Never in my life have I heard sexual assault take such a central role in politics. I wish it were because we as a nation have decided to address the epidemic of violence against women. I wish it were to root out the causes that lead to one in five women experiencing sexual assault. I wish it were because we recognize the humanity of rape victims, that we understand their pain and want to create a better world for them. That, sadly, is not the case.
Donald Trump in the now viral video from 2005 bragged about sexual assault. It took the media about 24 hours to settle on using the term “sexual assault,” but they got there eventually. Let’s be clear: grabbing women by their genitals or kissing them without consent is sexual assault. It is dehumanizing, terrorizing, and destabilizing.
Men who commit sexual violence against women tend to know their victims. For women, that means these perpetrators are their boyfriends, friends, bosses and co-workers. Trump’s remarks, made just minutes before stepping off of the bus to shake hands with the very woman he talked about wanting to assault, are many women’s worst nightmare. That men we know secretly speak terribly about us or want to have sex with us when we have no interest. That they see us as less than their equal.
In the political tidal wave that followed, many Republican leaders like John McCain rightly condemned Trump’s endorsement of sexual assault and his flippant explanation of it being “locker-room talk.” Democrats seized on the moment to make a show of how the Democratic party is the party for women, the party that cares about victims of sexual violence. Trump’s defenders, like Senator Jeff Sessions who denied that forcibly grabbing women’s genitals constituted sexual assault, faced widespread ridicule.
For a moment, I had some hope that our country was learning how to better respond to sexual assault. We were finally taking it seriously.
I lost much of that hope when Donald Trump held a press conference hours before the second presidential debate. He invited the women who had accused Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct: Kathleen Willey, Juanita Broaddrick and Paula Jones. Wiley accused Bill Clinton of sexually assaulting her during his first presidential term, when she says he grabbed her breasts and genitals and forcibly kissed her. Jones claimed that as Governor, Clinton exposed himself and made sexually aggressive comments to her. Clinton later settled with Jones for nearly a million dollars. Broaddrick claimed that as Attorney General, Clinton forcibly raped her in a hotel room.
Trump trotted these women out not to initiate a real conversation on how we have treat women who accuse powerful men of misconduct, but to deflect the conversation from Trump’s own misogyny in a “he-abused-more-women-than-I” contest. The Trump campaign used these women as political pawns. Conservative news sites like Breitbart, which routinely questions women who come forward with sexual assault accusations and labels survivors as “rape-hoaxers,” completely flip the script when it comes to Clinton. Suddenly, it’s an utter outrage that survivors of sexual assault aren’t believed. It’s notable that the Republican Party Platform for the first time ever explicitly states that university handling of sexual assault “must be halted before it further muddles this complex issue,” despite convincing evidence to the contrary.
The Republican Party has very little authority to speak on issues of sexual violence between the conduct of their nominee, the content of their party platform, and the repeated statements of other top officials wanting to ban abortion even in the case of rape. But the Democrats are not doing much better. For the party that claims to be the standard-bearer for victims of sexual violence, there has been a stunning dismissal of Bill Clinton’s conduct.
The chances of being falsely accused of sexual assault is between 2 and 8 percent, on par with other violent crimes. I’ve said the chance that Trump has been falsely accused of sexual assault numerous times—by his wife, a business partner, a 13-year-old girl and now the many women describing his groping them—is slim. His recent comments substantiate much about the kind of predatory person he probably is. I have to, then, apply that same logic to Bill Clinton. There is likely truth in the charges Willey, Jones and Broaddrick have levied on Bill Clinton.
If the Democrats want to claim the moral high ground and portray themselves as the party that will protect women and fight against sexual violence, then they need to take the Bill Clinton problem seriously. True, he isn’t running for president. But he may be in the White House, in a position of power which he could use to exploit more victims. The Democratic Party needs to stop labeling Clinton’s actions as philandering and instead label them as they are labeling Trump’s conduct: sexual assault.
The Democratic Party also needs to stop attacking the women who have come forward against Bill Clinton. For the last week, MSNBC and other liberal news sources have questioned why it took Broaddrick so many years to come forward, why she signed an affidavit denying the rape, and how her political motivations (her support for Trump) might be the impetus for her to lie. In doing so, they are engaging in classic victim-blaming. Sexual assault survivors don’t always have their stories straight. Sometimes it can take years to come forward. Sometimes it can be easier to deny what happened than to go against a powerful man. I thought we learned these lessons from Cosby.
The women coming forward making charges against Trump have been given significant airtime and are afforded, as they rightly should, the presumption of telling the truth. Clinton’s victims should be afforded the same treatment.
I’m a survivor of sexual assault, something I have not been quiet about in my work on campus and in writing for the Chronicle. I founded Duke Support, Duke’s sexual assault survivor support group, and I am a co-director of Breaking Out, a photography campaign to showcase the voices of survivors. I talk to and hear from rape victims almost every day. Unless you have lived through what we have, you will never understand the kind of pain that sexual violence inflicts on people’s lives. It destroys, corrupts, maims and takes lifetimes to recover from.
Politicians right now are not helping. Both parties should stop using victims as political pawns. I caution observers of this election to be sensitive in the kind of information they put on social media, as victims have to live through this election too. We’re watching, and the ways that media talks about survivors, even survivors that some believe not to be credible, has a serious impact on the decisions of survivors in coming forward.
When talking about sexual violence in this election, let’s remember survivors and their pain. This isn’t just a campaign issue or a talking point. These are people’s lives.
Dana Raphael is a Trinity senior. Her column, "problematic people doing problematic things," runs on alternate Mondays.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.