Anita Hill (1)

Believing: Our Thirty-Year Journey to End Gender Violence
By Anita Hill
This is a book I couldn't read all at once or my blood pressure would go up! It angers me that not too much has changed in the last 30 years.
She writes very eloquently for such a harsh subject. She gave so many examples that will really stick with me, if I want them too or not! 😁
I didn't realize just how much there is to say about gender violence or how it effects daily life until reading this. I guess I did but really didn't sit and think it through. She is very passionate about the subject and briefly goes over her ordeal too.
I think Biden needs to expand the Supreme Court and ask Anita Hill and Obama. Hill because of the oral lynching she received from the committee Biden was part of in 1991. (Pretty similar to good ol boy Brett's selection committee.) Plus that would really mess with Thomas!😂 Obama because he is fair regardless of political side.
If the women's movement, metoo movement, or any sexual or gender violence interests you than this is your book.… (más)

Anita Hill gained public attention when she testified against the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1991. Her comments about his sexual harassment was not believed by the male senators on the committee and he was sworn in soon afterwards.
Many things have changed since then, particularly the MeToo movement. Workplaces, schools, and the military have taken action to define and reduce the number of incidents but the results have not been consistent.
BELIEVING addresses denial, workplaces, institutions, politics, victim shaming, politics, backlash. It points out problems with it like the sexual harassment rules not covering businesses with fewer than 15 employees which especially affects women in small towns. Also, lawsuits are costly and the short statute of limitations (180-300 days depending on the jurisdiction).
There are some chilling examples: e.g., a female highschool student who was being pressured by a male student who kept trying to get her to meet him in a bathroom. She told a counselor. The counselor said they should set a trap and catch him in the act. She followed the instructions. She went into a restroom with him. By the time the counselor got there, she had been raped.
Hill does a thorough job explaining the state of sexual harassment experiences and laws to protect women (and men, at times). Unfortunately it lumps different types of acts together. She equates Bill Clinton’s sexual affair with a 21-year-old intern who came on to him with Donald Trump’s bragging about assaulting women with Brett Kavanaugh’s rape of a college student with Joe Biden getting close to a woman and making her uncomfortable and putting his hand on her shoulder.
The book is well-researched, documented, and, sadly, timely.… (más)