believing women

Not listening to women’s experience - from health to the economy - is an abuse that harms all of society. The Guardian published an article that asked: [W]hat will it take to take women’s lives seriously? 

A woman inspired by the Chilean feminist group called Las Tesis protest
in front of the NYC’s criminal court during Harvey Weinstein’s trial.
Photograph: John Lamparski/Echoes Wire/Barcroft Media

If we took women’s lives seriously, if men who abused the women in their lives faced any kind of real consequences, would the people we are now preparing to bury be alive today? It is impossible to contain the suffering that stems from discounting and disbelieving women. 

If we refused to accept the daily suffering of women and girls at the hands of men who claim to love them, we would have a federal policy removing guns from abusers, and we would ensure that it worked in practice. We would have a lot fewer gun deaths - period. 

The truth underlying the public health crisis of women’s believability is even worse than it looks. 
Social researchers have long demonstrated that it’s not just that we hold women to much higher standards than we do men before we believe them. It’s more perverse than that - we prefer not finding women credible. As a culture, we hate to believe women, and we penalize them for forcing us to do so. 

A world in which we treat women as de facto credible is not a world in which men are doing women a favor. It’s a world in which everyone benefits from women’s increased power and knowledge and talent, one in which we recognize that addressing women’s suffering makes it more possible for people of every gender to thrive.

A Chilean protest song about rape culture and victim shaming has become an anthem for feminists around the world.

Un Violador en Tu Camino [A Rapist in Your Path] was first performed in late November as Chile’s nationwide uprising against social inequality moved into its second month.

The song and its accompanying dance moves have spread across Latin America and the world.