GUILFORD — What are the rights of survivors who choose to speak publicly about their experiences of sexual misconduct within the context of civil law?
With the #metoo movement she founded, Tarana Burke intends that survivors feel empowered simply by discovering they are not alone.
We celebrate the success of Ms. Burke's work, even while the effect of people feeling encouraged to speak publicly regarding this incredibly common thread of sexualized violence continues to unfold in our communities.
What, overall, will the effects of this phenomenon on our social fabric and our lives be?
And what action should we take when we find and wish to pull the thread of sexualized aggression from that fabric, as it relates to the standing of survivors locally?
Like Ms. Burke, we want to see a radical reduction in the incidence of sexual violence in our lives. We believe this depends on continuing efforts to create an environment where a survivor is likely to encounter empathy if they choose to speak candidly about their experiences of sexual aggression and harassment, no matter who they are.
We choose the word “survivor,” which implies that survival is at stake. This is relevant in terms of thinking about the way we distribute our resource of empathy, as our empathies indicate something about who has access to health, relative safety, and income.
It's also true that survivors and perpetrators alike may live in one or more forms of precariousness in relationship to these fundamental survival issues.
In the case of talking openly about sexual violence, “the problem is we home in on the perpetrator and make these un-nuanced decisions - and rob ourselves of opportunities for reckoning,” Burke wrote in The Washington Post.
“Culture shift doesn't happen in the accusation; it doesn't happen in the disclosure,” she said. “Culture shift happens in the public grappling with these questions. Because nobody has firm, definitive, perfect answers.”
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How much space is required for the rights and needs of perpetrators before we allow for consideration of the experience of survivors?
So often, a conversation between living, breathing, caring people lunges to the shorthand of legal frameworks and the power they have over our interactions.
Whether we experience the legal system as a force for good, a wildcard, or a malignant source of brutality, here we are, reckoning with the fact that rape remains ubiquitous in a system that has long declared it a criminal act, legally speaking.
No survivor is obligated to share their experience publicly for the sake of solidarity, personal safety, the rehabilitation of a perpetrator, vindication, the good of society, social justice activism, release from the burden of shame, personal empowerment, protection of others from harassment and predation, or any other reason. They may, and sometimes do, however, go public for any of these reasons.
Regardless of their intent, what is the likelihood that they will be sued in civil court, or edited out of publication due to fear of being sued?
The context of normalized, sexual aggression before #metoo drove survivors and their communities into silence on a mass scale.
Can we address the reality that our ideas about legality continue to empower people with resources to silence survivors? Let's start where we are and go forward in pursuit of more nuanced understanding and solutions.