Three types of denial about gender-based violence according to Anita Hill
From Iowa City Press-Citizen
Hill said she has come to establish three categories for denial. The first category is for people who are in denial of the evidence of gender-based violence, she said.
"There may be evidence out there, but they will tell themselves, 'The stories are invented, the numbers are inflated,'" Hill said. "And then they resort to, ‘Well, what you’re really describing is just normal behavior.’”
Hill's second category is for people who agree that there is a pervasive problem of gender-based violence but believe there is a simple fix.
“There are no quick fixes,” Hill said.
Her third category is for people who accept gender-based violence as inevitable.
"They declare that gender-based violence is a huge problem — that part I agree with —but (say) it's too difficult to explain," Hill said.
Addressing gender-based violence will require multifaceted solutions, Hill told attendees. She pointed to the Senate Judiciary Committee she addressed decades earlier as a "starting point," but pervasive change will require the federal government to marshal resources to curb gender-based violence.
“It’s time to put aside the nihilism," Hill said, "and face the reality of the problem.”
