“When you’re a star, they let you do it.” Trump’s infamous brag about how he treats women was the first thing that came to mind when I heard that the sexual assault case against Bill Cosby had ended in a mistrial. The second thought I had was: they will never believe us.
To date, nearly 60 women have accused the former television star of sexual assault. Imagine what 60 women gathered in a room look like. That’s dozens of women, enough to fill several classrooms or form a few sports teams. But it seems there is no number of women telling their stories – not one, not 10, not dozens – that will convince Americans that rape and assault happen with impunity in this country.
We’re told that women are lying to get attention – despite the fact that the kind of “attention” a rape accusation comes with is frequently various shades of harassment and threats. We’re told that accusers are seeking fame and fortune – as if being a victim of sexual assault is a get-rich-quick scheme.
Anything, it seems, is more likely than the simple explanation that women are just telling the truth.
Even when men are caught in the act, people find ways to excuse their criminal behavior. When the gang rape of an unconscious teenager was filmed by three assailants in 2002, defense attorneys told the jury that the girl was an aspiring porn star: “She likes being photographed.” Their first trial ended with a hung jury.
After two bystanders caught and stopped Brock Turner while he was raping a woman, Turner served just three months in jail. In a letter supporting his son, Turner’s father wrote that any jail time would be “a steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action”.
In 2005, Cosby admitted in a deposition related to the civil suit brought by Andrea Constand that he gave women Quaaludes, and that the prescription was illegally obtained. In that same deposition, he said: “I go into that area between permission and rejection. I am not stopped.” We should believe him.
It should not surprise us that still, despite being caught or admitting to assaulting women, we give men the benefit of the doubt. After all, this country voted in a president who was accused of sexual assault by multiple women and admitted on tape to groping women without their consent, and still we say it’s “locker room talk” or just the way men are.
And when powerful men accused of sexual assault are held to account, it’s not the accusers who treated as victims, but the men themselves.
Cosby’s own publicist preened after the mistrial announcement: “Mr Cosby’s power is back. It’s back. He has been restored.” As if his power was ever in question to begin with. As if merely being expected to answer for just one of dozens of accusations is somehow tantamount to powerlessness.
I’m glad that the prosecutors in Cosby’s case say that they will try him again. I wish, though, that I felt more confident that a new trial would result in anything but more of the same.
“You can do anything,” Trump bragged on that tape. It seems he may have been right.