Women Judge Kavanaugh
As women from America’s left, right and center come together to assemble a jigsaw puzzle called Brett Kavanaugh, they discover new ways to put the pieces together.
As the ghost of a summer night in 1982 haunted America, a group of 400 women across the country, on all sides of the political divide, attempted to untangle the twisted story of an alleged sexual assault in Maryland by a teenage Brett Kavanaugh, and its impact on his appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Stephany Krupnik, a retired emergency room nurse from New Jersey, is one of the older and more conservative women on the group. She thought Kavanaugh was a good choice for the Supreme Court. She felt the Democrats were constantly looking for an “I gotcha” moment during his confirmation hearings. She lauded him for not losing his cool during his confirmation hearings, and forgave him for doing so during his testimony on the sexual assault allegations. She felt it was natural for him to get emotional while defending a life he had prided himself on leading.
But these are conversations Krupnik will not have with her sister, a die-hard Democrat with whom she has, long since, agreed to disagree. Krupnik finds it hard to debate politics with family. “I don’t want any hint of unpleasantness between us when we meet for celebrations,” she says.
She joined a few online political discussion forums but found them so vitriolic that she was quick to get off them. She limited discussions on politics to a small circle of family and friends with similar views. That was, until she stumbled on The Many, a moderated online platform that brought together both liberal and conservative women and helped them share their views in a safe space. The Many is an exercise in community-building by Spaceship Media, an organization that works on dialogue journalism to reduce polarization.
While women in The Many have vigorously debated politics over the last eight months, the Kavanaugh conversations were among the hardest the group has had so far. Earlier discussions on immigration policies and the President’s demeanor were often less polarizing than those around Kavanaugh. His appointment, after all, give the U.S. it’s first conservative Supreme Court in half a century.
Women’s perceptions of Kavanaugh varied so dramatically that it was hard to imagine they were talking of the same person. “He speaks in rounds and says nothing, like the smarmiest of smarmy attorneys. I dislike and distrust his mannerisms and his facial expressions,” says Kristeena Bernard, an office manager from Alabama. For Kimberly Rhodes from New Jersey, Kavanaugh is a “family man with good ethics” and a “really fine human being.”
Conversations were visceral. Women wore their feelings on their skin. Yet they were grateful for the opportunity to talk to the other side.
“The Many gave us an outlet for our feelings, so that they didn’t fester. It was cathartic to be able to speak about this and know that someone was actually listening,” says Debra Semanco, intake case manager at a community correction facility in Ohio. She has edited and re-edited comments before posting them on the group to ensure nobody’s feelings were hurt.
Semanco sparked a discussion on the seating arrangement of senators during the recent judicial committee hearings, where Republicans and Democrats sit on opposite sides. “Doesn’t this type of arrangement subconsciously (or even consciously) set both sides up for doing battle? Do you think that if they sat next to each other (D, R, D, R) day in and day out, through countless hours of hearings, that they might move more towards bipartisanship?” she asked. The ensuing conversation likened her ideal seating arrangement with the principles of The Many, which gave people proximity to differing views.
That women on the group trusted each other was evident in the way many shared personal stories of trauma and abuse. Long-buried memories surfaced, triggered by the testimony of Dr Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who accused Kavanaugh of an attempted assault.
Victims of abuse talked of how much easier it was to remain silent; speaking up often re-traumatized them.
“Seeing so many women dealing with traumatic memories, I tried not to speak in a way that might hurt someone carrying a harder load than I was,” says Joanna Hoyt, writer and full-time volunteer at a non-profit in upstate New York.
Another woman in the group, Jennifer Brennon, talked of negotiating the space between speaking her mind and ensuring that nothing she said may seem crude or blasé to an assault victim.
Brennon is embarrassed about plenty of things she did in high school, and struggles with the idea of holding up a promotion over what someone did, decades ago. But she blames Kavanaugh for a complete lack of remorse and a refusal to apologize for any harm he may have done. She wished he had admitted to drinking excessively in his youth, instead of making himself sound like a choir boy.
“During these discussions, I could see everyone’s point of view. I felt mad at the Democrats for holding on to information about the accusations for so long. And I felt mad at the Republicans for not caring about the allegations and attempting to ram through Kavanaugh’s appointment,” she says.
While Kavanaugh’s alleged assault has often been dismissed as one of the silly things people do in their youth, Bernard feels there’s a significant difference between “going out and doing something crappy like say…spray painting an abandoned building” and victimizing and objectifying another person for one’s own gratification.
She wonders whether people can age out of that sense of entitlement. She feels this is an indicator that Kavanaugh was raised as a privileged, white male and has lived his entire life that way, free from the consequences of his actions, secure in his privilege and safe-guarded by his school and culture. She does not feel that someone who lives in such a world should make life-altering decisions for the majority of Americans.
While the Democrats were accused of using Ford’s testimony to score political points, Bernard says Democrats do not have women lined up waiting to sacrifice their personal safety and the peace of their family to make false accusations. She talks of how Ford received death threats, her children were harassed, students dropped out of her classes, her property was vandalized and her personal details shared online.
She acknowledges that people may have a confirmation bias here. “The Democrats did not have the numbers to get Kavanaugh off the Supreme Court, and these eleventh hour accusations were like a metal rod in the wheel. I don’t want Kavanagh on the Supreme Court so of course I’m going to run with this, but that’s only because the allegations seem legitimate,” she says.
If confronted with a similar situation over a liberal judge whom she was in favor of, Bernard says she would still want a thorough investigation into the allegations, as the Supreme Court should be unquestionable.
Christine Turner from Alabama situates the Kavanaugh allegations against the backdrop of patriarchy. An outspoken, single women living in the South, she recalls the time she lost her job 30 years ago after complaining of sexual harassment.
She feels the Republicans have hit a new low with Donald Trump, pointing to his controversial attacks on the likes of late Senator John McCain. With Kavanaugh’s appointment, she believes a lot woman will not vote for the G.O.P., and that red states like Alabama may soon turn purple.
While she has, in the past, voted more conservatively than liberally, she says she will definitely vote for the Democrats next time round.
Others like Rhodes blame the Democrats for the manner in which the allegations against Kavanaugh were handled. She feels the process was close to a failure, because the Democrats didn’t release information about the allegations immediately. “Had they released the information earlier, nobody would have questioned the accuser’s motives and whether she was telling the truth. Had the accusation been referred to the committee immediately on receipt there would have been ample time for a full investigation. Had collaborating witnesses been found, Kavanaugh’s nomination could have been withdrawn, and the accuser never named,” she adds.
She believes Kavanaugh’s life has been stellar and talks of how many women he promoted during his career.
If he were guilty of assault, she says she would not want him on the Supreme Court. However, she feels everyone should be held innocent until proven guilty.
Some felt there was a problem with the way society encouraged people to deny any wrongdoing, without offering the hope of redemption for someone who admitted to an offence. As for whether a man’s career should be ruined by what he did decades ago, one woman has this to say. “A few minutes of a boy assaulting a girl changes her life forever. Why shouldn’t his life change forever?”
Hoyt, meanwhile, is worried about the lasting effects that Kavanaugh’s case will have on how we talk about politics, sex, power, and assault. She posted a piece by a conservative writer who wrestled with how the case might affect the willingness of fellow conservatives to come forward after a sexual assault, or support survivors. Hoyt felt Kavanaugh’s confirmation may adversely impact liberals, too, and inspire them to justify wrong behaviour on their side, citing the worst examples from the other side.
She is also afraid that it might deepen polarisation, with outrage over this confirmation spilling over into outrage at Republicans in general, and a feeling that they must all be evil.
“I believe strongly that this is wrong. I also feel some temptation that way. I am working on that and I am very grateful for this group which makes it easier for me to keep remembering the humanity, goodness and pain of people who see this very differently,” she writes on The Many.
