has been to school women, youth, and people of color as to who is in charge. People who object better get damned serious about their votes and show up at the polls. There is no time to play cutesy games. I remember hearing about the "fierce urgency of now." Now is upon us and may well pass us by.

a million times.

- especially those who downplay the seriousness of the event and try to minimize what took place, I always - always - wonder if they are recalling the time (or times) they did the same thing or similar, and are downplaying it because if the accused is guilty of sexual assault then that means they are also guilty of sexual assault.

Guilt creeps in but defensiveness takes hold and they attack the victim because - if Kavanaugh is guilty then they are too. Attacking the victim mitigates their own guilt - in their minds.

And they simply refuse to see their own "horseplay" or "roughhouse" as sexual assault. Because they don't want to think of their own past (and not so past) actions as sexual assault.


They hold to unfounded beliefs and well nurtured denial that a rapist looks and acts a certain way - and they're good boys, so they can't be a rapist, even if they did hold her down or she was unconscious or she said "No" but they know she really meant "Yes".

It was conquest and a show of their prowess as men. It wasn't rape. It was how things are done because girls/women want to be seduced. Because to them what they did was seduction and not rape. Rape is what lowlife men do and they are good boys from good families with a promising future.

Besides, the girl lead them on, so it was only fair. What did she expect would happen? A girl just can't leave a guy hanging.

When they say things like

Great post. I think you are right and everything you just stated. There is indeed something in their past that they refuse to acknowledge. Not all men, yet when they attack the victim so harshly...there is something there. Thank you.

I always think when men are defensive on this topic, they are either consciously or subconsciously defending their own behavior whether it has occurred in the past or present. It may or may not be true, but that is immediately where my mind goes.

Regardless of whether it's true or not, I have no respect for a man who automatically defends the accused and lashes out at the victim. It makes me sick. It tells me what he thinks of women.

This whole situation has infuriated me. A bunch of white male bullies beating up on a female victim and adding insult to injury. I can't remember when I have been so disgusted by the behavior of men in power.