Free What??!
The more I read about the allegations of sexual assault at Cornell University, the angrier I become. I am angry about what this young woman experienced, about the response of an institution entrusted with the care and education of young people, and about the people who have apparently decided that the appropriate response to an allegation of sexual violence is to rummage through a woman's life looking for something that might make her less deserving of compassion. Something is terribly wrong with a society in which a woman can report sexual assault and become the object of public interrogation, ridicule, and humiliation. Her choices are scrutinized, her credibility is challenged, and strangers who know little about her begin constructing narratives to explain why she should have expected what happened. The effort to find something objectionable in her past is particularly disturbing because it presumes that a woman's entitlement to bodily autonomy depends upon her ability to sa...