During this time of 2018, it’s impossible to not hear anything on the Kavanaugh case. When it comes to people being accused of sexual assault, I notice that there’s a lot of hostility, doubt, and blame towards the accuser instead of the accused. It’s even worse because this is a national affair–Kavanaugh is seeking the nomination for Supreme Court, which is a huge deal, considering how if he wins this nomination, he will be apart of the most important branch in our government. The news of the case has been on every news station and every platform of social media. It’s a disgusting show to witness.

Liars panic. When they lie and keep it up for so long, the guilt and need to save their own skin settles in, and the lie falls apart. They start to shift the conversation, bringing up irrelevant details that only make matters worse. But unfortunately, on Kavanaugh’s case, he’s got so many friends in high places that value their reputation and paychecks more than the good of the people, thus they support Kavanaugh because he’s a fellow Republican and they agree on a bunch of issues. The victims are called “lying skanks” on Twitter. They’re threatened and fear for lives not only because they have to face their abuser again, but also this is on national television, where they have to relive their own trauma for everyone to see. They’re used as bullets toward the opposite political party. They’re shown little to no respect or sympathy by those in power.

This is unacceptable. Why must the accuser be shown respect while the victims are publicly insulted and demeaned by others? This is why victims are scared to speak. This is why victims resort to suicide instead of seeking justice. This is why the Me Too movement was created. Men, women, children–victims of all backgrounds are afraid of finding closure and getting their abusers in jail, because society doesn’t allow them to. When they speak out, whether it be the day of or after the assault or thirty years since then, they’re called liars, people who seek attention, people who wanna stir things up. When they don’t speak out, they’re still called liars, they’re blamed for being assaulted, and they’re belittled for not saying something sooner. They’re asked “What were you wearing? What were you drinking?”. Male victims are told “You should’ve enjoyed it” if they were assaulted by a woman.

America was founded on rape, murder, and mistreatment of others. After 500 or so years, we still allow these things to happen. We still normalize them. It’s come to the point where we are no longer shocked when someone is exposed for being an abuser. This isn’t normal, it will never be normal, and we should be ashamed for letting it be normal.

What’s wrong with this society? Why are we so devoid of empathy? Why is this okay in any circumstance? Why do we allow the accused to be treated as human beings and not what they are–abusers, rapists, offenders?

Abusers are afraid of being exposed for their crimes, and rightfully so. Abusers should be the one to fear the victims, not the other way around. We need to deal harsher punishments on these people. Let’s turn a norm into a taboo. Let’s make victims feel safe again.