In the same week that saw former America's Dad Bill Cosby's fall from grace culminate in a prison term for sexual assault, Donald Trump has nominated Republican judge Brett Kavanaugh (above) for a position in the Supreme Court. That was obviously great news for Kavanaugh. Until...
...three women, Christine Blasey Ford, Deborah Ramirez and Julie Swetnick (clockwise from above left) stepped forward with allegations that he and some of his peers sexually assaulted them in high school and as students at Yale in the 1980s. Now some might say (whatever their political leanings) these ladies' timing in surfacing with these allegations is suspicious and opportunistic, but to me that reinforces a deep social misunderstanding of why such allegations often take so long to emerge. I won't muse on whether or not I think Kavanaugh is guilty because I'm trying to make this objective (and university hazing rituals et cetera existed long before his time anyway), but just as with the Cosby cases among others, it emphasises just how much of a victim (as much as I hate that word)-sharing culture we've become, especially for women. That's not just hateful but really plain cynical, and enough is enough.
Furthermore, Kavanaugh ironically also helped to draft the 1998 Starr Report which led to the Clinton impeachment, and now of course he's embroiled in an internationally-covered sex scandal of his own. And giving him his Supreme Court nomination was President Trump, who before his election in 2016 also faced numerous accusations of sexual misconduct. Need I say more?
In any case, young aspiring politicians and legal eagles from all sides should watch this scandal closely, and use it as a cautionary tale: be careful what you do on campus, because it may not permanently stay there.
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