I’ve been thinking a lot about the revelations of sexual assault/harassment that have been extending everywhere from prominent Hollywood actors and producers to politicians to journalists.
I feel like this kind of relates to what we’ve been talking about this semester. There seems to be this tension between whether allegations are made to be credible or not. And, in a way, the stories of men and women who’ve undergone abuse become a sort of mini-autobiography, because they are self-communicated stories of what has happened to someone. But then, there exists this public discourse about which of these “autobiographies” are “legitimate” and which are called into question for their authenticity. (Also, I hate to use the word “allegation” because that serves to undermine the validity of these stories, while at the same time the word “allegation” serves a legal purpose.)
It’s interesting to think that on the human-level, some people will outright claim that these allegations are untrue when they are just people telling other people about their lives. When thinking of these allegations through the prism of autobiography, I think it creates a humanizing effect and it becomes harder and harder to discredit people who experienced trauma. It kind of calls into question why we disregard some stories immediately, while other stories we take at face value. Obviously, there is a historical thread of patriarchal defamation of women’s voices, and that makes the idea of “legitimate autobiography” all the more interesting.
Sorry, these thoughts are kind of scattered, but I am curious what other people think about this.
I see what you mean by the word ” allegation”. Its has such a negative connotation. It assumes that what the victim is saying may not be true. This makes the situation less credible and is often discredited by small facts. I see this in Zeitoun. When we find out his life occurrences after the book, I slightly assume some benefit of the doubt. Kathy did not in any way deserve what Zeitoun did to her but using the phrase ” allegedly” makes Zeitoun have some reason for his actions. This word has some benefiting factors to the perpetrator but largely suppresses the voice of the victim. In the autobiographies we have read I think it is important to keep in mind that some events the writers rely may not have actually occurred. The writer has the power of what he/she wants the readers to see and that means some situations occurred as they are described and others ” allegedly” happened in a different way. It would have been interesting to see this as a keyword throughout our semester.
I like these scattered thoughts!!! Really good connection, especially considering Zeitoun as Peony said. This also reminds me of the keyword that my group at breakfast on Thursday thought of for the course, “Father/Patriarchy”, and how within the patriarchy a women’s word is not given the same merit as a man’s. Thinking about this, I’m wondering if subliminally by saying “let’s hear your side of the story” we are delegitimizing what happened, because from childhood, “stories” are thought of fictional. If we instead said “let’s hear your account of what happened” it immediately takes a more serious and reputable wording that makes it seem more inherently real.
The idea that women coming forward with stories of sexual misconduct are basically creating autobiographies. It works on two-levels, the one you stated about how they are creating their own narrative, but also these women (and men, and people) usually become synonymous with the allegations of sexual misconduct. They are assuming the burden of their trauma in the national consciousness. I find that this action not only takes bravery, but sacrifice on many levels.