Why It’s Important to Believe Sexual Abuse Victims

Hiya everyone. I know this post is a little bit of a deep one but it has such a huge meaning. As I’m writing this, a lot of stuff has came out about Harvey Weinstein has came out. If you aren’t aware, a lot (and I’m talking a lot) of celebrities have come forward to say that Weinstein has sexually abused them in some way. I’m not going to go into the details because that’s potentially harming or triggering but if you care to know, it’s a quick google search.

The reason why I’ve decided to write about this is because along with seeing all the allegations against him, I’ve seen a lot of people commenting on whether or not the women are being truthful and I just wanna say how unbelievably toxic that is.

I’ve seen a lot of comments along the lines of; “a lot of women lie about being raped or being involved in non-consensual actions” or “Weinstein is a brilliant man, it’s just not plausible that he did any of this”. My response to the first statement is that it is absolutely false. It’s known that only between 2% and 10% of rape accounts are actually false. What about the other 90-98%? ALL TRUE. Saying that a lot of women lie about this sort of stuff only puts the idea into victims heads that they shouldn’t speak up about what happened to them and only reinforces the idea that women are the only people who can be raped or assaulted. My response to the second statement is just because someone is a good person, doesn’t mean they aren’t allowed (using this term loosely) to do bad things. Everyone can do bad things in this world and what Weinstein is being accused of is fucking awful and heartbreaking for the victims.

Another comment I hear frequently when anything of this topic comes into the media is; “if this happened years ago, why didn’t the victim come out sooner?”. This was a comment I heard a lot when the allegations about Jimmy Savile came out. The simple answer is because it can be incredibly dangerous for people to accuse incredibly famous people of things of this nature. The long answer is that victims may have a multitude of reasons and they are none of your business. What is your business is how you react to the allegations. If you act responsibly and believe the victims until anything tells you otherwise, then well done, you’re a good person. If you react like the comments I have previously, then well done, you’re a twat.

I am a strong believer that rapists, sexual abusers or child molesters, should be guilty until proven innocent. It’s as simple as that. And it’s also important to include that even if someone is proven innocent, it doesn’t mean they are. The law system fails a lot of victims who come forward, whether it’s because of lack of evidence or for any other reason. The important thing is to not automatically assume they are lying if charges aren’t pressed because they could possibly not be.

I hope anyone can make sense of this, I truly do. I also hope that all the victims who have came forward get justice, not just for this circumstance, just in general.

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