So now Brett Kavanaugh says he was a virgin. Never had sex for YEARS after his alleged sexual transgressions. Wow. Apparently he's admitting this because he thinks it gives him a pass. Well, not with me. For me, it just makes the details of the whole story click into sad, pathetic sense.
My degree is in journalism, and I've done a lot of research for my novels which are based on true events. Particularly with Brides of Eden: a True Story Imagined, which is also the story of sexual transgressions, in this historical case, by a religious cult leader. Who's telling the truth? Who's lying? Who has a motivation to lie? Who would not want to admit to the truth?
When Christine Blasely Ford came out with her accusations, my mind immediately went to trying to put all this together. I have believed her from the beginning, and understand completely how such an incident could have traumatized her all these years. The puzzle for me was what on earth Kavanaugh was telling himself. Probably something along the lines of how psychologists say people reassure themselves in these cases: "I know I am a worthy person and a good, worthy person would not do such a thing. Therefore, I didn't do it."
But now, with the claim of virginity and the reminder that he went to something called Little Flower church every Sunday, I think I understand why this all seems so unfair to him. Hey, folks, he wasn't even getting any! No fair! He knows so many guys who were doing much worse things as they actually DID have lots of sex!
Does he think this sounds reassuring to women? It doesn't to me. It sounds like he's a little off. I don't want a guy on the court who couldn't fall in love and lose his virginity like the good guys out there who didn't get drunk and scare women to death, not to mention apparently totally turning everybody off every step of the way. And then baldly lying about his exploits or at the least, allowing innuendo at the expense of a girl--Renate--whom he now claims to have simply chastely admired.
Ruth Bader Ginsberg had the opposite sort of husband in her beloved Marty. And there are many other good men out there; I'm married to one of them myself. Why can't we d have one of that sort up there on the bench making laws about what women can do with their own bodies? Or just cut to the chase and get another woman like Ginsberg, who certainly had nobody coming up with disturbing stories of how she'd traumatized them?
I imagine they will plow through with confirming Kavanaugh as Mitch McConnell has vowed to do, just like they went ahead and confirmed Justice Thomas despite the testimony of Anita Hill. (And I still haven't recovered from that.) But if nothing else comes of this, I hope these recent revelations about Brett Kavanaugh will help Blasey Ford recover from the trauma she's suffered all these years over this. I hope she knows how we're all behind her.
I can't wait to watch her speak up.