They’re shocked, shocked
The WSJ reports that the White House is wringing its hands in consternation.
A person close to the White House described those working on the confirmation process as “shellshocked” by Friday’s events.
“As of last night, everyone was in a good mood,” the person said, saying the view was that Dr. Ford’s testimony was “good” but Judge Kavanaugh’s was “great.” As of 10 p.m. Thursday, the person said, “everything was locked and loaded.”
Then, shortly before midnight on Thursday, the American Bar Association issued a letter urging the Senate Judiciary Committee to vote on Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination only after a “thorough” FBI investigation. After that, the person said, “It kind of fell apart.”
The person said there was “enormous anger” at the ABA from the White House counsel’s office and other lawyers working on the confirmation process, describing the letter as a pivotal development that prompted strong discomfort in particular from Ms. Murkowski.
Anger why? Do they think the ABA is supposed to do their bidding? Just as Kavanaugh thinks he’s owed a Supreme Court seat?
Save for a few extreme-right shock jocks, all commentators, even his supporters, appear to agree that Kavanaugh is in shit so deep as to be unfathomable; and which somehow keeps getting worse. The response has been pretty-well universal acceptance that the women’s stories are credible and likely true, calls for an FBI investigation, and that Kav’s future is shaping as not so much sitting behind the bench of the Supreme Court as sleeping on one in a park. So to speak.
But one other, less noticed casualty has to be ‘rape culture’, because if that trope was generally true, Kav would be hearing cheers and toasts to his health from every point of the compass. It would be ‘what else would you expact; boys will be boys (nudge, nudge, wink, wink)’; ‘he was led to believe it was on, and on all occasions including those yet to be revealed’; ‘so he went a bit too far, so what?’ Etc, etc, etc, and till the cows came home. Commentators, columnists and TV opionisers and persuaders would likewise be calling for something a long way short of the total shipwreck of his ambition and career. And half the women of the US would be in general agreement, if only for domestic peace and quiet, and the other half would be either largely muted or keeping a sullen silence. Because rape culture.
But that is not what we are seeing here.
Kav is being accused of serious crimes, arguably with intention to rape. And from every perspective, he is waded in so deep that to return were as tedious as go o’er.
Except that in MacBeth’s case, the medium of immersion was only blood.
It would be great to think rape culture is dead. I’m not that optimistic. Does the name Brock Turner ring a bell.
But if it’s starting to cough up blood, that’s thanks to decades of work by women, culminating in the success of MeToo.
“Rape culture” is not a “trope.” It’s all too real.
Rape culture is about more than just the dynamics of “boys will be boys”. There often tends to be support once a credible case is made, and people often will rally round if the woman is believable, white, and seen as a “good girl”. That has been pulled off in this case.
But rape culture is also about the way that women are presented in media, the way that women are treated in locker rooms, boardrooms, and other rooms. It is about the ads that sell women as sexy playthings. It is about the entitled macho posturing and the widespread acceptance of the “she shouldn’t have been [wearing that – drinking – in that place – in a male world] excuse, and I do not believe that one high profile case can change that. I’ve seen a few too many of those in my day, and people go through a period of wailing and gnashing of teeth, and as soon as that case is over, they fall right back into the same old habits.
Well Brock Turner did get a judge recalled… To the accompaniment of editorials deploring the politicization of the judicial system.
The older I get the more I come to understand how disadvantaged I’ve been, in my career and life choices, by my marginalised status(es), and of course I feel a lot of resentment about that. On the other hand, I am sincerely grateful not to be going through the world as a rich white American man–how utterly blind I would have been to what the rest of the world experiences, and how embarrassing it would have been to have no clue what other people thought of my attitudes and my behaviour. Would I want to be that man with those women, and their incredibly revealing expressions, sitting behind him? No.
Wow, just found out via Twitter that the women in the photo I saw yesterday (this is not the same photo, but it’s pretty close), are actually his supporters. (I guess I was aware that one of them was his wife, but didn’t realise all of them were connected to him.) I’m sure their expressions to his face are very different to those behind his back.
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2018/09/28/08/50C0895300000578-6216907-image-m-157_1538118670862.jpg
Actually it’s not close–it looks like this photo was taken at the beginning of his testimony, not during the angry freaky teary rant.
The Republican Washington state senator, Joe Fain, has been accused of raping a young woman 11 years ago. His accuser says she was emboldened to come forward by the bravery of Dr. Ford.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/sep/29/woman-accuses-washington-lawmaker-ford-testimony-joe-fain
guest, it’s telling that even before he’s started testifying, both his wife and his former clerk are giving him serious side-eye. If ever an expression could say ‘let’s see you wriggle out of this one, scumbag’, those two women have it down pat.
Omar @ 1 – did you miss the part where Kavanaugh’s fans WERE cheering him on just yesterday? The term “rape culture” doesn’t mean that everyone everywhere consciously cheers and encourages rape.