Americans supporting sexual misconduct survivors even less than before?

[Rev. Rye]

I just discovered a poll, from YouGov and The Economist, regarding public attitudes towards sexual misconduct survivors, and how they changed in the year since the Harvey Weinstein accusations broke the floodgates and showed how pervasive sexual harrassment and assault are. The results, however, are a lot more surprising:

In almost every category, people actually seem to be less sympathetic towards them than they were when the whole thing started. While, of course, Trump voters have the highest gain in not giving a fuck about other people's misery, the other demographic that seems to be growing apathetic? Women. About the only category where things have changed in their favour is in Clinton voters' responses to "Men who sexually harrassed women 20 years ago should not lose their jobs today." And, to be honest, if this wasn't fresh off the heels of Brett Kavanaugh's appointment to the Supreme Court amidst several accusations, I strongly suspect that things would correspond to the general trend.

The original Economist article can be found here, but the Business Insider has another article which points out that the first two questions are ambiguously worded, particularly the one about those who complain causing more problems than they solve.

" "Most organizations are very ill-equipped to deal with sexual harassment in any meaningful way. The result is that even people who support survivors of sexual assault would have a hard time seeing survivors as solving any problems by coming forward... but that isn't so much a failing of survivors as the systems they report to."

That may very well be. In the past few years, I've grown to appreciate a quote from Thucydides: "right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must." This was said by the Athenians to the Melians during negotiations that preceded a siege that led to what is best described as a small-scale genocide, and it's as true a summation of the nature of power dynamics today as it was in 415 BC.

Then again, given the effects of the Monkeysphere, and compassion fatigue, I can't entirely rule out the possibility that the #metoo movement's attempt at showing the magnitude of the problem wound up backfiring (To quote Erich Marie Remarque, "one dead man is death—and two million are only a statistic."). The effects of the Patriarchy are so thoroughly entrenched, and people who fight them can so easily fall into the same viciousness their oppressors thrived on, that trying to actually fix the problem would be like trying to play Desert Bus (a game where you have to drive a bus from Tuscon to Vegas for eight hours in real time, at a maximum speed of 40 mph, without pausing [even at Phoenix, where any bus on that route would inevitably stop], and constantly keeping the bus from veering to the right and needing to be towed back in real time; apart from this, there's little to no actual visual stimuli on the ride there.)





Then again, people have actually completed Desert Bus. In the 226 years since Mary Wollstonecraft wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Women, how much of the underlying problems have actually been fixed?

[Seraphina]

The higher poll numbers are simply reflective of a backlash against women complaining about how shitty things are.

I mean who the hell do those women think they are, right? Bringing rape and sex harassment complaints out into the open like that. They should just be quiet and live with it, like every other woman has done since god knows when.
(that was sarcasm, btw)

You can always count on a backlash whenever US society starts talking about how poorly women are treated because there are so many who are vested in keeping things the way they are.

-Teresa

[Rev. Rye]

The higher poll numbers are simply reflective of a backlash against women complaining about how shitty things are.

I mean who the hell do those women think they are, right? Bringing rape and sex harassment complaints out into the open like that. They should just be quiet and live with it, like every other woman has done since god knows when.
(that was sarcasm, btw)

You can always count on a backlash whenever US society starts talking about how poorly women are treated because there are so many who are vested in keeping things the way they are.

-Teresa

Which explains the explosion in the Trump supporter numbers, but not so much the fact that women are more likely to be disillusioned with it than men. And my "Desert Bus Disillusionment" hypothesis does.

[Angrboda]

The status quo will defend itself. Bring up world hunger and people will find reasons to push it aside. Bring up cruelty to animals in the food industry and people will find a reason not to care. Bring up sexual violence and both men and women will find a way to suppress their anxiety about it. Rationalization about things which cause us stress are a natural reaction. Both our bodies and our minds seek an equilibrium. Upset that equilibrium and it will find a way to redress the imbalance.

[Seraphina]

The higher poll numbers are simply reflective of a backlash against women complaining about how shitty things are.

I mean who the hell do those women think they are, right? Bringing rape and sex harassment complaints out into the open like that. They should just be quiet and live with it, like every other woman has done since god knows when.
(that was sarcasm, btw)

You can always count on a backlash whenever US society starts talking about how poorly women are treated because there are so many who are vested in keeping things the way they are.

-Teresa

Which explains the explosion in the Trump supporter numbers, but not so much the fact that women are more likely to be disillusioned with it than men. And my "Desert Bus Disillusionment" hypothesis does.

No, actually your charts above show the opposite. Men are more likely to be "disillusioned" (aka backlash) with the public discussions of rape and sexual harassment against women. Wonder why that is.

-Teresa

[Rev. Rye]

True, in absolute terms, men are more likely to agree with the statements than women, but the women seem to have changed their minds in greater numbers (in ways that favour the more victim-blaming statements) than the men over the past year.

[Minimalist]

While, of course, Trump voters have the highest gain in not giving a fuck about other people's misery,

Of course, the pigs only care about themselves.  And they are probably the group most likely to have grabbed some pussy.