[Philly06Cup]

When it comes to sexual assault, you should believe women.

If you think that's a joke, you are wrong.

Women are sexually assaulted all of the time. It is severely underreported. Thousands never speak up, because of fear of not being believed. Thousands never get justice, because of fear of not being believed. Thousands of creepy, violent, lowlife men get away with sexual assault and reoffend, because we do not believe women.

We as a society can fix that, if we start with the mentality that we believe women.

When women speak, we should believe them.


"What about men who are falsely accused"
-Women are sexually assaulted at a far higher rate than men get falsely accused. Being sexually assaulted is more damaging than loss of character. We should realistically prioritize sexual assault over false accusations.

"What about men who are sexually assaulted"
-In this case, I would agree that we should believe men who say they have been sexually assaulted. Because the victims are much more often women, I phrase it as believe women.

"What about innocent before proven guilty"
-This legal doctrine works for a lot of law and morality, but fails miserably when it comes to sexual assault. It takes momentual courage for a survivor to come forward and even make a claim, and yet the automatic legal stance is for the courts and public to not believe them and presume the offender innocent. That fact alone is depressing and can make pursuing legal action a nightmare. On top of that, sex occurs behind closed doors with few witnesses, and consent is impossible to prove, making the chances of succeeding incredible difficult. Yes, "innocent until proven guilty" is what we in Canada hold as a moral standard, but it just does not work for sexual assault.

Believe women.