Rapid morning post for lack of more time to think & write pre-work, but I thought this was worth saying:
I do not think, nor did I ever say, that believing Kane is innocent is a feminist choice. I simply also don’t believe that believing Kane is guilty is inherently a feminist choice.*
I wanted to address this because coming around and thinking that I am accusing you of being a bad feminist because you believe Kane is guilty is both false and completely contrary to a solid half of my point. I don’t want anyone putting words in my mouth through the glorious power of tumblr reblogs.
I don’t think this choice is about feminism. I don’t think it defines feminism, and I think making it do so is in itself destructive. I think we should be able to discuss all the very good points people like nebulia make about how the legal system fails us, how the organization fails us, how sports fail us, how men fail us, how the media fails us, and how we fail each other without making it contingent on or a referendum about the outcome of this investigation.
If anything, the underlying philosophical disagreement that someone like me, who believes what the DA is saying, and someone who does not, is not how good of a feminist they are but how much faith they have in authority. I absolutely have more faith, more trust in authority than some other people. This is my main bias, I am happy to own it and very happy to discuss it, and signposted it at the top.
However, please don’t think I’m unaware of it or naively trusting everything the DA says. I thought long and hard about what I would have to believe to distrust the contents of his statements, and in sum, it was too farfetched based on my worldview to accept. I’ve got no interest in convincing people that my thoughts on this are correct (hence refraining from doing so in the essay) as it’s not particularly important to the greater picture. I am not asking that you agree with me, I’m asking that you respect that I’ve not reached this position out of stupidity, or anti-womeness, or spite, or a desire to “get back my fandom”--especially since it’s a fandom I’ve left and have no intention of returning to--and also to realize that we still want the same things and can work together to achieve them.
*I accept this being my own fault for the lack of clarity in using “as feminists” as a descriptor of “we”. I only intended to imply that feminists aka decent human beings want rape victims to feel comfortable enough to come forward, not that feminists agree with every subsequent word in my post!