Read on Twitter
i hope that as liberals expose their blatant hypocrisy around "believing women", we take a moment to reconsider "believe women" as a rallying cry altogether. it's not a coherent politic or strategy for justice or accountability. this is only exposing inherent contradictions.
in its most popular original context, believing women as a tactic made more sense. support organizations for sexual assault victims and battered women are absolutely justified in believing women as a baseline for their operation. it also made some sense to raise consciousness for
an issue that for a long time was entirely ignored by society at large. but it also doesn't solve or answer the question, and the truth is:
nobody just "believes women"
because it doesn't work
nobody just "believes women"
because it doesn't work
i have seen two parties accuse each other of sexual assault. i've seen an accusation go one way, and the man wouldn't come forward due male shame of admitting victimhood of sexual assault. i have seen DARVO and the use of sexual assault accusations to cover up sexual assault.
"believe women" has no answers for this situation. it doesn't address the problem. it *can't* address the problem.
finding a way to actually address the problem is hard, cutting edge work. and that's the work we have a responsibility to do. "believe women" won't get us there.
finding a way to actually address the problem is hard, cutting edge work. and that's the work we have a responsibility to do. "believe women" won't get us there.
this is little room for this perspective in modern discourse, dominated by white liberal heterosexual feminism, whose politics are strongly oriented around the experiences of white heterosexual women in the white workplace. the experiences of queer and/or lesbian women, the
experiences of women whose race has meant that accusation and criminalization/carceral systems have been wielded against them and their community in an anti-feminist way, and so on, are ignored. we cannot do that any longer.
the work of queer women of color is pioneering on finding new solutions to addressing sexual assault and other intimate violence:
read "The Revolution Starts at Home: Confronting Intimate Violence Within Activist Communities" https://www.akpress.org/revolutionstartsathome.html
read "The Revolution Starts at Home: Confronting Intimate Violence Within Activist Communities" https://www.akpress.org/revolutionstartsathome.html
watch the "Transforming Harm: Experiments in Accountability" series of videos from dedicated, experienced people who have worked in anti-violence projects: http://bcrw.barnard.edu/event/transforming-harm-experiments-in-accountability/
listen to "The Practices We Need: #metoo 
and Transformative Justice Part 2" with Mariame Kaba, who does groundbreaking work in prison abolition https://soundcloud.com/endoftheworldshow/the-practices-we-need-metoo-and-transformative-justice-part-2
and Transformative Justice Part 2" with Mariame Kaba, who does groundbreaking work in prison abolition https://soundcloud.com/endoftheworldshow/the-practices-we-need-metoo-and-transformative-justice-part-2
there is a conversation out there that is more detailed, more nuanced, more effective, more revolutionary, that exceeds the limits of "believe women"
liberal feminism won't expose you to it. neither will mainstream media of the state. but it's there and we can take it on.
liberal feminism won't expose you to it. neither will mainstream media of the state. but it's there and we can take it on.
it has been somewhat exhausting to see people count the hypocrisy of the "believe women" by reinscribing "believe women" as an effective expectation for addressing sexual assault and other intimate and interpersonal harm
nobody, not even the left, just "believes women" all the time. we all do it when it's convenient—and those that haven't likely just haven't faced an situation where it comes up against its limitations—because it's not a strategy that works. we are obligated to do better.
