Yes, Andrew M. Cuomo: We’re watching you.
To survivors, the unsavory details and the games of political maneuvering are less important than witnessing how the survivors who came forward publicly are treated.
Are they met with support and belief? If so, survivors are often prompted to talk about their own experiences, and to seek assistance and understanding. And when survivors feel compelled to speak out by what they see in the news, they speak out in droves — as we saw with the #MeToo movement, which inspired millions of women from around the world to share their testimonies.
Harvey Weinstein’s guilty verdict resulted in a 23 percent increase in calls to the National Sexual Assault Hotline. E. Jean Carroll’s account of being assaulted by Donald Trump (which Trump denies) drew a 53 percent increase in hotline calls. The largest increase in the history of the hotline — a staggering 338 percent — occurred in 2018, when Christine Blasey Ford testified that she had been sexually assaulted by Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh (an allegation he denied).
But if survivors are met with defensiveness, dismissiveness or disbelief? They’re more likely to remain silent.
With New York Attorney General Letitia James’s exhaustive investigation determining that Cuomo sexually harassed at least 11 women, we again expect a spike in the numbers of women nationwide seeking support for something similar that happened to them.
Yet Cuomo has, in the early going, attempted to maintain a defiant posture, telegraphing a deeply harmful message to survivors far beyond Albany and New York. And while he’s flexing his “you didn’t get my jokes” muscles, much of the conversation around the harassment investigation’s findings centers on what happens now for him.
Will he resign, as seemingly every Democrat with a pulse has publicly asked? Will he be removed through impeachment proceedings, a process the majority of New York Assembly members have expressed a desire to pursue?
Pundits ponder: How can Cuomo possibly retain his iron grip now? What opportunities await him next? How can he redeem himself? And — gasp — is this really the end of the line of the patrilineal Cuomo rule?
We must learn to care less about those questions and instead care much more about those who spoke out — and what happens for them.
A male boss may publicly deny harassing a female subordinate six ways to Sunday, but that female subordinate still lives with the memory of what occurred. Victim-blaming, ill-conceived slide shows, back-channel appeals to allies to smear accusers, revictimizing. None of that can make a survivor of abuse un-see or un-hear that abuse.
Time will roll on and there will be more stories, more scandals. The forthcoming FX series “Impeachment: American Crime Story” will roil audiences with its retelling of the Washington events of the mid-1990’s. We’ll see additional political obituaries and dissections of the culture of political power.
All the while, more survivors — including, and especially, those who have never shared their stories — will be watching and listening. If they see and hear victims blamed, trivialized or ridiculed, they may never say what happened to them. And the cycle of abuse will continue.
After all, disclosing — particularly speaking out for the first time — requires bravery.
I was a 17-year-old intern when a senior male executive propositioned me with a wink and a hotel room key. I fled from him, burning with embarrassment and fear, and didn’t speak of it for a very long time.
The (at least) 11 women at the center of Cuomo’s investigation called his actions toward them deeply humiliating, uncomfortable, offensive and inappropriate. We know firsthand from many survivors that it is challenging to find the courage to articulate what they experienced. Thus, the very act of disclosure empowers a survivor to reclaim the narrative.
I wonder now how my 17-year-old self might see Cuomo as he thunders around today. I mourn for her if she would still be too scared to speak out.
For #MeToo to truly succeed, we must care more about the future of those who were harmed and less about those who caused that harm. We must be more deliberate about whom we center in these narratives. We must encourage and support disclosure. We must continue to strengthen the systems for survivors to come forward, such as the National Sexual Assault Hotline.
That is how we shape history: By creating a world where women are believed and all survivors are supported.
As for another disgraced New York politico? That’s just a blip.
"Opinion" - Google News
August 09, 2021 at 08:01PM
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Opinion | To survivors of abuse, Cuomo's defensive theatrics are galling - The Washington Post
"Opinion" - Google News
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