By Sikivu Hutchinson
In a year that has seen the toppling of numerous “untouchable”
male power brokers over sexual harassment and violence, Senator Mazie Hirono’s demand
that men “Shut up and step up” concerning the sexual assault allegations
against SCOTUS candidate Brett Kavanaugh is a call to action. To all the “enlightened” males who publicly deplore
violence against women, yet sit back and cosign sexist behavior and benefit from
a culture of normalized sexual violence, it is a message that you are being
watched and held accountable. And to all
the white women who have jumped on the character witness bandwagon to valorize
Kavanaugh it should be a reminder that simply being assigned female at birth
doesn’t exempt you from complicity with patriarchy and the silencing of sexual
violence survivors.
While the death threats Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey
Ford has received for speaking her truth are deeply reprehensible, they have
been buttressed by female voices. For
the past twenty four hours, the major cable news networks have ramped up air
time of pro-Kavanaugh ads
produced by the conservative Judicial Crisis Network. The most prominent ad features
respectable white women waxing about how upstanding and morally unimpeachable
Kavanaugh is. The not so subtle implication
is that Kavanaugh can’t be a sexual predator, misogynist or threat to women’s
equality if he’s been an “advocate” for women in his personal and professional
relationships. He can’t have attempted a brutal sexual assault because he’s
been an upstanding champion of female colleagues. Kavanaugh, like elite ivory tower
brethren Brock
Turner (the former Stanford University student whose lenient six-month
prison sentence for sexual assault elicited a firestorm and led to the recall of Judge Aaron
Persky), has an impeccable pedigree and should be forgiven youthful “peccadillos”.
For survivors, this paradox of exhibiting
personal “integrity” while propping up racist, sexist, misogynist policies and
practices is a familiar narrative. Of course,
central to victim shaming and blaming is the narrative that there are fundamentally
good men who never cross the line but for the sluttish behavior of irresponsible
women and girls. According to this view, predators are easy to spot, wear scarlet
letters, and are always outwardly loathsome, reptilian individuals. The only predators are serial predators and displays
of decency, civility and good manners always attest to moral character. And even respectable white women like Ford must
comply with the code of silence protecting toxic masculinity.
The demonization of Ford by the right is yet another
indication of how low the GOP fascists are willing to go to gut human and civil
rights. According to ReproAction Network, Kavanaugh’s repugnant record on women’s
rights puts him lockstep with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. His now well-documented insidious appellate court
decisions include voting against abortion access for an undocumented
teenager and in favor of forced abortions for disabled
women, as well as judgments opposing
affirmative action, workers’ rights, disability
rights, and the Affordable Care Act.
According
to conservative ideologue Ann Coulter, the fate of white men’s public
integrity as a whole is at stake because of the “attack” on Kavanaugh. In this Democratic-engineered, deep state
witch hunt, it’s open season on white men and “any white male” can find himself
roasting at the stake. Coulter’s injection
of white patriarchal anxiety into the controversy is fitting because it speaks
to the way the mainstream hijacking of #MeToo both flouts and reinforces white
supremacy—to how white nationhood, as represented by white male dominance and
white female submission, must always be validated and protected at all costs. It’s
no surprise that some of the most "compelling" spokespeople in this enterprise
are the white women who handed Trump the presidency.
