Believing the Women

I believe the women. Not for one moment do I believe this man. Which of us, as women, has not had the experience of being accosted late at night, crudely propositioned, harrassed with sexist hate speech? How many of us have been knifed, beaten, shot, raped and murdered at the hands of a man in an incident which began just like this one? How is it a crime for us to be ready to defend ourselves? How is it criminal for us, as women, to be ready for the absolute worst, to expect the worst, given what we know men to be capable of, given the slaughter of women which goes on all around us every day?
And what other persons could be described repeatedly in mainstream media, in headlines, as animals, as a "wolf pack," "a howling pack," "killers" without any consequence to the reporters or the publication? This is sick, disgusting, racist, sexist, lesbophobic, classist, it is hatred of vulnerable young women so deep and grievous that for any supposedly civil society to tolerate it is unconscionable. And yet ours does.

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