false accusations of sexual violence and predatory behaviour have
historically been leveraged against trans women to dispose of
individuals and isolate them from their communities and this still happens. “believe victims” is an insufficient metric of justice. counter-claims are common place, especially against trans women, especially counter-claims of a violent or sexual nature because people are already willing, even eager to believe trans women are sexually violent.how are we just gonna sit here and pretend abusers havent realised that the quickest, easiest way to discredit accusations against them is to make the same accusations in return and turn it into a struggle of “who believes who,” which they are likely to win because abusers are very good at having lots of friends and sounding believable.
and can we maybe just establish once and for all that believing one of those people, because you looked at the power dynamics at play in the relationship, because their story makes more sense to you, because that’s all any of us have to go on unless you happened to be there, does not make you a rape or abuse apologist. we can’t let that be what those words mean.
Yes yes yes.
I wrote about this here: http://queeranarchism.tumblr.com/post/126612642508/keep-an-eye-on-the-emergency-exit-in-your-socialThank you so much for telling the truth on something so desperate. I feel a bit less bad in my life that some people finally find the courage to say it.
It’s no surprise that transgender and non binary people (not only trans women) get randomly falsely accused, even sometimes by the person who abused them.
The pseudo-feminist myth of the “no cis woman is an abuser / perpetrator” also revealed to be extremely harmful in communities where some cis women are actually “trans chasers” and happen to be abusive, sometimes in the worst ways imaginable. Because well… structural power and privileges in the relationship ? Maybe.
This text also changed my life : https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/anonymous-the-broken-teapot
Oh, I gotta read that later. A lot of black women have also been pointing out that “always believe accusations of sexual abuse” doesn’t work for them because of their long experience with black men being accussed of rape by white people to justify racism and the continued framing of black men as sexual predators.
But I wanna go one step further and stress that there should be NO scenario where “always believe victims” works. Not even when there is no power imblance at all or when a black trans woman accuses a white man. Because the moment a rule like that becomes absolute, some people will try to use it to manipulate, abuse and get power for themselves. There are people who can use any system this way which is why we need an emergency exit to all our social routine. (that’s the same post again, I just wanna put it here for the people who might shout at me before reading it)
This sounds scary to some people because “always believe victims” sounds like it will keep us safe. It sounds like “If I am victimized, I will be believed”. But it can also mean “my abuser can seperate my from my friends by accusing me before I find the courage to speak up” and “an abusive person trying to control a community can use the threat of accusations to control me”. If we always believe victims, we will fuck up.
We need systems of community care where protection is always granted but it is understood that the person accussed may be victimized too. Heck, if we care about reformative justice, if we understand that consent is much more than a yes or a no and fuck ups happen, creating a space for the accused is essential even if they did what they are accussed of.
We need a way better understanding of abuse that accounts for abusers that are victims, victims that are abusers, sometimes there are only victims, sometimes there are only victims who are also perpetrators, and finally: abusers that will exploit every dogma we build. A related thing is the problems that arise when we attach authority to identity labels. Some stuff on that here: http://rolequeer.tumblr.com/post/128467038907/the-nasty-authority-of-identity-in-social-justice
QueerAnarchism 