Like many of you, I have been watching the coverage of the Brett Kavanaugh nomination-turned-fiasco. I have read the particular accusations against him and the many, varied responses to them. I read this coverage with a slight partisan perspective as someone who appreciates Constitutional originalism and as someone who has concerns about a society that permits the killing of its unborn, and yet…I’m troubled.
I am concerned by the very serious accusations against Kavanaugh, and I am distressed by the responses to them.
I believe that there is more at stake in this moment than the nomination of an individual to the Supreme Court, no matter how important that is. How we handle sexual assault allegations, how we speak about women, what we expect of young men, and how we handle investigations into accusations of years-ago crimes that by their nature delay reporting of them—all of these questions are in play. We would do well to slow down, listen closely, and think deeply.
Toward that end, I commend this article: Between Brock Turner and Brett Kavanaugh, When do Girls Matter? Two warnings before you click on it, though. To all my readers who have been sexually assaulted or abused, this article may trigger renewed trauma in you. Please click carefully, if at all.
To everyone else: I find the author’s logic to be very sound…and deeply painful. This is not an easy read. It is worth our contemplation, nonetheless.
I have noticed that some of my friends with sons have a different reaction to the Kavanaugh allegations than I do, as a mom of daughters. Several times in the last week, I have heard the issue of false accusations raised.
This may seem easy for me to say, but I think our societal fear of false accusations may be a red herring.
Yes, if your son were to be falsely accused of a sexual crime, it would be devastating and life-altering. I get that. The incidence of false accusations, though, is quite small. Regarding that question, I found this article well-researched and helpfully detailed: What Kind of Person Makes False Rape Accusations.
Please do not allow the bogey-man of false accusations to stand in the way of you supporting investigation of sexual crimes and caring for victims. In my personal friend circle, I see a prevalence of sexual assault that matches or even exceeds the reported percentages. The numbers are real and shockingly high. In contrast, I do not believe a single one of my friends has ever been falsely accused of sexual assault.
The numbers of false accusations do not remotely compare to the number of actual sexual assaults. We must not put off grappling with something that happens often by an overblown fear of something that does not.
©Laura Goetsch and Thinking about Such Things, 2018.
Thinking about such things 
An elderly missionary friend of my missionary sister in law reposted something about moms of sons being worried that their sons lives could be ruined with a false accusation. I questioned whether she should be concerned about whether the lives of women have been ruined by sexual assault. She wrote back and said that such women had access to counseling and the grace of God to get their lives back. So I countered to her whether such resources were not also available to men whose lives were ruined by false accusations. She did not respond to that at all!
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