E. Jean Carroll Got Her Vindication

 

The nine-person jury took less than three hours to deliberate. https://t.co/mcBxgevv7V

— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) May 10, 2023

Trump can very well grumble to his little fan club about whether the verdict against him counts as some form of "witch hunt"--but his ridiculous claim that he was denied the right to speak on his own behalf was sheer imbecility--it's a matter of court record that he was given the opportunity to file to testify. He and his legal team did not. This decision today was not just a triumph for E. Jean Carroll, but for other women who know very well what Donald Trump was about. 

And there are dozens. 

Trump can claim women have made their assorted claims against him for mercenary reasons--but we can easily understand how the cost to them to mention his name was potentially high, right? There's a reason the judge in this case wanted the jury to remain anonymous and counseled against their coming forward for the sake of the story. 

I can't help but think of Christine Blasey Ford--who I hope by now has been able to settle and find peace, although she was targeted for abuse and made a threat-driven nomad for the sake of her telling her story regarding Brett Kavanaugh--and I still tend to believe her and am raw that he was not better vetted before being placed in such a position of responsibility. The thing I will always recall in high relief is that her own father seemed to have considered her a class traitor for telling her story. She was supported with faint damn, or maybe damned by faint support. I don't know. But my dad would have wanted to sock someone's nose the hell in for someone fucking with me, and O, the difference to me. 

When E. Jean Carroll talked about being part of the Silent Generation, or the idea of not screaming--it wasn't lost on me, a feminist of Generation X. I get why women don't report to this day, and why women don't scream--because rape is violence, and screaming makes it worse. Because the threat of violence suggests more violence can come your way--and that makes it worse. It doesn't matter what generation you are, you just need to know that sometimes, raising your voice in the moment doesn't help you--

But E. Jean Carroll raised her voice where it counted, and other women who had the experience of Trump's physical boundary breeching also found their voice. 

But as for Trump's political allies, they have decided to make very particular beds to lie in with respect to Trump. Marco Rubio and others simply scoff at the decision by a "New York jury" by which I will pretend I have no idea what they could so specifically mean. 

But I know full well what Republicans already think of women and rape, or women and their right to their bodies.  How can I be more aghast at the GOP than I've already ever been?