How Sexual Misconduct is Whitewashed — the Misuse of Consent.
Chris Noth — famously known as “Mr. Big” in Sex and the City — was accused of sexual misconduct by several women. He has countered their experiences, claiming they were “consensual”.
“I strayed on my wife” — Chris Noth.
Four women have come forward to reveal experiences of sexual assault at the hands of Chris Noth, an actor famously seen in HBO’s Sex and the City, opposite Sarah Jessica Parker. These experiences go as far back as 2004. Each victim claims to have been sexually assaulted by Noth.
Chris Noth has denied the claims. He has accused the victims of falsifying statements for financial gain, of failing to file a criminal case against him, and of misrepresenting what he describes to be consensual affairs as assault.
The use of the word “affair” to describe an incident of sexual assault is frequent. It implies consent on part of the victim. Kevin Spacey — accused by multiple individuals of sexual assault — claimed that some of the encounters were in fact, consensual. This creates the illusion that there may have been a pre-existing relationship, or that the victim may be making false allegations. Whitewashing sexual assault as consensual under the guise of an “affair”, is a means of legitimizing the assault, and also denying the victim their experience.
In many countries, laws exist to legitimise sexual misconduct under the guise of marriage. Countries such as Russia, Cameroon, Serbia, and Libya have laws that enable a rapist to marry their victim and thus, legitimise the sexual assault and absolve them of legal responsibility for the assault. Using the term “affair” to describe sexual assault implies a mutually consensual relationship where none exists, and also levels blame on the victim for being targeted by the assailant.
This Whitewashing essentially denies the victim the legal right to seek redress for the trauma, injury, and violation of their human rights. It deprives them of a sense of agency in the legal context, and subjects them to social contempt for having “broken” a marriage.
