tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/bill-cosby-13763/articlesBill Cosby – The Conversation2021-07-03T22:57:32Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1638202021-07-03T22:57:32Z2021-07-03T22:57:32ZWith support for Bill Cosby, Phylicia Rashad becomes just one of several deans to tweet themselves into trouble<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409536/original/file-20210702-23-unqsqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C6%2C4082%2C3028&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Students at Howard University are already calling for Phylicia Rashad's resignation as dean. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/phylicia-rashad-attends-david-makes-man-clips-and-news-photo/1124931798?adppopup=true">David Becker/Getty Images for The Blackhouse Foundation</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For acclaimed actor Phylicia Rashad, July 1, 2021 was the <a href="https://newsroom.howard.edu/newsroom/static/14391/howard-university-announces-legendary-actress-alumna-phylicia-rashad-dean">official first day</a> on the job as dean of the College of Fine Arts at Howard University. But some hoped it would also be her last.</p>
<p>The day before, Rashad had sent out a <a href="https://nypost.com/2021/07/01/howard-university-phylicia-rashads-cosby-tweet-lacked-sensitivity/">controversial Tweet</a> in support of her onetime “TV husband,” Bill Cosby, after a court <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/01/arts/television/bill-cosby-conviction-overturned-why.html">overturned his sexual assault conviction</a>. “FINALLY!!!!” Rashad wrote in the Tweet. “A terrible wrong is being righted — a miscarriage of justice is corrected!” This prompted <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/phylicia-rashad-bill-cosby-howard-university/">critics</a> and <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9748435/Howard-Students-call-Bill-Cosbys-former-star-Phylicia-Rashad-FIRED-supporting-him.html">Howard students</a> to <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/phylicia-rashad-faces-calls-step-down-dean-after-bill-cosby-support-1605961">call for her resignation</a>.</p>
<p>Here, George Justice, an English professor and author of “<a href="https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/title/how-be-dean">How to Be a Dean</a>,” offers insights on the controversy surrounding Rashad.</p>
<h2>Does Phylicia Rashad have the credentials to be a dean?</h2>
<p>Phylicia Rashad does not have the typical credentials of an academic dean. Most deans have served anywhere from 10 to 30 years as full-time faculty members. They also tend to have served as chair of their department or as an associate dean first.</p>
<p>But Rashad has a wealth of relevant professional experience, which can be as important as academic credentials for a school of fine arts.</p>
<p>Perhaps best known for her role on “The Cosby Show” as Clair Huxtable, Rashad’s Huxtable character was once <a href="https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2004/may/09/on-the-tube-she-was-the-mother-of-all-mothers/">voted in a poll</a> as “<a href="https://www.starnewsonline.com/article/NC/20040504/News/605090029/WM">TV mom closest to your own mom in spirit</a>.” Rashad is also <a href="https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/phylicia-rashad">no stranger to college campuses</a>. She has <a href="https://www.drama.cmu.edu/2015/02/20/phylicia-rashad-teaches-master-classes-school-drama/">taught master classes</a> at colleges and universities <a href="https://www.broadwayworld.com/people/Phylicia-Rashad/">throughout the country</a>. She also served as the <a href="https://news.fordham.edu/inside-fordham/denzel-washington-endows-fordham-theatre-chair-scholarship/">first Denzel Washington Chair in Theatre at Fordham University</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/dean-of-fine-arts-college-of-fine-arts-at-howard-university-2243951620">job description</a> for her current role as dean calls for 15 years of progressively responsible experience in management as well as “political adeptness” and “good judgement.” It also calls for “excellent oral and communication skills,” the ability to “relate well to the college’s diverse constituencies,” and the “inclination to be a visible spokesperson for the college.”</p>
<p>It’s hard to square that with the controversy in which she finds herself enveloped as dean of Howard’s <a href="https://newsroom.howard.edu/newsroom/static/14391/howard-university-announces-legendary-actress-alumna-phylicia-rashad-dean">recently re-established</a> College of Fine Arts. The college is to be <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/celebrity/howard-university-names-fine-arts-college-after-chadwick-boseman-n1268666">named after Chadwick Boseman</a>, the late “Black Panther” star who is also an alumnus of the school. </p>
<h2>Does your book cover anything close to this controversy?</h2>
<p>My book opens with the famed <a href="https://www.columbiamissourian.com/news/higher_education/racial-climate-at-mu-a-timeline-of-incidents-in-fall-2015/article_0c96f986-84c6-11e5-a38f-2bd0aab0bf74.html">2015 campus protests at the University of Missouri</a>, where I taught from 2002-2013 and served as graduate dean from 2011-2013. In that instance, the deans <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/how-missouris-deans-plotted-to-get-rid-of-their-chancellor/">teamed up</a> to help oust the campus chancellor and university system president for what was seen as their <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/11/09/the-incidents-that-led-to-the-university-of-missouri-presidents-resignation/">weak response to student protests</a> regarding racism on campus.</p>
<p>Since deans represent the academic aspirations – and integrity – of their faculty and students, they need to speak up on matters of grave importance to the colleges they oversee. Typically, when deans themselves create controversies, particularly those associated with race, gender, sexuality or religion, they resign or are fired.</p>
<p>For example, Sonya Duhe, the newly appointed journalism dean at my home institution – Arizona State University – was fired shortly after she accepted the position in 2020. Her undoing came after she <a href="https://www.abc15.com/news/region-phoenix-metro/central-phoenix/new-asu-journalism-school-dean-under-fire-over-alleged-racist-incidents">Tweeted support for “the good police officers who keep us safe”</a> on “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/02/arts/music/what-blackout-tuesday.html">#BlackOutTuesday</a>” – a day of protest on June 2, 2020 that followed the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57618356">police murder of George Floyd</a>. The Tweet prompted scrutiny that led to revelations that she had been accused of <a href="https://www.abc15.com/news/region-phoenix-metro/central-phoenix/new-asu-journalism-school-dean-under-fire-over-alleged-racist-incidents">demeaning students of color</a> at her previous institution. Specifically, it was alleged that she would tell them their hair was too curly or their complexion was too dark for them to be “camera ready.” Duhe is reportedly <a href="https://www.wdsu.com/article/former-director-of-loyola-universitys-communication-program-sues-school-paper-university/36468746">suing Loyola and its campus newspaper</a> for publishing a series of articles that portrayed her as racist.</p>
<p>In 2007, the University of California-Irvine withdrew an offer to have Erwin Chemerinsky serve as law dean. Chemerinsky wrote that the offer was rescinded after then-university chancellor Michael Drake told him he was “<a href="https://www.latimes.com/news/la-oe-chemerinsky14sep14-story.html">too politically controversial</a>” for an op-ed he wrote <a href="https://www.latimes.com/la-oe-chemerinsky16aug16-story.html">criticizing a federal regulation for death row inmates</a>.</p>
<p>And Ronald Sullivan, the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/05/ronald-sullivan-was-fired-harvard-does-it-matter/589471/">first black faculty dean to preside over a dorm at Harvard</a>, was <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/05/ronald-sullivan-was-fired-harvard-does-it-matter/589471/">fired as dean</a> over his work as a lawyer on behalf of disgraced filmmaker Harvey Weinstein. Weinstein is currently serving <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-51840532">23 years in prison</a> for rape and sexual assault. Sullivan retains his position as a <a href="https://hls.harvard.edu/faculty/directory/10870/Sullivan">tenured faculty member</a> in the Harvard Law School.</p>
<h2>Are there any other comparable cases?</h2>
<p>Two recent cases that made national news are those of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2017/05/18/yale-dean-placed-on-leave-after-writing-about-white-trash-and-other-insulting-comments/">Dean June Chu at Yale</a>, who was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/21/us/yale-dean-yelp-white-trash.html">suspended and never resumed her position</a> over writing Yelp reviews that suggested “white trash” would particularly like a certain restaurant. Dean Leslie Neal-Boylan of the University of Massachusetts-Lowell was fired, allegedly for an email <a href="https://jonathanturley.org/2020/07/02/university-of-massachusetts-nursing-dean-fired-for-saying-everyones-life-matters/">stating “everyone’s life matters”</a> – a variation of a slogan meant as a <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-it-so-offensive-to-say-all-lives-matter-153188">critique of the Black Lives Matter mantra</a> – in the wake of the George Floyd murder.</p>
<h2>Do deans have to play by a different set of social media rules?</h2>
<p>Absolutely. Howard released a <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CQxLAM-oBBh/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=3ebcb06f-09a0-422e-9dc1-f0edf93d5070">statement</a> after Rashad’s supportive tweet of Cosby saying that “personal positions of University leadership do not reflect Howard University’s policies.” In my experience, that is a highly unusual statement and indicates deference to Rashad that might not be shown to other high-level administrators by their employers. Research has shown that college presidents use social media <a href="https://www.universityaffairs.ca/news/news-article/university-leaders-reach-out-through-social-media/">to bolster their institutions but are afraid of making mistakes</a>.</p>
<p>After backlash to her Tweet, Rashad sent out <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/howard-university-students-and-alumni-are-furious-with-phylicia-rashads-support-of-bill-cosby">another Tweet</a> that stated: “I fully support survivors of sexual assault coming forward. My post was in no way intended to be insensitive to their truth.” Rashad also <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/cosby-rashad-apology/2021/07/03/1181d1ec-dc0d-11eb-9bbb-37c30dcf9363_story.html">issued an apology on July 2 for her initial Cosby Tweet</a>, but it <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/cosby-rashad-apology/2021/07/03/1181d1ec-dc0d-11eb-9bbb-37c30dcf9363_story.html">has not been enough to assuage some of her critics</a>.</p>
<p>Most deans and other university administrators that I follow have bland social media accounts. Their postings are mostly filled with praise for their institutions and self-praise for the great job they do with students, faculty and the community.</p>
<h2>How does Title IX come into play here?</h2>
<p><a href="https://sites.ed.gov/titleix/">Title IX</a> of the Educational Amendments of 1972 prohibits discrimination in American higher education. This includes sexual harassment and assault. Most universities, <a href="https://www2.howard.edu/title-ix/officers">including Howard</a>, employ Title IX administrators who advise campus leadership and conduct investigations on campus. <a href="https://dailynorthwestern.com/2020/05/10/sports/new-title-ix-regulations-no-longer-require-mandatory-reporting-in-colleges/">Until 2020</a>, federal law required leaders to be “mandatory reporters” who must pass along any information about possible incidents of harassment. Howard’s policy includes deans in the category of “<a href="http://dev.www2.howard.edu/title-ix/home">responsible employees</a>,” who are “expected” to report incidents to the Title IX office. Many of these incidents at universities relate to sexual matters among faculty and students, often with complicated power dynamics. As a “responsible employee,” and as leader of the School of Fine Arts, Rashad practically and symbolically represents the university’s compliance with Title IX. To her critics, her support of Cosby calls into question her ability to carry out that role.</p>
<p>This is a particularly important issue at Howard, where in 2016 students protested against the university’s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/03/22/howard-u-students-protest-saying-victims-of-sexual-assault-deserve-better-treatment/">perceived inaction over sexual assault on campus</a>.</p>
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<h2>What factors will affect Rashad’s fate?</h2>
<p>As my book describes, her role as dean will involve hiring faculty, attracting students and working with the community. This includes raising funds to support the work of her school and the university at large. Prior to the Cosby controversy, Rashad may have been well-positioned to do these things based on her experiences and stature. But amid <a href="https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/phylicia-rashad-draws-critics-and-dismissal-calls-for-defending-bill-cosby/3136773/?amp">calls for her ouster</a>, it remains to be seen whether the strengths she brings to the position will outweigh this controversy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/163820/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>George Justice is Principal in Dever Justice LLC, a higher education consulting firm.</span></em></p>A single Tweet the day before she took over as dean of the College of Fine Arts at Howard University has led to calls for Phylicia Rashad’s ouster. A scholar on college deans weighs in on what’s next.George Justice, Professor of English, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1308562020-01-30T13:14:25Z2020-01-30T13:14:25ZHarvey Weinstein’s ‘false memory’ defense is not backed by science<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/312606/original/file-20200129-92977-cddbl0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=547%2C37%2C1591%2C799&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Harvey Weinstein leaves for the day during his trial on charges of rape and sexual assault, in New York, Jan. 28, 2020. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Sexual-Misconduct-Weinstein/69f69c8e09b44f89b99423c010c2c8c6/10/0">AP Photo/Craig Ruttle</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Much like the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/three-years-and-60-accusers-later-bill-cosbys-trial-begins-but-only-one-woman-will-decide-his-fate/2017/05/20/a28a2342-3ae5-11e7-9e48-c4f199710b69_story.html">defense</a> of Bill Cosby, media mogul Harvey Weinstein’s defense team says they’ll <a href="https://variety.com/2019/biz/news/harvey-weinstein-recovered-memories-expert-1203374531/#!">bring up</a> “false memories” during his <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/harvey-weinstein-criminal-trial-lawsuits-settlement/">trial</a> on multiple charges of sexual assault. In short, this line of defense argues that survivors remember sexual assaults that did not happen.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&view_op=list_works&gmla=AJsN-F56BlwnaLvGFQwPevAvYpByUYJeZhm1gq80sVfUkJhNXjaR5_vXlk6FF64GCCIQtf_UcrPsDosJqo9qaeSg-sPCqxR5Ow&user=v5XJzfUAAAAJ">trauma</a> <a href="https://medicine.yale.edu/profile/joan_cook/">psychologists</a>, our research and experience show that false memory claims are scientifically inaccurate, damaging to survivors and unhelpful to the public. These assertions not only obscure the truth but also invalidate survivors and keep them from receiving the support they deserve.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/312667/original/file-20200129-92977-rj5hi7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/312667/original/file-20200129-92977-rj5hi7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312667/original/file-20200129-92977-rj5hi7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312667/original/file-20200129-92977-rj5hi7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312667/original/file-20200129-92977-rj5hi7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312667/original/file-20200129-92977-rj5hi7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312667/original/file-20200129-92977-rj5hi7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Rosanna Arquette, one of Harvey Weinstein’s accusers, poses for a portrait Friday, Jan. 3, 2020, in New York.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Weinstein-Hollywood-Accusers/5a7afe18c52d4aaf9dca5b2ba4385e67/18/0">Matt Licari/Invision/AP</a></span>
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<h2>Widespread abuse, deeply buried</h2>
<p>Over <a href="https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/judith-l-herman/trauma-and-recovery/9780465061716/">centuries</a>, women who have spoken up about surviving sexual assault have been met with claims by their perpetrators and others that their minds have failed them. They stand accused that they made up the abuse or dreamed it, that someone else implanted memories of assaults in them that never actually happened.</p>
<p>Building on this history, Weinstein’s defense team has prepared to call witnesses to <a href="https://variety.com/2019/biz/news/harvey-weinstein-recovered-memories-expert-1203374531/#!">argue</a> that women who came forward to accuse him suffer from “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-people-harvey-weinstein/prosecutors-oppose-testimony-on-false-memories-in-weinstein-trial-idUSKBN1XG2OV">the formation of fully false memories for events that never happened</a>.” This is not a suggestion of normal problems with memory or recall, but the unlikely proposition that his accusers somehow developed entire memories of sexual assault that never actually occurred. </p>
<p>The notion of false memories has its roots in the 1990s. At that time, a robust women’s movement had ushered in marches, <a href="http://clotheslineproject.info/project.html">clothesline projects</a> and legislation to make visible the realities of violence against women and girls. Survivors of sexual assault began talking more openly about their experiences and advocating for change. In addition, public allegations of child sexual abuse began to emerge from large institutions, such as the <a href="https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126160853">Catholic Church</a>. The <a href="https://time.com/5675029/violence-against-women-act-history-biden/">Violence Against Women Act</a> was passed in 1994 and seemed to signal a new day whence people would start taking women’s stories of sexual assault seriously.</p>
<p>However, out of those seeds sparking a public accounting of sexual violence grew a contentious backlash and so-called <a href="https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/judith-l-herman/trauma-and-recovery/9780465061716/">memory war</a> about the nature of memories for traumatic events, particularly sexual abuse. </p>
<p>The strong, adverse reaction made sense in some ways. From the public’s perspective, enormous numbers of survivors, mostly women, were coming forward to say they had been abused and harmed. Revelations that sexual abuse and sexual assault were more common than previously thought would likely have challenged people’s <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1992-97250-000">assumptions</a> that we live in a just and kind world. Today we know that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2013.12.026">one in four</a> girls in the U.S. is sexually abused. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2017.1295014">One in five</a> young women is sexually assaulted on campus. Society’s aggressive pushback against these realities stemmed from what we psychologists call an “<a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1996-23182-001">institutionalization of disbelief</a>.”</p>
<h2>‘She would’ve called the police’</h2>
<p>Early in the memory war, claims of false memories tended to focus on cases where (mostly) women went years without disclosing their sexual assaults. Some women may not have remembered the assault for a period of time, while <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702618797106">others</a> might not have thought or talked about it for years. </p>
<p>A dangerous set of flawed assumptions arose back then that <a href="https://dynamic.uoregon.edu/jjf/articles/cf07.pdf">echo today</a>. Things like, if sexual assault really happened, the victims would never forget it. Or, if it was rape, women would have called the police. Therefore, women who did not fully remember or disclose immediately must have false memories, the thinking went.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XIFBts9s56o?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Jennifer Freyd, pioneer in research on betrayal trauma, explains her research.</span></figcaption>
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<p>In 1996, pioneering psychologist Jennifer Freyd introduced the concept of <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/215336.Betrayal_Trauma">betrayal trauma</a>. She made plain how forgetting, not thinking about and even mis-remembering an assault may be necessary and adaptive for some survivors. She argued that the way in which traumatic events, like sexual violence, are processed and remembered <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702618797106">depends on how much betrayal there is</a>. Betrayal happens when the victim depends on the abuser, such as a <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/betrayalbook/">parent, spouse or boss</a>. The victim has to adapt day-to-day because they are (or feel) stuck in that relationship. One way that victims can survive is by thinking or remembering less about the abuse or telling themselves it wasn’t abuse.</p>
<p>Since 1996, compelling scientific evidence has shown a strong relationship <a href="https://dynamic.uoregon.edu/jjf/articles/fdz.pdf">between amnesia and victims’ dependence on abusers</a>. Psychologists and other scientists have also learned much about the nature of memory, including memory for traumas like sexual assault. What gets into memory and later remembered is affected by a host of factors, including characteristics of the person and the situation. For example, some individuals dissociate during or after traumatic events. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2004.08.006">Dissociation</a> offers a way to escape the inescapable, such that people feel as if they have detached from their bodies or the environment. It is not surprising to us that dissociation is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2016.07.017">linked with incomplete memories</a>.</p>
<p>Memory can also be affected by what other people do and say. For example, researchers recently looked at what happened when they told participants not to think about some words that they had just studied. Following that instruction, those who had histories of trauma <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/xge0000461.supp">suppressed more memories than their peers did</a>.</p>
<p>Attempts to create so-called false memories in laboratory studies generally only succeed in getting people to make mistakes about details. That is, people can be easily tricked into thinking that a word was on a list they studied earlier – even if it wasn’t – if they saw similar words. However, people are quite resistant to believing that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702618797106">whole, implausible</a> events happened when they did not, such as having a childhood enema.</p>
<h2>Memory often misunderstood</h2>
<p>Researchers have also learned that some of people’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000610">instincts about memory</a> warrant examination. For example, judges and juries might worry that alcohol use leads to more memory error or even false memories. However, <a href="https://www.heatherflowe.com/post/rethinking-the-effects-of-alcohol-on-eyewitness-memory-accuracy-a-meta-analysis-of-the-literature">a recent meta-analysis</a> of 10 studies with more than 1,000 participants shows otherwise. More alcohol consumption at the time that participants witnessed an event led to recalling fewer details, but not more memory errors.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.2007.00327.x">People have also worried</a> that memories that were unavailable are inaccurate when later remembered. However, going days or months or years without recalling information <a href="https://dynamic.uoregon.edu/jjf/articles/bttnebraska2012.pdf">doesn’t mean the memories are false</a> when they <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02102893">are finally remembered</a>. In fact, there is much evidence that <a href="http://blogs.brown.edu/recoveredmemory/case-archive/">long-inaccessible memories are accurate</a>.</p>
<p>As the Weinstein trial continues, it is important to remember that claims of false memory are a demeaning and dangerous distraction that have long been used to deny the realities of violence against women. Science can guide society in general, and a jury in particular, to thoughtfully evaluate survivors’ – and offenders’ – descriptions of their memories for sexual assault.</p>
<p>[ <em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/130856/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anne P. DePrince has received funding from the Department of Justice, National Institutes of Health, State of Colorado, City of Denver, Colorado Evaluation and Action Lab. She has received honoraria for giving presentations and has been paid as a consultant for some organizations. She is an Advisory Group Member of the National Crime Victim Law Institute and a Senior Advisor to the Center for Institutional Courage.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joan M. Cook Ph.D. has served as the principal investigator on seven federally-funded grants, four from the National Institute of Mental Health, one from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and two (one is current) from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute.</span></em></p>As women began to come forward with experiences of rape and abuse, backlash came forward too. The notion of ‘false memory’ developed to explain away assault. Here’s why that notion itself is untrue.Anne P. DePrince, Professor of Psychology, University of DenverJoan M. Cook, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Yale UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1123282019-03-07T06:19:32Z2019-03-07T06:19:32Z#MeToo isn’t big in Africa. But women have launched their own versions<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262678/original/file-20190307-82695-102zskx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The racial nature of the campaign lies behind the poor uptake in Africa.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Nearly one and a half years ago when Alyssa Milano asked women to click MeToo on their social media platforms, the <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/year-ago-alyssa-milano-started-conversation-about-metoo-these-women-n920246">#MeToo movement was born</a>. Since then millions of women have indicated through social media that they too have been victims of sexual harassment or assault. </p>
<p>The power of this movement has been its ability to show the world how pervasive sexual harassment is. And it’s had an effect on perpetrators. In the film industry producers and actors such as Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey and Bill Cosby all lost their jobs.</p>
<p>But is Africa part of this global movement against sexual violence? In her assessment of transnational activism in Africa, author Titilope Adayi, indicates that the global dimension of #MeToo has centred on the involvement of certain countries such as the US, the UK, France, India and China. There’s been virtually <a href="https://africasacountry.com/2018/07/metoo-africa-and-the-politics-of-transnational-activism">no mention of Africa or the Middle East</a>.</p>
<p>But the visibility of #MeToo makes it easy to overlook the very powerful campaigns against sexual violence that go on in Africa. Most are happening outside the digital space. </p>
<p>MeToo was actually <a href="https://www.thecut.com/2018/10/tarana-burke-me-too-founder-movement-has-lost-its-way.html">started</a> by an African American women, Tarana Burke in 2006 – 11 years before #MeToo – to help young women deal with sexual harassment. Her campaign wasn’t on social media and didn’t become global. But it has now been tagged on to the digital campaign.</p>
<p>Before #MeToo there was the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-south-africas-young-women-activists-are-rewriting-the-script-60980">#EndRapeCulture campaign</a> which was started in South Africa in 2016 by African women students. The #EndRapeCulture campaign was powerful enough to force universities in South Africa to <a href="https://www.sun.ac.za/english/Documents/Stellenbosch%20University%20EndRapeCulture%20Report%202017.pdf">appoint task teams</a> to deal with the pervasive normalisation of sexual violence on campuses. But #EndRapeCulture didn’t become a global movement, even though it combined direct action (topless protests) with the digital campaign.</p>
<p>So why didn’t the #MeToo make big inroads into Africa?</p>
<h2>The response of African women</h2>
<p>One of the reasons for the lack of uptake is related to the racial nature of the campaign. It was started by white, wealthy women in the film industry in the US who had access to digital platforms. </p>
<p>Another reason #MeToo wasn’t that big in Africa is because of the very strong <a href="https://newafricanmagazine.com/news-analysis/development/metoo-in-africa/">patriarchal culture</a> in which women fear being stigmatised when they speak out about sexual harassment or assault. The very visibility of this kind of action makes them more vulnerable. Women are also afraid that their families may <a href="https://newafricanmagazine.com/news-analysis/development/metoo-in-africa/">find out about the abuse</a>. Women are therefore silenced by “cultures of respectability”.</p>
<p>And in many countries women are quite aware that the law won’t protect them. In a range of countries, including South Africa and Zimbabwe, secondary victimisation of survivors is rife in male dominated courts, where conviction rates for rape are on average <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2018-09-07-the-cost-of-rape-seeking-justice-in-south-africa/">below 10%</a>.</p>
<p>But women in many African countries have staged street protests. This enables them to avoid individualised attention, but nevertheless makes their causes visible. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/260423/original/file-20190222-195873-luescj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/260423/original/file-20190222-195873-luescj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/260423/original/file-20190222-195873-luescj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/260423/original/file-20190222-195873-luescj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/260423/original/file-20190222-195873-luescj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/260423/original/file-20190222-195873-luescj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/260423/original/file-20190222-195873-luescj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">#MyDressismyChoice protest in Nairobi.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/rubygoes/15320586614/in/photolist-pkQ1D5">Fickr.com/RubyGoes</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Kenya women started <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/mydressmychoice-kenyans-hold-rally-to-support-woman-beaten-for-wearing-miniskirt/a-18069645">#MyDressismyChoice</a> protests in the streets of Nairobi after a woman was assaulted at a bus stop for wearing a miniskirt. In Senegal two young women <a href="https://qz.com/africa/1501088/the-metoo-movement-should-listen-to-the-silence-of-african-women">started “#Nopiwouma”</a> to challenge Senegal’s silence on gender based violence. It means “I will not shut up” in Wolof. The campaign #Doyna, also in Senegal means “that’s enough”.</p>
<p>A consequence of not wanting to speak out about sexual harassment is that high profile men get away with this behaviour, and even when women speak out there may still be <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2017-12-05-00-south-africas-metoo-gap-no-accountability-for-high-profile-men">no consequences</a>. </p>
<p>South Africa has a <a href="https://www.sahrc.org.za/index.php/sahrc-media/news/item/1466-gender-based-violence">very high incidence</a> of gender based violence. A recent example involved the former deputy minister of education Mduduzi Manana, <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2017-08-07-mduduzi-manana-threw-me-on-a-car-bonnet-and-hit-me-in-the-face-says-ermelo-woman/">who beat up two women in a nightclub</a>. He resigned from his job, and was eventually <a href="https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/breaking-mduduzi-manana-resigns-as-mp-20180724">forced</a> to relinquish his parliamentary seat, but it took a very long time.</p>
<p>In Uganda, MP Sylvia Rwabwogo filed a complaint against a man who had stalked her for eight months. He was eventually sentenced to two years in prison but she was strongly criticised by Ugandans who expressed their sympathy <a href="http://www.africanews.com/2018/10/06/african-women-reluctant-to-embrace-metoo//">for the “enamoured” student</a>.</p>
<p>Organisations such as the African Union (AU) have also failed women when it comes to sexual assault. In January 2018, women staffers appealed to senior officials to end harassment in the AU. The matter was only dealt with after it reached the media. The AU’s <a href="https://qz.com/africa/1501088/the-metoo-movement-should-listen-to-the-silence-of-african-women/">limp-wristed response</a> was to say that vulnerable young interns and volunteers hoping for permanent work were targeted, but that it could do little to protect them.</p>
<p>African novelist and film maker, Tsitsi Dangarembga, from Zimbabwe laments that #MeToo has not reached Zimbabwe were sexual harassment is also rife. She herself was in an abusive relationship for <a href="https://thisisafrica.me/tsitsi-dangarembgas-local-metoo-movement/">nearly eight years</a>. </p>
<p>In South Africa women started another campaign, <a href="https://www.okayafrica.com/real-story-behind-menaretrash-south-africas-viral-hashtag/">#MenareTrash</a>, to challenge men to speak out about the epidemic of violence against women, especially intimate femicide by men killing their partners. There was a <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2017-06-01-if-men-dont-like-hearing-menaretrash-change-south-africa-not-the-hashtag/">big push back</a> by men against the campaign because some felt they were all being stigmatised.</p>
<p>This doesn’t appear to be a problem confined to South Africa. Globally men have problems showing solidarity with women speaking out against sexual harassment, assault and rape. This was clearly evident in Brett Kavanaugh’s case in the US. Accused of attempted rape, he went on <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45660297">to be confirmed</a> as a judge of the US Supreme Court.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/112328/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amanda Gouws receives funding from the National Research Foundation</span></em></p>The visibility of #MeToo makes it easy to overlook the very powerful campaigns against sexual violence in Africa.Amanda Gouws, Professor of Political Science and SARChi Chair in Gender Politics, Stellenbosch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1041892018-10-02T10:05:24Z2018-10-02T10:05:24ZMost men do not perpetrate sexual violence against women<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/238743/original/file-20181001-195278-3ajigl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Most men are not sexual predators and enjoy the closeness of the people they love. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-couple-love-hug-each-other-573174106?src=RBq_kJsfEVMJZCX8l_XukA-1-0">Pink Panda/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>With at least <a href="http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-kavanaugh-accusers-20180926-story.html">three</a> women accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct, and the 81-year-old comedian Bill Cosby <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/25/us/bill-cosby-sentence-assault/index.html">sentenced</a> Sept. 25 to three to 10 years in prison for sexual assault, it might seem like predatory men are everywhere we turn. As a trauma psychologist, I applaud the <a href="https://metoomvmt.org">#MeToo movement</a> and hope it continues to hold perpetrators accountable, and elevate, validate and support survivors’ voices. Survivors deserve that and more. </p>
<p>But, I also want to make the important point that the majority of men are not sexual predators.</p>
<p>Many women found last week’s testimony of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee gut-wrenching. As she described her <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2018/09/28/sexual-assault-victims-are-reliving-their-trauma-triggered-by-kavanaugh-hearing/?utm_term=.1bf04f7db26f">alleged sexual assault</a> from 36 years ago, many people wept with her. We saw ourselves, our sisters, mothers, daughters and friends in her story. As a deeply empathetic human being, I understand this reaction. I had it myself. </p>
<p>For the past 20 years, I’ve been researching traumatic stress and treating its survivors – working with people who directly experienced the 9/11 terror attack on the former World Trade Center, combat veterans and former prisoners of war, and men and women who have experienced physical and sexual assault across their lifespan. It is jarring for many people without this area of professional expertise to know that the rate of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.71.4.692">interpersonal violence in this country is high</a>, and that there are “bad” people out there who perpetrate violence on others.</p>
<h2>A look at the numbers</h2>
<p>Data from national crime statistics, <a href="https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cv15_sum.pdf">criminal victimization studies</a>, as well as conviction and incarceration rates, indicate that women’s reports of experiencing attempted rape, sexual coercion and unwanted sexual contact are much higher than many people realize. Although it’s hard to get a solid prevalence rate on the percentage of <a href="http://www.csom.org/pubs/needtoknow_fs.pdf">men</a> who perpetrate sexual violence, one estimate indicates that almost <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.21584">a quarter of men</a> admit to engaging in some form of sexual coercion by the end of their fourth year of college.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/238754/original/file-20181001-195260-1ql2n5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/238754/original/file-20181001-195260-1ql2n5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/238754/original/file-20181001-195260-1ql2n5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/238754/original/file-20181001-195260-1ql2n5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/238754/original/file-20181001-195260-1ql2n5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/238754/original/file-20181001-195260-1ql2n5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/238754/original/file-20181001-195260-1ql2n5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Most males and females report having fallen in love at least once by age 17.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/couple-vacations-looking-each-other-ready-221922931?src=1TYpZQK5VnN93DnoDpg17A-1-64">Antonio Guillem/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The sexual interest and activity of most heterosexual males follows a fairly orderly pattern. Though there are some gender differences between males and females in regards to their first dates, kiss, serious relationship and act of intercourse, most report that they have <a href="https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2004.32.7.667">fallen in love</a> at least once by age 17. By the time they reach college, many men and women are <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ432313">sexually active</a> and have had multiple sexual partners. Generally, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499509551782">college men have more sexual partners</a> than college women and report greater willingness to <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2017-12461-001">casually hook up</a>.</p>
<p>In talking to their parents about sexual relationships, both boys and girls nowadays seem to hear more about <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fa0016931">loving, reciprocal relationships</a>. However, young women still receive more restrictive sex messages of caution and pause, whereas some men continue to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14681810410001678338">be encouraged to go for it and score</a>. </p>
<p>Though gender differences have narrowed, women tend to be <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20053013%22">socialized</a> to pursue closeness, satisfy a partner’s needs, and avoid relationship tension, whereas some boys and men continue to receive the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/men0000113">message</a> that more sexual experiences and partners are desirable, and that they confer status.</p>
<h2>Still Venus and Mars?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4056229">Research from the 1980s</a> found that college men were more likely to fantasize about being the recipient of sexual activity, while college women were more likely to daydream about past sexual experiences and romantic settings for future sexual rendezvous. These divergent views of <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1111/1467-8721.01221">sexual fantasy</a> seem somewhat <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jsm.12734">persistent today</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/sexual-brain">We are all sexual beings</a>. That’s a fact. Growing up surrounded by a barrage of titillation and sexual innuendo, however, makes it harder to engage in normal sexual consumption. We see people gyrating on our Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat feeds, and engaging in highly sexualized behavior in the movies, on television, on the radio and in print media. </p>
<p>With pervasive <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/04/pornography-industry-economics-tarrant/476580/">sex glorification and widespread pornography</a>, men are particularly primed to embrace the erotic cultural messages, but <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Adolescent_sexuality.html?id=4UIEAQAAIAAJ">reject the relationship responsibility</a>. With this constant sexualized input, it is understandably harder for some to go from viewing sex as an <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4005315?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">endpoint</a> to seeing it as an important component of a healthy, intimate, adult relationship. But, to be clear, that never gives permission for any type of sexual abuse or assault. </p>
<p>In general, heterosexual men describe <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19116863">getting less satisfaction</a> than women from consensual sexual activities, whether it’s tender moments, sensual pleasures or erotic play. These findings give pause and beg the questions: What’s going in our culture, and how can we work to improve this?</p>
<p>As the #MeToo movement continues, and as powerful men, and women, fall, we as a society should remind ourselves that most men and women do not transgress sexual violence on one another, and should be careful not to demonize sexual activity and eroticism altogether. </p>
<p>However, it is my sincere hope that parents take this opportunity to teach our children about gender equality and gender differences in sexuality as well as change the narratives around toxic masculinity and rape myths. One other important thing society can do – be it in schools, places of worship, or youth groups – is impart knowledge and skills on how to create healthy sexual boundaries: what they are, how to set them and how to respect them. Some universities are <a href="https://www.brandeis.edu/abroad/resources/identity-culture/dating-relationships-boundaries.htm">already doing this</a>, but it would be great if other organizations joined them. In addition, it’s important for all dating partners or couples to communicate how much they value each other and negotiate for healthy, pleasurable sexual activity in consensual relationships.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/104189/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joan Cook has received funding from the National Institute of Mental Health, Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.</span></em></p>In the wake of the #MeToo movement and women finally feeling free to discuss having been sexually assaulted, it may seem like all men are predators. A trauma psychologist says this is far from true.Joan M. Cook, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Yale UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/975262018-08-03T10:37:55Z2018-08-03T10:37:55ZIt’s harder than you might expect for charities to give back tainted money<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230306/original/file-20180801-136655-m3pcst.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Anti-opioid protest at the Harvard Art Museums, which the Sackler family has supported with charitable gifts.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://acriticalengagement.com/contact/">Jon Shaffer</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The activist group Prescription Addiction Intervention Now, or PAIN, is organizing <a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/pain-sackler-wing-met-1241915">protests across the country</a> at museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Sackler wing in New York City, Washington’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and the <a href="http://www.wbur.org/commonhealth/2018/07/20/harvard-protest-sackler-museum-opioid-crisis">Harvard Art Museums</a>.</p>
<p>These protesters aim to pressure the Sackler family, which amassed a fortune after founding <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/04/sacklers-oxycontin-opioids/557525/">Purdue Pharma</a> – the drugmaker that launched the opioid industry.</p>
<p>As they hurl pill bottles, shout slogans and wave banners, PAIN’s activists are demanding that these institutions scrub the Sackler name from their walls. And they vow to keep the pressure up until the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexmorrell/2015/07/01/the-oxycontin-clan-the-14-billion-newcomer-to-forbes-2015-list-of-richest-u-s-families/#1b96bab475e0">Sackler family</a> and the company that made those billions pay for the cost of <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-big-pharma-is-hindering-treatment-of-the-opioid-addiction-epidemic-81734">fighting opioid addiction</a>.</p>
<p>This campaign is one of the latest examples of how charities can get into trouble when their donors are accused of morally reprehensible behavior. But as a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=HQJcRy4AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">nonprofit law scholar</a>, I have observed that museums, universities and other nonprofits can have trouble distancing themselves from <a href="https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2010/03/21/when-a-donor-becomes-tainted/">donors who get embroiled in scandals</a> or leave legacies that become an embarrassment. </p>
<h2>No pledge is final</h2>
<p>When these scandals strike, <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/what-would-you-do-with-harvey-weinsteins-tainted-charitable-donations-2017-10-10">charities face a dilemma</a> – keep the money given by the now-tarnished donor or return the tainted funds. But returning the funds may be easier said than done.</p>
<p>Once the funds are given, they <a href="https://theconversation.com/disappointed-donors-cant-count-on-getting-their-charitable-money-back-93635">become committed to charitable use</a>. Returning that money just because the donor’s reputation is now sullied may get the charity in trouble with <a href="http://www.naag.org/publications/naagazette/volume_2_number_1/enforcement_of_charitable_organizations.php">state regulators</a>.</p>
<p>But if the gift isn’t final, that is not an obstacle. </p>
<p>For example, before allegations regarding sexual abuse – and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/25/entertainment/harvey-weinstein-to-surrender/index.html">even rape</a> – by Harvey Weinstein were first reported, the disgraced former Hollywood mogul had a history of supporting feminist causes. Apparently seeking to salvage what remained of his reputation, he sped up his plans to make a <a href="https://dailytrojan.com/2017/10/06/harvey-weinstein-pledges-sca/">US$5 million donation</a> to fund scholarships for aspiring female directors studying at the University of Southern California.</p>
<p>But as several bombshell exposés and lawsuits were on the <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/will-usc-accept-harvey-weinsteins-womens-program-donation-1046363">verge of ending his career</a>, a student started an online petition called on the university to refuse Weinstein’s “<a href="https://www.change.org/p/the-university-of-southern-california-reject-harvey-weinstein-s-5-million-foundation-for-the-usc-school-of-cinematic-arts">blood money</a>.” The school <a href="https://nypost.com/2017/10/10/usc-rejects-5m-donation-from-harvey-weinstein/">soon rejected</a> the gift, thwarting Weinstein’s effort to cleanse his name through giving. </p>
<h2>Naming rights</h2>
<p>Charities can have the most trouble distancing themselves from tainted donors when they <a href="https://digitalcommons.law.msu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1181&context=lr">grant a major giver naming rights</a>: that is, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2016/10/22/why-naming-rights-for-wealthy-donors-can-be-more-than-just-bragging-rights.html">name programs or buildings after them</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.pgdc.com/pgdc/vanderbilt-university-pays-12-million-donor-order-rename-confederate-memorial-hall">Vanderbilt University</a> learned this lesson the hard way when it attempted in 2002 to rename “Confederate Memorial Hall,” a building which it had acquired following a merger with George Peabody College for Teachers in 1979.</p>
<p>Peabody had received a donation of $50,000 from the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1933 to fund the building’s construction, with the condition that the building carry the moniker in perpetuity.</p>
<p>After Vanderbilt publicly announced that it would remove that tribute to the Confederacy from the building’s name and walls, the organization sued to enforce the terms of its gift agreement.</p>
<p>In 2005, the court ordered the university to <a href="https://news.vanderbilt.edu/2016/08/15/vanderbilt-will-remove-confederate-inscription-from-residence-hall/">reimburse the United Daughters of the Confederacy</a> the value of its original donation, adjusted for inflation, in exchange for the right to rebrand the building. </p>
<p>A decade later, <a href="https://news.vanderbilt.edu/2016/08/15/chancellor-memorial/">anonymous donors gave Vanderbilt the $1.2 million</a> it took to get rid of what Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos called “a symbol of exclusion, and a divisive contradiction of our hopes and dreams of being a truly great and inclusive university.”</p>
<p>Yet some charities opt to maintain the donor’s name despite sullied reputation. Almost 10 years after the <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/updates/enron-scandal-summary/">Enron scandal</a> broke, the <a href="https://munews.missouri.edu/news-releases/2008/0421-Ken-lay-chair.php">University of Missouri at Columbia appointed</a> its first <a href="https://economics.missouri.edu/people/haslag">Kenneth Lay Chair in Economics</a>.</p>
<p>The professorship was established with a gift of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2002/05/12/endowed-enron/0083c0a3-2d20-46cf-85cf-41a5821548be/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.50088493ef76">$1.2 million in Enron stock</a> from Kenneth Lay, its chairman and CEO, in 1999.</p>
<p>Despite <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/16/business/enron-s-collapse-overview-arthur-andersen-fires-executive-for-enron-orders.html">the company’s collapse in 2002</a>, the University of Missouri declined to terminate or rebrand the professorship. Likewise, Northwestern University still maintains <a href="http://digital.library.northwestern.edu/architecture/image.php?iid=158&all=158,156,155,154,161,157,153,152,162,160,163,159">a building named after Arthur Andersen</a>, a <a href="http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Arthur_E._Andersen">one-time faculty member</a> and the founder of a huge accounting firm <a href="https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230518865_8">destroyed by the Enron scandal</a>.</p>
<h2>Morals provisions</h2>
<p>To avoid that kind of headache, naming rights agreements may include what is known as “<a href="https://www.floridabar.org/news/tfb-journal/?durl=/DIVCOM/JN/jnjournal01.nsf/Articles/7EFCA4DEE4066FE285257F020079350B">morals provisions</a>,” arrangements that let charities remove donors’ names from buildings, endowed fellowships or scholarships or return donated funds following allegations of or convictions for immoral or illegal behavior.</p>
<p>In 1988 Bill and Camille Cosby made <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2015/07/24/spelman-college-officially-cuts-ties-with-bill-cosby/30647389/">a $20 million gift</a> to Spelman College, at the time the largest individual donation ever to a historically black college. A portion of the gift was used to endow a professorship at the women’s college bearing the performer’s name.</p>
<p>After allegations of Bill Cosby’s sexual assaults surfaced, Spelman sought to dissociate from its long-standing relationship with the performer. Without a morals provision in place, Spelman initially had to <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/spelman-college-severs-ties-bill-cosby">temporarily suspend</a> the professorship.</p>
<p>Eventually, Spelman worked out a permanent solution to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2015/07/25/us/cosby-spelman-college/index.html">terminate the endowed professorship</a> and distribute the related funds to a foundation established by his wife, Camille Cosby.</p>
<p>But it will take more than that to scrub the Cosby name from the school altogether.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"914243977527857153"}"></div></p>
<h2>Martha Stewart</h2>
<p>To be sure, sometimes tarnished celebrity reputations are redeemed to the point where their names don’t become liabilities.</p>
<p>For example, after <a href="https://money.cnn.com/2018/05/31/news/companies/trump-martha-stewart-pardon/index.html">Martha Stewart</a> spent time behind bars for the <a href="https://money.cnn.com/2004/03/05/news/companies/martha_verdict/">obstruction of justice</a> involving a well-timed stock sale, she gave Mount Sinai Hospital <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/moiraforbes/2012/09/18/a-conversation-with-martha-stewart/#6a0615bd6e96">$5 million </a> to build a center bearing her name. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.mountsinai.org/patient-care/service-areas/geriatrics-and-aging/martha-stewart-center-for-living">The Martha Stewart Center for Living</a>, which aims to increases access to health care for the elderly while improving public perceptions about aging, has kept that branding.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97526/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Terri Lynn Helge does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>After scandals or sea changes make the association with certain names too awkward, universities, museums and other nonprofits usually distance themselves. But not always.Terri Lynn Helge, Professor of Law, Texas A&M UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/962472018-05-10T10:48:58Z2018-05-10T10:48:58ZWhy the betrayal of Bill Cosby, Eric Schneiderman and other influential men is deeper than you think<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218354/original/file-20180509-34009-3sf341.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman at a news conference in New York in 2016.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman resigned on Monday, May 7, hours after <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/four-women-accuse-new-yorks-attorney-general-of-physical-abuse">The New Yorker</a> published an article in which four women accused him of physical abuse. </p>
<p>This came soon after the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/03/movies/cosby-polanski-academy-expelled.html">announced its expulsion of Bill Cosby and Roman Polanski</a> for violating the organization’s <a href="http://www.oscars.org/about/standards-conduct-and-process-submitting-claims-misconduct">standards of conduct</a>. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/bill-cosby-convicted-on-three-counts-of-sexual-assault/2018/04/26/d740ef22-4885-11e8-827e-190efaf1f1ee_story.html?utm_term=.729b11716380">Cosby has been convicted</a> of sexually assaulting a 29-year-old woman Andrea Constand in 2004, and at least <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2014/11/21/bill_cosby_accusers_list_sexual_assault_rape_drugs_feature_in_women_s_stories.html">58 women</a> have publicly accused him of sexual assault. <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/8/17/16156902/roman-polanski-child-rape-charges-explained-samantha-geimer-robin-m">Roman Polanski</a>, who admitted to raping a 13-year-old in 1977, has been accused of four other child rapes. </p>
<p>All these men, and many others recently accused of sexual harm, carried enormous cultural influence. Indeed, the academy’s decision to expel Cosby and Polanski revived the <a href="https://theconversation.com/metoo-in-the-art-world-genius-should-not-excuse-sexual-harassment-91554">age-old question</a>: Can the value of a person’s creative work be separated from <a href="http://time.com/3599394/bill-cosby-accusers-cosby-show-fans/">the harm of their behavior?</a> As one who <a href="https://www.vanderbilt.edu/gdr/people/bio/hilary-scarsella">studies</a> and <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2017/11/30/4774014.htm">writes on sexual violence,</a>
I believe this question fails to recognize the loss resulting from their actions. I’ll focus on Cosby since, of the three figures I have named, he has arguably been the most culturally prized. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218355/original/file-20180509-34038-x7sonz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218355/original/file-20180509-34038-x7sonz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218355/original/file-20180509-34038-x7sonz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218355/original/file-20180509-34038-x7sonz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218355/original/file-20180509-34038-x7sonz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218355/original/file-20180509-34038-x7sonz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218355/original/file-20180509-34038-x7sonz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In this combination photo, Bill Cosby, left, on the campus of University of the District of Columbia in Washington on May 16, 2006, and director Roman Polanski, right, at the 70th Cannes Film Festival in southern France on May 27, 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>How does a society come to terms with the knowledge that a beloved figure has committed sexual assault?</p>
<h2>The importance of being Bill Cosby</h2>
<p>Psychoanalyst <a href="https://iapsp.org/kohut/">Heinz Kohut</a> developed the theory of <a href="https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/abs/10.1176/ajp.144.1.1?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori%3Arid%3Acrossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%3Dpubmed">“self psychology,”</a> based on the idea that one’s sense of self develops - for better and worse - in response to external persons and things. He used the term “selfobject” to refer to those external influences that are so significant that they become a vital part of who a person is. </p>
<p>For Kohut, a <a href="http://books.wwnorton.com/books/Self-Psychology-and-the-Humanities/">“cultural selfobject”</a> is an influential person whose creative work and public presence is vital to the development of selfhood for a group of people. </p>
<p>Cosby is a good example of a cultural selfobject. Affectionately nicknamed “America’s Dad” for his role as Cliff Huxtable on “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086687/">The Cosby Show</a>,” Bill Cosby long represented an image of fatherhood, family and upper middle-class life that both reflected and shaped what Americans valued, understood themselves to be, and saw as possible for their lives. In this way, he became part of the American self.</p>
<p>Practical theologian <a href="https://mccormick.edu/content/crumpton-stephanie">Stephanie Crumpton</a> defines <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9781137378132">cultural selfobjects</a>, in part, as the “public figures who mirror back our value in ways that make us feel uplifted.” </p>
<p>As <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-30194819">the first black actor to star in a 1965 American TV drama series</a>, “I Spy,” Cosby also became the first black representation of idealized American values in TV entertainment. Cosby influenced the cultural sense of self held by both white and black Americans. For some white Americans, when Cosby became a household name, he nudged their cultural sense of self beyond their <a href="http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195152791.001.0001/acprof-9780195152791">whiteness</a>. For many black Americans, Cosby mirrored back the value of black families, fathers, entertainers and communities <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9781403972729">that they had been historically denied</a>. </p>
<h2>The effects of betrayal</h2>
<p>What happens when a person with such deep meaning for one’s sense of self is accused of sexual assault?</p>
<p>Trauma specialist <a href="https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/people/judith-herman">Judith Herman</a> describes the trauma of sexual violence as <a href="https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/judith-l-herman/trauma-and-recovery/9780465061716/">characterized by betrayal</a>. Being assaulted by someone who is known and trusted shatters a survivor’s basic sense of self and world. </p>
<p>This traumatic betrayal ripples outward and is replicated in a diluted way for all members of a community who invested trust in the one who caused harm. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218356/original/file-20180509-34024-1rgq6cx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218356/original/file-20180509-34024-1rgq6cx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218356/original/file-20180509-34024-1rgq6cx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218356/original/file-20180509-34024-1rgq6cx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218356/original/file-20180509-34024-1rgq6cx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218356/original/file-20180509-34024-1rgq6cx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218356/original/file-20180509-34024-1rgq6cx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bill Cosby accuser Andrea Constand, left, embraces prosecutor Kristen Feden during a news conference after Cosby was found guilty.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Matt Slocum</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As a cultural selfobject, Cosby’s acts of violence against individual women were also a betrayal for all those who built a part of themselves in response to the value he mirrored back to them.</p>
<p>He cannot remain a figure who mirrors ideal American cultural values and the value of black American life because his sexual violence – behavior that undeniably rejects the value of women – is incompatible with both. </p>
<p>Because cultural selfobjects shape who we are, this betrayal and loss is profound. It results in a loss of a part of our own selves. </p>
<p>Indeed, some people could argue that accusations of sexual assault have circled publicly for decades. What’s more, Cosby’s <a href="http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/PDFFiles/Bill%20Cosby%20-%20NAACP.pdf">criticism of black culture, black women and his tendency to blame black people</a> for the impact of systemic racism on their communities has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/22/arts/cosby-defends-his-remarks-about-poor-blacks-values.html">led many to feel he does not reflect their values</a>. Over the years, this has chipped away at the degree to which he continued to function as a cultural selfobject. Nonetheless, he remained a role model for many, and so <a href="https://www.vox.com/2014/11/20/7246681/rape-victims-bill-cosby">the sense of loss is ongoing</a>. </p>
<h2>Responding in a constructive way</h2>
<p>The next question is, how do we respond? </p>
<p>Herman would say responding well to such a loss involves, at the very least, affirming, rather than denying, it happened. </p>
<p>As a society, acknowledging the loss that resulted from Cosby’s behavior is important because doing so also recognizes the cause. It affirms that survivors’ testimonies are worthy of belief, that <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1077801298004003002">sexual violence is a social harm</a> and that it is unacceptable.</p>
<p>This act of internal reckoning makes solidarity more possible with immediate survivors for whom the cost of sexual violence is considerably higher. And solidarity is key for any society wanting to stop sexual violence.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/96247/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hilary Jerome Scarsella is affiliated with Into Account. </span></em></p>It’s not shallow to be upset by the latest scandals. Learning about the bad behavior of people we admire can harm our very sense of self.Hilary Jerome Scarsella, PhD Candidate, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/957202018-04-27T13:13:40Z2018-04-27T13:13:40ZBill Cosby exposed by the media – but it was women who brought him down<p>So much has happened in three and a half years: several abusive men have been <a href="https://www.glamour.com/gallery/post-weinstein-these-are-the-powerful-men-facing-sexual-harassment-allegations">exposed</a>, the <a href="http://time.com/5189945/whats-the-difference-between-the-metoo-and-times-up-movements/">#MeToo and #TimesUp movements</a> have gone international, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2017/01/21/politics/trump-women-march-on-washington/index.html">millions have marched</a>, and now an actual <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-people-cosby/comedian-bill-cosby-convicted-of-sexual-assault-in-retrial-idUSKBN1HX1B7">conviction</a> for a man who appeared impervious to justice – a man protected by <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/cosby-show-executive-producer-bill-cosby_us_55bf60bbe4b06363d5a29b6b">producers</a>, <a href="https://www.bet.com/celebrities/photos/2015/01/celebrities-who-have-stood-by-bill-cosby.html#!010715-celebs-Keshia-Knight-Pulliam">high-profile friends</a>, and <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/xdw3b4/talking-to-the-people-who-still-defend-bill-cosby-on-the-internet">fans</a>. </p>
<p>So much has happened it is easy to forget the video that circulated on social media of comedian Hannibal Buress calling out Bill Cosby in his <a href="https://www.vox.com/2014/10/21/7028755/hannibal-buress-bill-cosby-rapist">stand-up</a> routine: “Yeah, but you rape women, Bill Cosby, so turn the crazy down a couple notches …” he said in October 2014. Over the years, Buress has criticised Cosby, but it wasn’t until the video of him went viral that things began to change.</p>
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<p>Buress importantly brought attention to Cosby – but he is not the reason for the changing media coverage and ultimately Cosby’s conviction. It’s actually all the brave women who have come forward that have forced the news and entertainment industries to pay attention. </p>
<p>Shortly after the Buress video went viral, actress Barbara Bowman frustratedly asked in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/11/13/bill-cosby-raped-me-why-did-it-take-30-years-for-people-to-believe-my-story/?noredirect=on">The Washington Post</a>: “Why did it take 30 years for people to believe my story?”, pointing to the double standards of taking men seriously but not women. Even so, it is what the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/two-more-women-allege-assaults-by-bill-cosby-total-now-60/2016/08/07/e8feb1f0-5b1e-11e6-831d-0324760ca856_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.2fad45e6fee4">60-plus women</a> who have come forward against Cosby have faced that has finally forced the public and media outlets to care about the systemic sexual violence perpetrated by some powerful men like him.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"989567914058698752"}"></div></p>
<p>Remember when CNN host <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2014/11/19/don_lemon_to_cosby_rape_accuser_joan_tarshis_why_didn_t_you_just_bite_his.html">Don Lemon</a> asked one Cosby accuser Joan Tarshis why she didn’t just bite Cosby’s penis? Well he doesn’t ask questions like that anymore. Or when Canadian basketball star <a href="http://time.com/3592547/bill-cosby-rape-allegations-timeline/">Andrea Constand</a> originally took Cosby to court in 2005 and no one paid attention? Well the jury certainly paid attention to Costand this time around. Or when supermodel Janice Dickinson went on <a href="https://www.howardstern.com/news/2014/11/19/janice-dickinson-on-bill-cosby-in-2006/">The Howard Stern Show</a> in 2006 and only hinted about Cosby’s behaviour because she was too afraid of being sued to say more? She has now spoken publicly to many news outlets and even <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2018/04/12/us/janice-dickinson-bill-cosby-five-takeaways/index.html">testified</a> in this last fateful trial. </p>
<p>But even with the improvements, news media still need to do better when it comes to interviewing and profiling women who come forward. <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1077801209333611">Rape culture</a> that is so common in societies, still plays out in <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1461444815612407">news coverage</a>. Specifically, women who come forward are doubted and disparaged. And powerful people who question, insult, and dismiss accusers coming forward are given ample attention in the coverage. </p>
<p>When the Access Hollywood tape was released, featuring <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1461670X.2017.1360150">Donald Trump</a>’s unsavoury comments about grabbing women by the pussy, Trump was given carte blanche to call the women coming forward to accuse him of harassment <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14680777.2017.1304714">liars and ugly and threaten to sue them</a>. The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/oct/13/list-of-donald-trump-sexual-misconduct-allegations">women</a> who accused Trump on the other hand, have always been given minimal exposure. Actor Daman Wayans famously stated that some of the women accusing Cosby were “<a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/node/820777">un-rape-able</a>”. Trump, of course, subsequently won the 2016 presidential election.</p>
<p>Meanwhile Fox presenter <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/bill-oreilly-fired-fox-news-statement-confirmation-a7691926.html">Bill O’Reilly</a>, sacked from Fox News amid allegations of sexual harassment – said for years that he was <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/bill-oreilly-target-suits-13-million-harassment-payouts-577817">merely a target for opportunistic women</a>, with little push back. The examples go on.</p>
<h2>Proving credible</h2>
<p>Consequently, when interviewed, accusers/survivors are often forced to “prove” themselves rather than just tell their story. Or worse, are asked – Like Lemon did to Tarshis – why didn’t they just prevent this from happening? They have to justify their previous actions and even their character traits, which <a href="https://rainn.org/statistics">research</a> shows does not determine whether or not a woman is assaulted. </p>
<p>When the Cosby story broke three and a half years ago, former co-star <a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/1/8/7513119/phylicia-rashad-cosby-rape">Phylicia Rashad notably said</a> “… this was not about the women. This is about something else. This is about the obliteration of legacy”. <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/jerry-seinfeld-bill-cosby-biggest-comedian-time-article-1.3455612">Jerry Seinfeld</a> said something similar about the value of Cosby’s body of work – although to be fair he later <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/jerry-seinfeld-stephen-colbert-bill-cosby_us_59cfce15e4b05f005d348917">went back on those comments</a>. </p>
<p>But in the end, the women in this case finally (and rightfully) made it about them. News coverage reflected this – even if they were 30 years late. Moving forward the biggest challenge will be making this the norm and not just the exception. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/it-takes-guts-and-hard-work-to-expose-a-scandal-like-that-of-harvey-weinstein-but-its-just-the-start-85629">It takes guts and hard work to expose a scandal like that of Harvey Weinstein – but it's just the start</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>News coverage of the #MeToo movement that began in the wake of <a href="https://theconversation.com/it-takes-guts-and-hard-work-to-expose-a-scandal-like-that-of-harvey-weinstein-but-its-just-the-start-85629">Harvey Weinstein’s</a> demise, has often played devil’s advocate, asking (and sometimes emphatically stating) it has <a href="https://nypost.com/2018/02/10/when-the-metoo-movement-goes-too-far/">gone too far</a>. This is without considering the <a href="http://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/ending-violence-against-women/facts-and-figures">international systemic problem</a> of physical and sexual violence against women. Or the relatively short time the movement has existed as opposed to centuries of <a href="https://www.weforum.org/reports/the-global-gender-gap-report-2017">gender inequality</a>. More context is needed when we read the news. </p>
<p>Also, more attention must be paid to surviving sexual abuse and misconduct, rather than the triumphant comeback stories that are now in the works for accused harassers, such as the disgraced CBS anchor <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/04/charlie-rose-tv-series-me-too-scandal-matt-lauer-louis-ck-tina-brown">Charlie Rose</a> and former Today host <a href="https://www.thecut.com/2018/04/comeback-men-sexual-harassment-me-too.html">Matt Lauer</a>. </p>
<p>While recent news coverage has finally embraced reporting on sexual abuse allegations, there is still far to go before the issue itself and the problematic way we discuss all forms of violence against women is eradicated. Luckily, this didn’t deter the brave women who helped bring Cosby to justice.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95720/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lindsey Blumell has received a small one time grant from City, University of London for her research. </span></em></p>The women who overcame heavy opposition to fight for justice in the Cosby rape case.Lindsey Blumell, Lecturer in Journalism, City, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/856582017-11-22T22:09:32Z2017-11-22T22:09:32ZThe way we tell the story of Hollywood sexual assault and harassment matters<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190222/original/file-20171013-3561-6jyds4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hollywood women who have spoken out against sexual harassment</span> </figcaption></figure><p>Reporter Paula Froelich claims she once observed Harvey Weinstein <a href="http://www.npr.org/2017/10/18/558495749/harvey-weinstein-is-battling-a-crisis-of-his-own-making">assault a woman at a book party</a>. Her editor responded with, “Maybe it’s not really a story.” </p>
<p>As it turns out, Weinstein and others are becoming a never-ending story, as more women reveal experiences with powerful men – not just in Hollywood, but across multiple industries. This story typically has two acts. First come the women’s reports – followed by the inevitable dismissal and undermining of them.</p>
<p>As a scholar who has <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=RWaqL4wAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">studied violence against women for more than 20 years</a> and watched public outrage over harassment and assault wax and wane, my question is: Could this time be different?</p>
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<p>Of course, the volume of reports is new. Never before have we witnessed such an outpouring. It’s also new to see organizations such as the <a href="http://www.npr.org/2017/11/03/561781232/npr-management-under-fire-over-sexual-harassment-scandal">newsroom at NPR</a> or the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/14/business/media/harvey-weinstein-ousted-from-motion-picture-academy.html?_r=0">Academy of Motion Picture Artists</a> hold leadership accountable for failing to act. </p>
<p>But other aspects of this cultural moment are all too familiar. Already, the act of making a report of harassment or assault has been termed <a href="http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-young-weinsteining-goes-too-far-20171101-story.html">“Weinsteining,”</a> and the collective action of women who have done the reporting has been termed the <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/veil-silence-falls-weinstein-effect-124803748.html">“Weinstein effect</a>.” The use of these terms removes the women from the stories, and maintains a narrow focus on a singular perpetrator. </p>
<p>These cutesy terms also <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/weighing-the-costs-of-speaking-out-about-harvey-weinstein">diminish the agony</a> women face when deciding whether to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15299730903502912">make a formal complaint</a> to an authority. Those who have been victimized report <a href="http://www.middlebury.edu/media/view/240971/original/sable_article.pdf">fear of reprisal or of being disbelieved, and feel shame, guilt and embarrassment</a>. These fears and reactions are evident across women’s recent accounts. Many spoke of years of torment, fear, shame and guilt, including physical reactions like nausea when recalling the event. </p>
<p>Let me be clear. Such fears are rational. Though some actors allegedly victimized by Weinstein or James Toback continued in the industry and found success, many others were excluded from major films, and a good number <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/from-aggressive-overtures-to-sexual-assault-harvey-weinsteins-accusers-tell-their-stories">left the industry entirely</a>. Other women were encouraged to sign agreements that effectively <a href="https://theconversation.com/taxpayers-are-subsidizing-hush-money-for-sexual-harassment-and-assault-86451">stopped them from telling their own stories</a>.</p>
<p>Another way of undermining women’s reports is to downgrade the women’s experiences from the categories of harassment, sexual assault and rape and instead label them <a href="http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-young-weinsteining-goes-too-far-20171101-story.html">abuse, minor bad behavior or innocent miscommunication</a>. For example, the claim that Toback engaged in <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/10/leon-wieseltier-a-reckoning/544209/">“low-level lechery”</a> and not sexual assault is absurd. What <a href="http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-toback-follow-up-20171023-story.html">Toback has been accused of</a> – obtaining sexual stimulation or orgasm by rubbing against a person without the person’s consent – is a crime called <a href="https://www.officer.com/investigations/forensics/bloodstain-identification/article/10657993/frotteurism-sexual-assault-or-accidental-encounter">frotteurism</a>.</p>
<h2>No woman is immune</h2>
<p>The victimization of powerful celebrities shows that no woman is immune.</p>
<p>Years of social science data underscore the pervasiveness of sexual violation in women’s lives. The sad truth is that the number of women who have been raped or assaulted in their lifetime has not decreased during the past 30 years, or longer. </p>
<p>An analysis of different studies of women in academia, government, the private sector and the military – representing 86,000 women in all – documented that <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2003.tb00752.x/abstract">58 percent</a> said they had experienced at least one instance of sexually harassing behavior. Recently, researchers at the University of Oregon were surprised to find that <a href="http://pwq.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/04/25/0361684316644838.full">nearly 60 percent of women graduate students</a> reported experiences of sexual harassment. In 2010 the <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/nisvs_report2010-a.pdf">Centers for Disease Control and Prevention</a> estimated that 20 percent of American women overall have experienced rape. Estimates of rape and attempted rape in higher education students has remained at a steady 20 percent since psychologist Mary Koss’s <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3494755">1987 groundbreaking study</a>. </p>
<p>If we look at Hollywood as a microcosm of society, men like Weinstein and Toback effectively exerted a pattern of intimidation, fear and social control through sexual predation. As author Susan Brownmiller wrote in her classic 1975 book, <a href="http://www.susanbrownmiller.com/susanbrownmiller/html/against_our_will.html">“Against Our Will</a>,” the behavior of these men isn’t about sex – it’s about intimidation, fear and social control. </p>
<p>Diminishing and undermining the process of women bravely reporting experiences of sexual harassment, rape and other forms of sexual assault by calling it “Weinsteining” allows predators to hold onto power. Describing women’s real experiences with words that match the horror they faced is a first step toward dismantling that power and the structures that support it. If more women come forward and name their <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/21/opinion/men-sexual-harassment.html">experiences</a> and others remember that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/21/opinion/men-sexual-harassment.html">bad manners</a>, assault and harassment are not synonymous, this time may be different. I’m hopeful; but only time will tell.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85658/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah L. Cook received funding from the National Institute for Health, the National Center for Injury Control and Prevention, and the National Institute of Justice.</span></em></p>This story typically has two acts. First come the women’s reports of harassment – followed by the inevitable dismissal and undermining of them. Could this time be different?Sarah L. Cook, Professor & Associate Dean, Georgia State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/673582016-11-16T01:17:58Z2016-11-16T01:17:58ZHow common are sexual harassment and rape in the United States?<blockquote>
<p>“I have moved in the world as a woman and a man. I never realized the absence of fear, and the feeling of invulnerability until I lived as a man.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>These were activist Max Beck’s parting words to my Psychology of Women course in 2005. Beck, born <a href="http://www.isna.org/faq/what_is_intersex">intersexed</a>, lived in a body manipulated by medical intervention to be a girl and then a woman. In adulthood, having learned that when he was born, his sex was unclear, he chose to live the last years of his life as a married and devoted father. </p>
<p>Max spoke about an invisible, ever-present sense of vulnerability that for many women is palpable. The fear of sexual harassment and assault – terms that encompass everything from unwanted touching, grabbing and kissing to rape and attempted rape – is <a href="http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1108/S0275-495920160000034002">all too common</a> among women <a href="http://www.westerncriminology.org/documents/WCR/v04n3/article_pdfs/scott.pdf">in the U.S.</a> and <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11199-016-0654-6">around the world</a>. A student at the University of Alabama <a href="http://www.sportingnews.com/ncaa-football/news/sexual-assault-college-campuses-stanford-brock-turner-baylor-alabama-fear-women-data-stats/axbwf027fvuf1fg4c0l3gl42y">poignantly wrote</a>, “Something that’s always in the back of my mind: One day, one of these victims could be me.” </p>
<p>But is this sense of vulnerability grounded in data? Are women really at high risk? </p>
<p>This week Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/accusing-roger-ailes-sexual-harassment-career-suicide-mission/story?id=43545806">has talked about</a> her allegations of sexually predatory behavior by her former boss Roger Ailes. This comes in the wake of similar allegations against <a href="http://nymag.com/thecut/2015/07/bill-cosbys-accusers-speak-out.html">Bill Cosby</a> and President-elect <a href="http://nymag.com/thecut/2016/10/all-the-women-accusing-trump-of-rape-sexual-assault.html">Donald Trump</a>. </p>
<p>Each time these stories hit the headlines, the public is appalled and shocked. Yet, years of social science data underscore the pervasive scope of sexual violation in women’s lives. I have been conducting research on violence against women for a quarter-century. The sad truth is that despite public outrage, sexual harassment and assault continue to be as widespread a problem today as they were 25 years ago. </p>
<h2>The experience on campus</h2>
<p>The practical, methodological and ethical challenges to conducting scientific research on sexual harassment and assault are many. Harassment and assault usually occur in private, the experiences are highly stigmatized and victims feel such shame that they rarely make a report to authorities. Yet, researchers began to attempt to understand women’s experiences of assault nearly 60 years ago.</p>
<p>In 1957, <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/2773906?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">sociologist Eugene Kanin</a> found that 62 percent of a sample of college freshmen women had experienced “offensive and displeasing attempts at necking, petting above… [and] below the waist, sexual intercourse, and/or a more violent attempt at sexual intercourse accompanied by menacing threats or coercive infliction of physical pain.” Kanin’s language may sound strange to young people today, but the questions he asked clearly describe experiences that today we would label nonconsensual sexual contact to attempted rape.</p>
<p>The results of Kanin’s study, however, remained hidden in scholarly journals. </p>
<p>It was only 30 years later, in 1987, that <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/ccp/55/2/162/">nationally representative data</a> on the nature and scope of sexual aggression on college campuses were disseminated widely through the popular book <a href="http://www.robinwarshaw.com/i_never_called_it_rape__the_ms__report_on_recognizing__fighting_and_surviving_da_92309.htm">“I Never Called It Rape”</a> by Robin Warshaw.</p>
<p>Warshaw’s book translated psychologist Mary Koss and colleagues’ groundbreaking scholarly study of date and acquaintance rape for the general public. This study is the source for the famous “one in four” statistic: that about a quarter of college women report experiences equivalent to rape, that few label their experiences as rape and even fewer report their experiences to authorities. </p>
<p>Two methodologically similar studies conducted <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/ccp/67/2/252/">between 1995</a> and <a href="https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/182369.pdf">1997</a> confirmed the findings of the 1987 study. </p>
<p>And when a broader range of nonconsensual sexual acts are considered (for example, groping or unwanted kissing), many more women on campus are affected. </p>
<p>In Koss’ study, 28 percent of women reported having experienced such episodes when they were as young as 14. <a href="https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/182369.pdf">In a separate study 10 years later,</a> nearly 10 percent of college women reported unwanted and attempted unwanted sexual contact within a single academic year. </p>
<p>Recently, researchers at the University of Oregon responding to the White House Task Force’s call for information were surprised to find that <a href="http://pwq.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/04/25/0361684316644838.full">nearly 60 percent of women graduate students</a> reported experiences of sexual harassment.</p>
<h2>Women at risk everywhere</h2>
<p>Other groups of women face similar or higher risk. </p>
<p>Data from the National Crime Victimization Study, analyzed by criminologists Callie Rennison and Lynn Addington, show that economically disadvantaged women are at <a href="http://tva.sagepub.com/content/15/3/159.abstract">slightly higher risk of being raped than college women</a>. In 2010 the <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/nisvs_report2010-a.pdf">Centers for Disease Control and Prevention</a> estimated that 20 percent of American women overall have experienced rape. Women who identify as bisexual report far more rape, as do multiracial and Alaskan/American Indian women. Others, such as lesbian and Latina women, report far less. </p>
<p>Similar nationally representative data on women’s experiences of sexual harassment do not exist, but an analysis of different studies of women in academia, government, the private sector and the military (86,000 women in all) documented that <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2003.tb00752.x/abstract">58 percent</a> said they had experienced at least one instance of sexually harassing behavior.</p>
<p>Whether perpetrators target specific groups of women, whether some groups of women underreport assault more than others or whether other factors are responsible for some women being at higher risk than others continue to be unanswered questions. </p>
<h2>How many men perpetrate harassment or assault?</h2>
<p>So what do the data say about the number of men who perpetrate sexual harassment and assault? </p>
<p>In his 1969 study on men, Kanin concluded that – based on his study at one academic institution – about <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/3811495">25 percent of men</a> reported committing at least one “sexually aggressive episode” since entering college. Kanin noted that these episodes would “usually not be sufficient violent to be thought of as rape attempts” although “these aggressions involved forceful attempts at removing clothing and forceful attempts to maneuver the female into a physically advantageous position for sexual access.” These episodes clearly meet the FBI definition of attempted rape.</p>
<p>Nearly 20 years after Kanin’s study, in the first nationally representative study of its kind, <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/ccp/55/2/162/">8 percent of men</a> reported having raped or attempted rape. When the scope was broadened to all forms of sexual assault, the percent of men who reported nonsexual contact increased to <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/ccp/55/2/162/">25</a>.</p>
<p>Since 1987, however, no national studies on how often rape and other forms of sexual assault or harassment are perpetrated have been federally funded or conducted privately. </p>
<p>One source of available data on sexual harassment is the military.</p>
<p>The Navy is making some progress to understand sexual harassment – <a href="http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a434586.pdf">67 percent</a> of just over 1,000 U.S. Navy men in their first year of service reported that they had sexual harassed women. This included giving unwanted attention to women and making “crude sexual remarks either publicly or privately,” as well as “threatening women with some sort of retaliation for not being sexually cooperative.”</p>
<p>The relative dearth of data on harassment and assault perpetration is perplexing, given the widespread <a href="https://theconversation.com/sexual-assault-on-campuses-what-to-do-33773">calls to prevent this behavior</a>. To know whether prevention strategies work, we must have accurate and current knowledge of how often such behavior occurs.</p>
<p>The fact is that despite decades of raising awareness and providing education, rape and other forms of sexual assault and harassment <a href="http://sax.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/09/02/1079063216667917.refs">remain pervasive threats</a> in women’s and men’s lives. They are akin to normal and expected aspects of the feminine and masculine experience.</p>
<p>High-profile incidents, such as Donald Trump’s blatant description of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-recorded-having-extremely-lewd-conversation-about-women-in-2005/2016/10/07/3b9ce776-8cb4-11e6-bf8a-3d26847eeed4_story.html">his behavior</a> and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/13/opinion/sunday/gretchen-carlson-my-fight-against-sexual-harassment.html?_r=0">Gretchen Carlson’s</a> and Megyn Kelly’s allegations of Roger Ailes’ sexual harassment of network staff, stimulate public discussion. </p>
<p>These debates come at a terrible cost to the women who come forward publicly. Their motivations are questioned. Their experiences diminished. But if they continue, they have the chance to see social norms change. And the dialogue is present on a scale never before seen. </p>
<p>Those who insist that the number of women who are victimized is overstated, or that the experiences are far less traumatic than portrayed, or that women make false accusations, will always exist. </p>
<p>But what has changed is that an increasing number of men are opposing victim-blaming, calling out reprehensible behavior and seeking justice for victims, as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/06/10/i-am-filled-with-furious-anger-vice-president-biden-writes-letter-to-stanford-sexual-assault-victim/">Vice President Joe Biden</a> did after Brock Turner was sentenced to six months for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman. During this election season, the discussion included new voices, with many expressing outrage because they were husbands, fathers, brothers of women. Prominent commentators, such as The New York Times’ <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/12/opinion/daughters-and-trumps.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FColumnists&action=click&contentCollection=opinion&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=24&pgtype=collection">Frank Bruni</a>, went further, opposing outrage based on men’s relationships with women and arguing that all should speak out about assaults on all women.</p>
<p>This election season kept sexual harassment and assault in the national consciousness. Recent advances in preventive interventions focus not on potential perpetrators but on promoting community norms that counter attitudes and behaviors that <a href="http://vaw.sagepub.com/content/early/2011/05/06/1077801211409727.abstract">support harassment and assault</a>.</p>
<p>This national discussion has moved us beyond <a href="http://www.ew.com/article/2015/09/01/its-on-us-celebrity-campaign-video">choreographed campaigns</a> where sports figures and other celebrities proclaim opposition to rape and sexual assault. We are seeing the opposition in real time through responses to Trump’s hot mic moment, language during debates and threats of harm through social media. Now that Trump is president-elect, his actions, past and present, will keep the issue top of mind. </p>
<p>Could this added focus mean the day is near when the ever-present and unnamed threat of harassment and assault leaves women’s lives?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/67358/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah L. Cook has consulted with local and state level nonprofit organizations that address violence against women. Her research has been funded by National Institute of Justice and National Institute of Mental Health. She has consulted and contracted with the Centers for Disease Control. She is a professor and associate dean at Georgia State University.</span></em></p>Megyn Kelly’s account of Fox News Chief Roger Ailes’ sexually predatory behavior has put harassment back in headlines. Can public debate on this issue make a difference?Sarah L. Cook, Professor & Associate Dean, Georgia State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/453332015-07-28T12:19:49Z2015-07-28T12:19:49ZHow to respond to an allegation of sexual assault<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89911/original/image-20150728-7626-c0dynt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://nymag.com/thecut/2015/07/bill-cosbys-accusers-speak-out.html">New York Magazine</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>This week’s New York Magazine surely has its <a href="http://nymag.com/thecut/2015/07/bill-cosbys-accusers-speak-out.html#beverly-johnson2">most poignant cover ever</a>, in a piece of remarkable journalism. With the caption: “the unwelcome sisterhood”, the cover shows black and white photographs of 35 of the 46 women whose sexual assault allegations against Bill Cosby span five decades.</p>
<p>One of the women, Barbara Bowman, aged just 17 and trying to make it to the next level in her career at the time of the alleged assaults, describes the feelings about what was happening to her and the invisible bars that she felt trapped by. She said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I could have walked down any street of Manhattan at any time and said, ‘I’m being raped and drugged by Bill Cosby,’ but who the hell would have believed me? Nobody, nobody.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>She is, of course, correct. At that time Cosby was a well-known, much-loved and respected actor, celebrated on a global scale. </p>
<p>Even today, many women are having trouble getting authorities to respond adequately to allegations of sexual violence. The Guardian recently published <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/jul/26/student-rape-sexual-violence-universities-guidelines-nus">an investigation</a> into how university students had been let down by their institutions when trying to report their experiences of sexual assault on campus.</p>
<p>So what is the best way to respond if someone does make a disclosure of sexual assault to you? What can you do to help and, importantly, how can you avoid making the situation worse?</p>
<h2>Don’t underestimate barriers to disclosing</h2>
<p>At Durham University we have been offering training to staff about responding appropriately to disclosures of sexual violence. One of the exercises we ask participants to do is to think about the barriers that students might face when considering disclosing a sexual assault. </p>
<p>For every concern: “Will they believe me if I’ve been drinking?”, “Will the forensic medical examination hurt?”, “Will my parents find out?”, we place a chair in the middle of the room and line them up in a row. By the end of the exercise, participants generally move from wondering why victims don’t report to how anyone does at all.</p>
<p>One of the ultimate fears is that they will not be believed. Kay Davies from Rape Crisis England and Wales works with us on the training and always reminds us not to say: “I just can’t believe [name] would do such a thing, he’s usually such a quiet/intelligent/kind young man”.</p>
<p>In this situation rather than “I just can’t believe it” being interpreted as a figure of speech, it can be interpreted as “I don’t believe you” or “No-one will believe you”. Their worst fears realised in an oft-used phrase.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89923/original/image-20150728-7662-ndzj8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89923/original/image-20150728-7662-ndzj8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89923/original/image-20150728-7662-ndzj8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89923/original/image-20150728-7662-ndzj8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89923/original/image-20150728-7662-ndzj8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89923/original/image-20150728-7662-ndzj8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89923/original/image-20150728-7662-ndzj8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Empty chairs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/sammcox/8411585311/in/photolist-dPizfX-5XHnUj-5wA6Xq-dLJDTr-8h54Zp-ei61rf-4uU3as-7AbECV-7mx78k-cp9kU9-avFtfA-9oATnn-bmxRwg-8BhWAN-8Tgt4z-5TNVz5-dKZHcJ-7nEPP6-d65xHQ-8oXxR8-3s5tzc-4bPsP2-63GdHo-5ZYUpS-6k1yuK-9Lrna5-gFB4FY-aNojbP-4VNnxL-cw5F2f-3fNz8d-3fJdEc-9vWb3q-3fJage-3fNzUh-6Q5eN6-3fNARA-9WBeB-9qTGH8-ebNFqr-ngN7rg-8n9RYV-7LLLEV-3fJ9p6-dJnnPp-p4owm1-dcTQR6-wfTJa-7QA9uZ-dRjVTm">Sam Cox</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Don’t panic</h2>
<p>It’s an awful fact that rape and other sexual assaults happen every day in every town and city, particularly though not exclusively, to women and girls. Try not to look shocked and panic. Realise that someone has trusted you enough to tell you about one of these daily occurrences that has happened to them. </p>
<p>Feel honoured that they came to you with this important disclosure. If they are telling you about a sexual assault that isn’t recent don’t assume they have already told other people about it even if it happened in childhood – you might still be the first person they are disclosing to.</p>
<h2>Don’t ask too many ‘detail’ questions</h2>
<p>If a disclosure is made to you and the victim intends to also make a police report, don’t delay the situation by asking too many questions. If a full disclosure is made to you, then you become an important witness and will probably need to give evidence and be cross-examined in court. This means taking notes or having a very good memory. Better to leave it to the professionals and let the police take over with a properly recorded interview.</p>
<p>Even if the victim does not intend to report, you should not ask a lot of questions about the actual assault. Questions such as: “What exactly happened?” or: “What did he do?” can be inappropriate depending on the context and the relationship between the victim and yourself. </p>
<p>The language of sexual assault: “vagina”, “anus”, “semen”, “penis”, or the many slang versions of them, are not words that many people feel comfortable using out loud, especially with people they know only on a professional basis and to people their senior.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89921/original/image-20150728-11549-2vj658.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89921/original/image-20150728-11549-2vj658.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89921/original/image-20150728-11549-2vj658.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89921/original/image-20150728-11549-2vj658.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89921/original/image-20150728-11549-2vj658.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89921/original/image-20150728-11549-2vj658.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89921/original/image-20150728-11549-2vj658.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Speaking out is hard.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/34202774@N07/6203120623/in/photolist-as9BDz-as9BzB-as9Bvi-ascfns-ascfi7-ascfeo-as9B7k-as9AUK-asceKJ-ascewj-as9Avc-asceod-ascef5-ascdZ1-as9zWD-as9zMF-ascdFj-as9zC6-ascdt5-as9zh6-asccZo-asccVs-as9yPR-as9yFP-asccyA-asccub-as9yk2-aschKs-aschyG-aschtY-as9DwZ-aschmS-aschih-as9Dkk-as9DfX-asch4C-as9D5P-ascgVW-aschFf-dd3JnK-arqcLE-e8NHPk-asGzKh-9T6xSU-9T3JdV-9Sf31m-ddrohK-arZWJU-aeSH4X-arXpfi">Alan</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Don’t try to ‘fix it’</h2>
<p>You can’t fix this – you can’t make it right and you can’t take away the pain. </p>
<p>What you can do is respond in a caring manner: “I’m so sorry this has happened to you”, “What do you need right now?”, “Is there anyone I can call for you?”, “What do you want to happen?”. Don’t make promises that can’t or won’t be kept: “We’re going to make sure that bastard is found and locked up for a very long time.” Try not to show your anger “I’m going to kill him when I get my hands on him”. This isn’t about you and your anger, its about what the victim needs. Centre it on their needs, not yours.</p>
<h2>Refer victim to the right place</h2>
<p>The main services for victims of sexual offences are Sexual Assault Referral Centres and Rape Crisis Centres, though both also refer to each other. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.nhs.uk/Service-Search/Rape-and-sexual-assault-referral-centres/LocationSearch/364">Sexual Offence Referral Centres</a>, or SARCs, take referrals (including self-referrals) from people who have recently been raped. They are usually run by the police and health services. Forensic medical examinations take place at SARCs and victims can either decide to proceed with a police report while they are there – the SARC will arrange this – or the victim can choose not to make a police report but to have their evidence from the examination stored for the future. This means that if they decide they want to make a police report when they feel stronger, they have the evidence to do so. </p>
<p>If other victims start coming forward against the same offender then the victim might feel more able to be part of a group making an allegation against the same offender than they were as a single complainant.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"625585312635424768"}"></div></p>
<p>Contrary to what their name suggests, <a href="http://rapecrisis.org.uk/centres.php">Rape Crisis Centres</a> do not just work with women who are in crisis, but also women who have been raped a long time – even decades – ago. Many centres specialise in work with women and girls though some work with men. </p>
<p>If someone discloses to you who does not want or need a medical examination because of the time that has passed since the assault, or they want to talk to someone in complete confidence – then this is a useful place to refer them.</p>
<p>We cannot all become trained Rape Crisis counsellors, but as the disclosure rate continues to increase, we can choose to educate ourselves and those around us on the basics of how to respond sensitively. </p>
<p>They came to you, they trusted you – please don’t let them down. Help them – and us – to continue breaking the silence around sexual assault.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/45333/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicole Westmarland is a trustee of Darlington and Co. Durham Rape and Sexual Abuse Counselling Centre and a member of the Durham University Sexual Violence Task Force. </span></em></p>The world is full of bad responses to sexual assault allegations. Here’s how to do it right.Nicole Westmarland, Professor of Criminology, Durham UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/347762014-11-28T15:01:26Z2014-11-28T15:01:26ZBill Cosby’s downfall was a display of social media power<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65829/original/image-20141128-20568-1q9gpe4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cosby's power cannot be overestimated.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Cosby#mediaviewer/File:US_Navy_110217-N-5549O-266_Honorary_Chief_Hospital_Corpsman_Bill_Cosby_delivers_remarks_during_his_pinning_ceremony_at_the_U.S._Navy_Memorial_in_Wa.jpg">US Navy </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the awful narrative around the allegations of sexual assault and rape made against iconic American entertainer Bill Cosby, a major theme has been the perceived failure of the media to challenge him on his alleged crimes over the 40 years the offences were claimed to have taken place.</p>
<p>In <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/25/business/media/calling-out-bill-cosbys-media-enablers-including-myself.html?_r=2">a revealing article</a> in the New York Times, journalist David Carr writes of his own interview with Cosby in 2011. Admitting that he knew about the allegations of drugging women and sexual assaults, Carr states that he looked away when he accepted the job, knowing that he should have instead refused it: “My job as a journalist was to turn down that assignment,” he wrote. In doing the interview and not confronting Cosby, Carr felt that he, among others, was “letting down the women who were brave enough to speak out publicly against a powerful entertainer”. </p>
<p>Another journalist, Ta-Nahesi Coates, <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/11/the-cosby-show/382891/2/">wrote about the time</a> he spent in 2006-7 following Cosby around the US while the comedian addressed the state of morality in black America. In the article that resulted from the research, Coates stated that though he made a "brief and limp mention of the accusations against Cosby … There was no opinion offered on the rape accusations". This despite, as he admitted, "I believed that Bill Cosby was a rapist.“</p>
<p>That these two men admit contrition for omission is something to be applauded – but is it possible that we should have a certain amount of sympathy for their actions? As Coates says, lacking physical evidence, adjudicating rape accusations is a murky business for journalists. </p>
<p>Let us not underestimate the power of Cosby, too. We should not forget that he was probably without equal in terms of the status he occupied. As head of the Huxtable family in the phenomenally successful <a href="http://www.museum.tv/eotv/cosbyshowt.htm">Cosby Show</a>, which ran from 1984 to 1992, Cosby was instrumental in the portrayal of a successful black family whose comedic highs and lows were not reliant upon stereotype and prejudice. For Carr, the prestige of Cosby was such that he was "never just an entertainer, but a signal tower of moral rectitude”.</p>
<p>If Carr had broached the subject of his alleged crimes there is no doubt that his time with Cosby would have ended and would have found himself at the mercy of his “ferocious lawyers and stalwart enablers”.</p>
<p>The threat of legal action is very real for those in the mainstream media and remember this very crucial point: in the eyes of the law Cosby is innocent. He has not been charged, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/11/19/prosecutor-who-declined-to-charge-bill-cosby-in-2005-i-didnt-say-that-he-didnt-commit-the-crime/">let alone convicted for sexual crimes or otherwise</a>.</p>
<p>Remember too that journalists exist within society and not apart from it. We might expect a reporter charged with interviewing Cosby to bring up the allegations, but would we, in a similar situation, risk the threat of interview termination, legal action, career meltdown and the wrath of an editor without a story who has sent us to interview the world’s most famous entertainer? </p>
<p>To be clear, I request a little understanding of the constraints under which journalists operate and not to excuse the behaviour of the mainstream media. In general I agree with <a href="http://www.cjr.org/behind_the_news/bill_cosby_downfall.php">the view of Bill Wyman</a> who wrote in the Columbian Journalism Review that traditional media culture tends to venerate celebrity to the degree that “the narrative of the star is so powerful that digressions that clash with it are discarded.”</p>
<p>That said, the admissions of these two journalists should not lead to the belief that the media ignored the claims around Cosby, either. As <a href="gawker.com/who-wants-to-remember-bill-cosbys-multiple-sex-assaul-1515923178">Tom Stocca illustrates</a>, in 2005 a woman who claimed she was drugged and raped by Cosby was interviewed on the <a href="http://www.today.com/id/6945190#.VHXTe4usV8G">NBC Today programme</a> The same year, FOX News reported Beth Ferrier came forward to allege Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her, months after she ended a consensual affair with him. In 2006, People Magazine ran the Cosby under Fire story, concerned with Andrea Constand who claimed Cosby had drugged and sexually assaulted her in his Pennsylvania mansion in 2004.</p>
<p>That the scandal has regained currency now is largely due to the comments of US stand-up Hannibal Buress, who on stage in Cosby’s hometown of Philadelphia last month said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Bill Cosby has the fuckin’ smuggest old black man public persona that I hate … He gets on TV, ‘Pull your pants up black people, I was on TV in the 80s! I can talk down to you because I had a successful sitcom!’ Yeah, but you rape women, Bill Cosby, so turn the crazy down a couple notches. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>News of the routine spread within hours and it has now been viewed more than <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzB8dTVALQI">91,000 times on YouTube</a>. </p>
<p>These events demonstrate the power of social media to spread old news to new audiences. <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2014/11/social-media-bill-cosby-politicians-113182.html">Politico journalists Anna Palmer and Darren Samuelsohn argue</a> that part of the reason the past does well on social media is because users tend to be younger and not familiar with the first cycle of a particular story. It is also a useful forum for the outraged and previously unheard to voice their discontent. In this sense, behaviour which was once considered socially unremarkable can now be "held to current moral standards". </p>
<p>It is highly unlikely that Cosby will face criminal charges now. What is becoming increasingly apparent though is that this fresh controversy has killed Cosby’s career and demolished his reputation. Sensitive to the furore and conscious of public mood, NBC has cancelled the development of his new project. Netflix has postponed a broadcast of his live show and Viacom’s cable and satellite station, TV land, has stopped repeating the Cosby show in the week it was due to have been part of a Thanksgiving sitcom marathon. </p>
<p>What’s the upshot of all this? Bringing down Cosby – something the mainstream media couldn’t manage in decades – took the internet just over a week. And that, surely, is of great importance.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/34776/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
In the awful narrative around the allegations of sexual assault and rape made against iconic American entertainer Bill Cosby, a major theme has been the perceived failure of the media to challenge him…John Jewell, Director of Undergraduate Studies, School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, Cardiff UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.