E. Jean Carroll’s fight for justice
Imagine this scenario. Jack is a notorious house burglar. Jane is a homeowner. One day Jane comes home and finds Jack in her living room. Jack drops the goods he is stealing from Jane’s house and runs out the door. Jane reports Jack to the police. Using fingerprints and CCTV the police find Jack. Jack insists he was only visiting Jane and that he was stealing nothing. The police charge him with burglary anyway. Jack is duly prosecuted and put in jail.
Now imagine that same scenario with the details changed. Jack is a notorious rapist. Jane is a homeowner. One day Jane comes home and finds Jack in her living room. Jack rapes Jane and runs out the door. Jane reports Jack to the police. Using fingerprints and CCTV the police find Jack.
But that’s where the similarities between the first hypothetical scenario and the second end. In the second scenario it turns out there’s a problem. Jack claims the sex was consensual. The police don’t know who to believe, Jane or Jack, a man with several rape convictions. Hmmm. This is a tough one. They notice Jane is dressed provocatively. They notice she has been drinking. Public sentiment is split. One of Jane’s elderly neighbours tells the cops that Jane frequently has “men friends” overnight in her house. Hmmm.
I think you get the idea by now. It turns out that more false burglary allegations are made than false rape allegations. And yet, don’t tell me that some part of you doesn’t understand. Don’t tell me that some part of you wouldn’t have thought the same thing.
That part of you is the inculturated part of you. That part of you is the misogynistic part of you. We have been taught from a very young age that when it comes to rape allegations, women lie. Some people say it’s most of the time. Some say it’s all the time. This is the bigoted, sexist, stupid rape culture we’re in.
It’s so pervasive we hardly notice it. We fail to notice it the way a fish fails to notice water. Yet even our language is replete with pitiful attempts to justify it. “HE said/SHE said,” “boys will be boys,” Men who sleep around are “sowing wild oats.” Women who sleep around are “sluts.”
But the truth is false rape allegations are extremely rare. They do happen, of course, just as all crimes are rarely falsely reported. But rape is the only allegation where most people jump to the minority conclusion. It’s the only crime where suspicion is instantly cast on the victim. It’s a wonder rapes get reported at all.
This is the toxic wasteland of misogyny that E Jean Carroll endures in the name of justice. This is the world she has to put up with, redoubled and tripled by the fact — not allegation but court-determined fact — that she was raped by Donald John Trump.
Ms Carroll took the witness stand Wednesday morning in her defamation trial against Donald Trump, marking the first time she confronted him in a courtroom. For his part Trump spent the time muttering against her and sending out numerous messages against her over his failing, second-rate social media platform “Truth” Social. He spent the morning defaming and disparaging her under his breath as well. At one point, the judge threatened to kick Trump out of court after Trump was overheard criticising Ms Carroll’s testimony.
In the MAGA world, E Jean Carroll’s life is in constant peril from extremists vowing to murder her. Lawyers for Ms Carroll displayed a series of death threats, rape threats and insults she says she has received since coming forward. One message told her to “stick a gun in your mouth and pull the trigger”, while another called her a “Satan worshipping Nazi” — abuse that left her fearful.
Yet despite the odds against her, despite the slings and arrows of constant abuse, E Jean Carroll fights on for justice. And justice is coming her way. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.