Amidst all the attention on Harvey Weinstein’s sexual harassment and rape allegations, a recent article in Vogue magazine admonishes “Meanwhile, Let’s Not Forget That the President of the United States is Also an Alleged Sex Offender.”
Oh, I haven’t forgotten. I wrote about it right after the election in a Huffington Post article titled “Will Sexual Pathology Run the White House?” I was dismayed then that a man with a history of serious sexual misconduct controlled the helm of the United States government, and I remain alarmed that no one has been able to effectively hold him accountable. Yet the fact that so many are seeing the harm caused by Harvey Weinstein, believing the allegations, and even speaking out about their own sexual harm in the #MeToo movement causes me to wonder: perhaps we are now more ready to turn our discerning eyes toward the White House?
The American people are growing in our awareness and shared condemnation of all sexual offenses – and sexual harassment IS a sexual offense (if you don't think so, read this expert's statement). Take a look at the how the responses to the following past sex abuse scandals compare to our public outcry over Weinstein:
Anita Hill vs. Clarence Thomas – workplace sexual harassment
1991: Anita Hill, a former aide to Thomas at the U.S. Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, accused Clarence Thomas, who was then about to be confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court, of sexual harassment. The response of the then-powers-that were? To drop the issue until her confidential complaint was leaked to the press, then put Hill on live television to testify about her claims. More than 20 million households tuned in.
Thomas’ response? To go on the offensive, attack Hill’s character, attempt to shift the blame on her, and reframe the issue into one of him being racially attacked rather than being held accountable for sexual harassment. This is a classic gaslighting cluster. The ultimate result? No conclusion, and Thomas was confirmed to the Supreme Court.
In a 2010 statement about the issue, Hill said she had "no intention of apologizing because I testified truthfully about my experience and I stand by that testimony."
Per my gut check, I always found her to be more credible of the two. How about you?
Mia and Dylan Farrow vs. Woody Allen – child sexual abuse, incest
1980: Hollywood celebrities Mia Farrow and Woody Allen got together. At that time, Farrow had a daughter Soon-Yi, then age eight, whom Farrow had adopted with her second husband, André Previn. Soon-Yi never lived with Farrow and Allen, but they did spend family time together over the years – there are published pictures to prove it.
1992: Farrow filed for divorce from Allen, finding pornographic pictures of a then twenty-year-old Soon-Yi taken by Allen. Allen said he and Soon-Yi were “a fling,” but a step-father sexually engaging his step-daughter, even if she was not legally adopted, is not called a fling. It’s called incest.
During the divorce, Farrow made allegations that her husband had also sexually abused her daughter, Dylan, when she was seven years old – whom Allen had legally adopted. He denied abusing any of their children, though the formal investigation yielded serious findings about genuine harm he had caused, his lack of fitness as a parent, and the need for his careful supervision around children. Yet Allen was never prosecuted in the case nor found guilty of sexual abuse.
In 1997, Allen married Soon-Yi Previn – his former step-daughter! –– and the couple now have two adopted children together, in their late teens. Due to their family relationship, this remains founded in emotional and sexual incest.
By 2014, seven-year-old Dylan Farrow had grown up, married, and found support and stability in her life. She also found her voice, publishing an open letter about her history of sexual abuse by Allen in the New York Times. It was clearly written, detailed, and to my read, highly believable. Allen condemned her action as “a ploy” and said she was “brainwashed” by her mother as a child. Yet the investigations hadn’t found that at all; the only negative judgment of Mia Farrow was that she stayed with Allen as long as she did.
In May of 2016, Woody Allen’s son and Dylan Farrow’s half-brother, Ronin Farrow, made a statement in support of his sister and condemning the media for their “codependence” to Woody Allen by not pressing his father enough over the sexual abuse allegations. Allen continued to deny all allegations. Another son supported Allen. Dylan Farrow is the journalist who broke the Weinstein scandal - taking a stand for truth and against sexual exploitation, and in doing so, changing the world.
Yet even today, how do we forget the hiding-in-plain-sight incest of Soon-Yi, who was a child when she met Allen in the role of a step-father? It’s astonishing to me, and adds heavy weight that Farrow, Farrow and Farrow are the truthful parties, Allen is sexually pathological, and justice has yet to be served.
If you want to learn more about healing from incest, two favorites are A Sexual Healing Journey: A Guide for Survivors of Sexual Abuse by Wendy Maltz, and – Silently Seduced: When Parents Make Their Children Partners by Ken Adams.
Sexual Security vs. Donald Trump
Finally, in 2016, Donald Trump was elected as President of the United States, despite multiple allegations and past red flags regarding his sexual health. What do we really know about the potential sexual threat posed by Donald Trump? Per this Guardian article, there are more than 24 women who have accused Donald Trump of sexual misconduct, which can be grouped in four categories:
1) allegations of sexual violations against adult women (20+);
2) allegations of sexual violations against minors (4);
3) reports of incestuous sexualized speech about his daughter (multiple occasions);
4) allegations of spousal sexual violence – later recanted, qualified by Ivana Trump as “rape…not…in a literal or criminal sense” (1).
Specifically, the allegations have included: remarks of an inappropriate sexual nature, lewd comments, invasion of privacy/voyeurism, sexual harassment, incestuous speech, groping/forcible touching, assault, battery, false imprisonment, sexual assault, and child rape.
CNN published recordings of some of these remarks in this October 2016 article Donald Trump to Howard Stern: It’s Okay to Call My Daughter a ‘Piece of Ass’.
When confronted, Trump has been accused of gaslighting, aka defensive reactions intended to shift blame away from himself and onto those who accuse him, including intentional and reckless infliction of emotional distress, duress, and defamation.
His response to the claims has been to categorically deny them and call his accusers liars, even in a case where he was recorded bragging about the behavior he was being accused of on the Howard Stern Show (surprise intrusion into beauty contestants’ dressing rooms for the purpose of voyeurism, under the guise of “inspection”). He has often threatened media who published such claims with lawsuits, and he and his representatives have called these claims “ridiculous,” “unbelievable,” “attention-seeking,” “circus-like antics,” “fictional,” “totally false,” with “no merit,” “disproven,” “a total fabrication,” and “made up” by “horrible, horrible liars” or women “seeking ten minutes of fame” or simply politically motivated.
Trump’s public denial, and his condemnation of those who accused or questioned him, struck me as self-serving and false. Were the women who spoke up seeking fame, financial, or political gain, as he alleged? I doubt it. Let’s look at some examples of what happened to women who spoke up:
- Megyn Kelly, a reporter formerly at Fox News (now at ABC) who dared question Donald Trump directly about his degrading descriptions of women (“fat pigs,” “dogs,” and “slobs”), received reactive insults from Trump and subsequent death threats from his supporters, who stalked her via social media and even showed up at her apartment. Kelly hired personal security for a full year to protect herself. She published her account about it, and her ultimate resolution to the issue, in a memoir called Settle for More.
- Jill Harth, who was suing Donald Trump using her real name and face, suffered a subsequent loss of employment and vilification on social media. Lisa Bloom, her defense attorney, said all the women she’s represented in the Trump sexual misconduct claims had received threats (at one time there were four active cases underway).
- “Jane Doe”, the anonymous young woman who filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump for child rape and sexual enslavement (she was 13 years old at the time of the alleged crimes), withdrew her case. Bloom’s article on case, Why the New Child Rape Case Filed Against Donald Trump Should Not Be Ignored went viral on Huffington Post. When asked why the case was dropped on the day “Doe” planned to publicly appear, Bloom stated:
"Jane Doe has received numerous threats today. She has decided she is too afraid to show her face. ... She is in terrible fear." Interestingly, Bloom is now the attorney of record for Harvey Weinstein.
- “Tiffany Doe,” the then 26-year-old eyewitness to the alleged Jane Doe child rapes, concluded in her affidavit, “I swear to these facts under the penalty for perjury even though I fully understand that the life of myself and my family is now in grave danger.” (Italics added)
A fair assessment to Trump’s culpability for the alleged violations has not had its day in court, but anyone who can read can see evidence even he does not deny, if they so choose.
When a 2005 Access Hollywood tape was published revealing Trump bragging about his sexual exploits and ability to grab women’s genitals with impunity due to his fame, he made an apology for the recorded statements, and denied ever acting on these claims. He later minimized the emotional violence in his words, dismissing it as “locker-room talk.” Yet if he is mostly innocent, why do so many independent sources accuse him, over a thirty-plus-year timespan?
I know what it feels like to be sexually assaulted, and it’s horrible. I know how it feels to have a person in a position of power over you sexualize you, and to feel helpless to say stop. It’s awful. And I also know what it’s like to have others say and do nothing afterwards – people who have credible evidence that something awful truly did occur. That’s another horror. Sometimes that feels even worse.
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Staci Sprout is a Licensed Social Worker and Certified Sex Addiction Therapist trained in forensic evaluation of sexual offenders. She is also the author of Naked in Public: A Memoir of Recovery From Sex Addiction and Other Temporary Insanities, her personal story of overcoming sex addiction and sexual abuse. For more information, see www.stacisprout.com.