Slate's Dahlia Lithwick explains why she would have advised Kavanaugh's assault accuser to stay anonymous

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published 17 September 2018

On Sunday, California psychology professor Christine Blasey Ford stepped forward to accuse Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of violently attempting to rape her at a high school party in the early 1980s. "Immediately after The Washington Post published an explosive story featuring an on-the-record interview with Ford that detailed her allegations, [President] Trump's allies — both inside and outside the White House — launched a campaign to cast doubt on her account," Politico reports.

Several Trump allies suggested that even if true, Ford's allegations are old and aren't that bad. Democrats are "playing a high-stakes game," one outside Trump adviser tells Politico. "You know there are a lot of people in this country who are parents of high school boys. This is not Anita Hill."

The Anita Hill analogy is actually a great example of why women stay silent, Slate's Dahlia Lithwick wrote Friday. "Almost anyone who has played any part in the #MeToo movement might say with confidence that the cost of coming forward is crippling," she said. "Had I been asked to advise this woman ... I would have told her to stand down."

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I would have told her that neither politics nor journalism are institutions that can evaluate and adjudicate facts about systems in which powerful men use their power to harm women. I would have told her that she would be risking considerable peril to her personal reputation, even as she would be lauded as a hero. I would have also told her that powerful men have about a three-month rehabilitation period. ... The women of #MeToo, though, are never quite welcome in the slipstream again. [Dahlia Lithwick, Slate]

Ford told the Post she had planned to keep her allegations confidential, until someone leaked incorrect details and reporters came knocking. "These are all the ills that I was trying to avoid," she said. "Now I feel like my civic responsibility is outweighing my anguish and terror about retaliation."

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.