Debating Abuse – Your Role

My book is done in terms of the writing, but there are still many tasks to do until I ship it to the publisher (and then later there will be edits and proofs and so forth). Now I am dealing with the mountain obligations I let slide as I did my writing, but I hope to ease back into regular blogging in the next few weeks.

I’m here this morning because people are still debating the Woody Allen – Dylan Farrow sex abuse allegations. I see it on blogs, in formal publications, and of course permeating social media.

Here’s the message, borrowing from a comment made by Scarleteen. We don’t get to know what really happened between Allen and Farrow. But we all know someone, likely many someones, who was sexually abused. When we debate whether or not to believe Farrow, we tell those people that if they come forward, we will debate the truth of their statements as well.

And they will not come forward.

So I can’t tell you whether or not to believe Farrow’s story. I will not tell you whether or not I believe her.

But if you don’t, rather than broadcasting your skepticism throughout your social world, perhaps you might embrace silence, so that if someone who trusts you is ready to talk, they will believe you are ready to listen.