Member-only story
Why Are So Many Rich and Famous Men Being Accused of Sexual Assault?
Note: This story originally appeared on my blog on October 28, 2016.
Politico is reporting that a woman has come forward to accuse Supreme Court justice, Clarence Thomas, of groping her at a dinner party in 1999. The woman, who was merely twenty-three years old at the time, claims that the Access Hollywood hot mic tape recording in which Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, bragged about sexually assaulting women prompted her to speak out.
In light of the “snowball effect”, Thomas’ accuser’s decision to tell her story now makes sense. What doesn’t make sense is the sheer number of rich famous men who have been accused of forcible touching and outright rape over the last few years.
A twelfth woman has recently come forward to accuse Donald Trump of groping. A jaw dropping thirty-five women appeared in a New York Magazine article to accuse comedy legend Bill Cosby of drugging and raping them in 2015. Dylan Farrow, along with her mother and brother, reminded us yet again this fall that Woody Allen stood accused of molesting her back in the nineties. Even Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks who has been in the news a lot of late, has dealt with his own accusations; in 2010, two women accused Assange of committing sex crimes against them.