To people I’ve seen questioning Anthony Rapp’s story (you have every right to question but here’s what I’ve seen as your points):
1. Apparently because there is only him talking about what happened and not a slew of people like Weinstein that makes it less plausible? Makes it less important?
2. Also there actually are more people than just him who have Spacey stories of their own. Not hard to find.
3. If your argument is that because it’s only one person coming forward that he’s more likely lying I’ll say this, from the research I’ve done only 2-4% of people who come forward about sexual violence incidents are lying. Just 2-4% so frankly I’m tired of seeing that as people’s go to response to this kind of thing.
I’ve known too many people who have been sexually abused or assaulted just for people to say they are lying or they are misremembering. People around the accused have made too many bullshit excuses trying to justify what happened. So forgive me if my initial response is to believe the person coming forward about the abuse/assault.
Continuing on I’ve seen a couple people say that the justice system is the only one that should have a say in this matter. They say let’s let them handle the situation. Here’s what I say to that: clearly you have not seen how the justice system treats victims of abuse personally. But I have. My friend went to the police about being sexually abused as a child. They had an investigation, great right? Wrong. Want to know what the investigation consisted of??? One talk. One talk with the accused. How in the fuck does that count as an investigation. Maybe you are saying to yourself, well if there was no proof…but let me direct you to the Brock Turner case. I’m guessing everyone is at least slightly familiar with the case but let me refresh your memory. There were witnesses, evidence. Yet he was only sentenced to 6 months prison time instead of the 10 years he should have been. Because he is a star athlete and he was drunk which is apparently a valid excuse for assaulting someone. Did I mention she also got victim blamed because she was drunk. So what’s her fault is his excuse. Makes sense. That case is just one example. Bottom line is this, the justice system that is currently in place favours the accused, especially in a situation that is older. They have the victim recite time after time what happened to them, yet are satisfied with the accused saying they didn’t do it. And that’s it. So ya I’m annoyed when people use this line of letting the justice system handle it. I’m sure many survivors of abuse would be more than happy to tell you how wrong you are and how well the justice system treated them.
Here is a link to an article on how even after the case is taken to court the system still stacks up against victims putting them through even more hell.
How The Justice System Fails Victims Of Child Abuse
“We [in society] generally don’t second-guess people who say that they were burglarized or say that their car was stolen or who say that they were assaulted, but we absolutely second-guess people that claim that they were sexually assaulted,” former special victims prosecutor Roger Canaff told Rewire in a phone interview. “We either are skeptical of the truth of the allegation or we look to blame that person.”
“[Victims] may fear skepticism and abuse from police, prosecutors, or juries; they may not want to go through the ordeal of a long trial; they may fear retaliation from their assailant, who will most likely not end up prosecuted, let alone convicted; and they may be hesitant to send their assailants to prison. But even survivors who do report to the police are often abandoned by the system.”
Striving To Be Authentic 