By Ed Diokno
Views From The Edge
The senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has turned into an extension of the #MeToo debate and demonstrates once again, the huge gulf between men and women.
Padma Lakshmi, host of Top Chef and international model, has come forward in a New York Times op-ed this week and in a series of follow-up tweets to explain why she didn’t report the three sexual assaults in her life.
The Indian American model and actress said she was motivated to speak out in the wake of two women accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of inappropriate sexual conduct. Kavanaugh has denied both women’s accusations. She said she decided to make the incidents public as a show of support for Prof. Christine Blasey Ford, who is alleging that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her 36 years ago when he was 17 and she was 15.
Lakshmi relates in her op-ed that she was raped at age 16 while dating a 23-year-old coworker. But besides getting raped, she told of two other incidents in which she was sexually assaulted. The first incident was when she was just 7 years old.
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“When I was 7 years old, my stepfather’s relative touched me between my legs and put my hand on his erect penis,” wrote Lakshmi, who also recently tweeted about the incident as part of #WhyIDidntReport. “Shortly after I told my mother and stepfather, they sent me to India for a year to live with my grandparents. The lesson was: If you speak up, you will be cast out.”
I was 7 the first time I was sexually assaulted. He was a relative of my mom’s second husband. I told my folks and they sent me away. #WhyIDidntReport
— Padma Lakshmi (@PadmaLakshmi) September 21, 2018
The second time I was 16 years old and a virgin. He was my boyfriend. “Date rape” wasn’t discussed in the 80’s. I was horrified and ashamed. #WhyIDidntReport
— Padma Lakshmi (@PadmaLakshmi) September 21, 2018
The third time I was assaulted I was 23. I thought that no one would believe me, because no one wanted to stand up to him. I had seen the way Anita Hill was treated when she came forward. #WhyIDidntReport
— Padma Lakshmi (@PadmaLakshmi) September 21, 2018
Since Ford’s revelation, two other women have come forward about being sexually victimized by a drunk Kavanaugh, who has strongly denied all of the assertions.
Donald Trump and other senators who support Kavanaugh couldn’t fathom why someone wouldn’t report those assaults to the police right away instead of keeping quiet about them for decades.
“I have nothing to gain by talking about this,” Lakshmi wrote in the NYTimes. “But we all have a lot to lose if we put a time limit on telling the truth about sexual assault and if we hold on to the codes of silence that for generations have allowed men to hurt women with impunity.”
Lakshmi’s representative said that the television personality would not make any further comment on her op-ed or the incidents in her life, but she continued to post on Twitter in response to her article.
Lakshmi tweets about the toll the telling of her hidden story has taken on her and her family, including her own 8-year-old daughter, who she has instructed to speak out if anyone inappropriately touches her.
Because of the time sensitive nature and given what’s going on, I rushed to write this piece in a weekend for the @nytimes without stopping to think of the toll it would take on my own emotional well being. In the past three days I have been anxious, depressed, nauseous, sobbing
— Padma Lakshmi (@PadmaLakshmi) September 26, 2018
you get pretty good at it. Even very close members of my family have been utterly shocked and saddened. My mom has had to deal with her guilt. But she and I have made peace with our history. She, like most parents, has done the best she could.
— Padma Lakshmi (@PadmaLakshmi) September 26, 2018
Professor Ford is scheduled to testify in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee today (Sept. 27) along with a rebuttal from Kavanaugh. The 11 GOP members of the committee have hired a woman prosecutor to question the California psychology professor because of the optics that would present of 11 men ganging up and attacking a woman assault victim.
Instead of a full investigation by the committee or the FBI on the allegations against the nominee, a vote on Kavanaugh will be held on Friday according to committee chair Sen. Chuck Grassley.
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RE: Padma Lakshmi shares that She was Raped at 16 and Didn’t Report It: Grrrrrrrrrrrrr! Words cannot express at this time the horror men as a gender commit and have always committed on women and get away with it. C’mon men. Get it together!! We women have been sick and tired of your privileged positions that we full well know you orchestrated since the beginning of time. We are fighting back!