When two, three, and 10 women came forward to accuse Bill Cosby of rape or sexual assault, the media dismissed or minimized their claims. Celebrities and fans rushed to Cosby’s defense—even though Cosby had repeatedly joked about drugging and raping women, the very acts of which he was accused. Dozens of women had to come forward before people began to accept that Cosby is a sexual predator. Even then, one poll found that nearly half of Americans maintained a “favorable” opinion of Cosby.
How Much is a Woman’s Word Worth?
The Cosby trial has reignited public speculation about the comedian. But we’ve seen over and over again how difficult it is for people to believe women about rape. Though at least a dozen women have accused the president of rape or sexual assault, more than 60 million Americans either didn’t believe them or thought that sexual assault was trivial enough that Trump still deserved a vote.
Even when video emerged of Trump admitting to and defending some of the same behavior of which he had been accused, his supporters dismissed his accusers. The video was just locker room talk, they claimed. And grabbing a woman against her will isn’t sexual assault anyway, they insisted. After all, women aren’t people, and their bodies are public property.
Even among those who take a less misogynistic approach to sexual assault, the unconscious notion that women lie about rape is pervasive. The following practices in coverage and discussions of Cosby, Trump, and other accused sexual predators reveal that most of us have internalized myths about rape.
Overuse of ‘Alleged’ and ‘Accused’
Media outlets need to use terms that make it clear a person hasn’t been convicted of the crime of which they are accused. That’s why it’s perfectly reasonable to call Bill Cosby an “alleged rapist” or Donald Trump an “accused sexual predator.” The problem occurs when the media peppers every sentence about sexual assault with repeated uses of these terms. This is a subtle reminder that women cannot be trusted.
Consider how the media reports on other crimes. An arrested man might be an “alleged thief,” but the theft is almost never referred to as an “alleged theft.” The use of alleged to refer to the crime itself implies that the crime might not have happened at all. We take the reports of other crime victims at face value, even though people lie about other crimes as frequently or more than they lie about rape. When we don’t do this with rape, we sow seeds of disbelief. There’s no advantage to lying about rape, particularly when a popular public figure will stop at nothing to destroy a woman’s reputation. So why do we continue to act as if all sexual assaults are little more than unsubstantiated allegations?
And after a person is convicted, the media switches to terms like “convicted of theft” or “convicted thief.” With sexual assault, they continue to use “alleged.” No matter how much evidence there is, no matter how many accusers there are, or how many juries have found someone guilty, there’s still something about rape accusers that we just don’t trust.
Reliance on Euphemisms
Sexual assault is a category of crimes involving sexual coercion and abuse. Although rape is a form of sexual assault, good journalism uses specific terms—not euphemisms. Sexual assault is not a nicer word for rape. Yet when reporting on rape, the media frequently uses the term sexual assault as an apparent euphemism. We need to call things what they are. When an accusation fits the legal definition of rape, it should be called rape. Anything else robs it of its seriousness.
Fake Debates About What Sexual Assault Is or Isn’t
Sexual assault is no more complex than other crimes. Touching someone in a sexual way without their consent is sexual assault. There’s no asterisk there. Yet media reports act as if there should be. When reporters, experts, and educators act as if reasonable people can disagree about what sexual assault is and is not, it makes it look like rape and other sex crimes are little more than misunderstandings.
We saw this when Jeff Sessions initially insisted that grabbing a woman without her consent “by the pussy,” as Donald Trump says he routinely does, is not sexual assault. When people can’t agree about whether nonconsensual sexual content is assault, it sends a clear message: it’s too hard to know what is and isn’t sex abuse, and therefore it’s unreasonable to expect that people won’t sexually assault other people. Cue a bunch of whining about overly sensitive feminists and political correctness.
Media reports about Donald Trump should have clearly identified his behavior as sexual assault. Journalists are tasked with educating the public, and part of that education includes reporting on facts—not treating a pretty simple legal question as something up for debate. They refer to murder as murder and theft as theft. Why can’t they do the same with sex crimes?
Is there a line at which it becomes difficult to discern what is or isn’t sexual assault? Sure. The same is true of any other crime. At what point does not returning something you borrowed constitute theft, for example? The fact that there are some hard cases doesn’t mean that all cases are hard cases, or that we can’t establish clear guidelines for acceptable behavior.
How Reports About Rape Affect All Women
One in five women will be raped at some point in their lives. Most will never accuse a public figure of rape, and not all rape victims are women. But the way we talk about rape and other forms of sexual assault plays into a larger societal trope about women and their value.
Because we collectively refuse to believe women about rape, many Republican legislators have decided rape just doesn’t happen (or that it doesn’t matter). That’s why so many draconian new state abortion regulations offer no exception for rape or incest. It’s probably also why Republican legislators think a woman’s parents should get to decide whether she has an abortion. After all, women—especially young ones—are untrustworthy liars. We can’t allow them to make their own decisions.
The myth of the lying, irrational woman is everywhere. It’s why strong female bosses are crazy bitches and strong male ones are, well, strong. It’s why women who sue over sexual harassment are nutcases who couldn’t take a joke. It’s why women writers get more aggressive comments, why mansplaining is a thing, why catcalling can so quickly turn violent. As long as we continue talking about rape as if women are inherently unbelievable, as long as we continue treating rape as a minor indiscretion, we’ll collectively continue to undermine the humanity of women.
Changing the way we talk about rape won’t change things overnight. But it’s a necessary prerequisite to a more equal world.