was in fact the victim and one by one called all of the women liars. In a speech that was both painful and at times sickening to listen to, Trump proved exactly why women often avoid reporting assault: the very present fear that they will be publicly shamed — especially when it comes to Trump accusers — for doing so.
Read More: http://www.vox.com/2016/10/13/13274972/donald-trump-is-giving-us-a-master-class-in-why-womendontreport
THE W0MEN ACCUSING TRUMP
CONNECTION TO TRUMP: Wife from 1977 to 1992
ALLEGATION: Rape....until he started running for president. Judge for yourself. Read the details taken from an Ivana Trump interview here. (I can't believe this hasn't gotten more air time during mainstream news cycle).Read More:http://thankherforsurviving.blogspot.com/2016/05/ivana-trump-called-donald-trump-rapist.html
Jessica Leeds, 1980s
Jill Harth, 1992
CONNECTION TO TRUMP: Business partner
ALLEGATION: The New York Times first published a legal complaint detailing Harth's account in May, but Harth elaborated in an interview with the Times' Nicholas Kristof in October. She said that at dinner one night, Trump put his hands up her skirt, touching her crotch. "He was relentless ... I didn't know how to handle it. I would go away from him and say I have to go to the restroom. It was the escape route," she told Kristof. "He name-dropped continuously," she added in a later lawsuit, "when he wasn't groping me."
Temple Taggart, 1997
Mindy McGillivray, 2003
Rachel Crooks, 2005
Natasha Stoynoff, December 2005
CONNECTION TO TRUMP: Was a People magazine writer covering Trump in 2005
ALLEGATION: Stoynoff writes in a piece posted Wednesday night about a 2005 trip she took to Mar-a-Lago to interview Trump and his wife, Melania. During a break, Trump offered to show her around, saying there was one room in particular he wanted her to see. Stoynoff's account describes what happened next as an "attack":
Cassandra Searles, 2013
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DONALD TRUMP HAS SPOKEN ABOUT HIS RIGHT TO GO ANYWHERE, ANYTIME HE WANTS AS MISS UNIVERSE/MISS USA PAGEANT OWNER --which must be why he walked in on naked teenage girls in their dressing room.
- "He just came strolling right in," Dixon said. "There was no second to put a robe on or any sort of clothing or anything. Some girls were topless. Others girls were naked. Our first introduction to him was when we were at the dress rehearsal and half-naked changing into our bikinis."
TRUMP INTERVIEW, JUSTIFYING HIS BEHAVIOR (advertisement first)
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