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Look, y'all have got to stop with the "believe all victims" narrative. I know when you're just discovering rape culture it's a reaction to realising just how much we're predisposed to DISbelieving victims but it's never been that simple.
Ever heard of Emmett Till?
Ever heard of Emmett Till?
Emmett was a 14 y/o Black boy who was lynched in 1955 after a white woman, Carolyn Bryant, accused him of sexually and verbally assaulting her. 53 years later Bryant admitted she made it up.
There is a whole cultural phenomenon of white ppl, specifically women, making shit up.
There is a whole cultural phenomenon of white ppl, specifically women, making shit up.
I'm old enough to remember when Susan Smith murdered her two children in 1994 and then claimed a Black man had abducted them, launching a nationwide manhunt.
White people have always weaponised false accusations in the name of white supremacy. But it doesn't stop there.
White people have always weaponised false accusations in the name of white supremacy. But it doesn't stop there.
Queer and trans people have been demonised for our sexuality for centuries. Ever heard of gay panic? It's a legal defense used when a straight man murders a queer man, because he was "uncomfortable." Maybe he was hit on, maybe he just thought he MIGHT hit on him.
Most US states (and South Australia!) still allow gay panic as a legal defense. And trans panic is allowed even more widely than that. Trans women can be murdered just because a cis man finds out someone's trans and feels "tricked" into being attracted to her.
Disabled people are simutaneously asexualised and sexualised, derided as unrapeable but subject to high rates of rape. Asylums in Europe and North America allowed the public to come in and jeer at institutionalised people, watch them masturbate and compare them to monkeys.
So no, an anonymous person feeling "uncomfortable" does not automatically mean that someone has done wrong or crossed a sexual boundary, especially when marginalised power dynamics are at play. It's possible to take allegations seriously without attacking marginalised people.
Ultimately you're doing survivors no favours when you repeat homophobic (in the case of #AlexMorse) or any other dehumanising tropes.
And that includes when the accusers are children. Ever heard of the Satanic Panic?
And that includes when the accusers are children. Ever heard of the Satanic Panic?
In the 80s and 90s there were hundreds of investigations across the US alleging sexual abuse of children in Satanic rituals. Cops and social workers groomed children to answer, asking leading questions, rewarding compliance and punishing denials of abuse.
The #SatanicPanic targeted non-Christians, Dungeons & Dragons, and... anyone really. It eventually spread worldwide.
From #SESTAFOSTA to the Northern Territory Intervention, people who question these narratives are branded as supporting child abuse.
From #SESTAFOSTA to the Northern Territory Intervention, people who question these narratives are branded as supporting child abuse.
So use some critical thinking. If marginalised ppl are telling you something is *phobic, don't assume you are the pure white knight and they just don't care about survivors, or youth, or whatever you think you're defending. Recognise that people like you are used as a weapon.
There's no easy path to walk here. #DV and rape are real issues but abusers often make false claims of abuse in order to isolate their victims. You need to take claims seriously while also holding space that your judgment itself could be a tool of abuse.
