The judge versus the professor

There is only decision to be made when Judge Brett Kavanaugh, nominee for the Supreme Court, and Professor Christine Blasey Ford, appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday. Who is lying? From the outpouring of support for Professor Ford I can now fully appreciate why women who allege they were sexually assaulted many many years ago only come forward at a much later date. This can be no specific comment on this particular case but I totally understand why so many women keep these dark secrets to themselves. It's about being scared, terrified, shamed and desperately worried about being misunderstood, ridiculed, laughed at and disbelieved. A truly terrible situation for a woman of any age, and a despicable commentary on certain male attitudes towards women. I don't go along with the line that constantly comes up in newspapers, that in those days it was different, there were different standards and morals etc etc. That is rubbish. Just because there is so much emphasis today on men who have abused their positions to sexually assault women, that does not mean that 30, 40, 50 years ago this sort of behaviour was acceptable. Any woman facing an overbearing, drunk, demanding man determined to force himself on her deserves justice. Now back to the Kavanaugh/Ford case. Each will give their version of events to the Senate committee but it will be far greater an ordeal for the accuser than for the accused. Unless a witness comes forward to say he saw what happened more than 30 years ago, it's going to be almost impossible for the committee to know for sure exactly what happened or didn't happen and whether it was Kavanaugh or someone else involved. Kavanaugh, with the Supreme Court job in the melting pot, denies there was any such incident, which, as described by Ford, was pretty graphic and disgusting and scary. There are 21 members on the Senate committee, only four of whom are women. They are Senator Dianne Feinstein, the ranking minority member, and Senators Mazie Hirono, Kamala Harris and Amy Klobuchar. All the women are Democrats. The Republican members are solid males. If Ford makes a convincing appearance and points an accusing finger at Kavanaugh and explains why it was him and only him who attacked her, it's hard to believe that any of the women on the committee will doubt her story. They will also know within themselves why she said nothing all those years ago. Any woman going to the police/FBI to make a sexual assault accusation 30 years ago, and probably even today in this new allegedly inclusive era, would have been confronted by close questioning and examination and doubt. But will these four female senators have sway over the Republican male senators if their gut instinct tells them Christine Ford is telling the truth despite what is expected to be a statement of denial by the accused. It's not a court of law, she doesn't have to produce forensic evidence or photographs. It will come down to: who is the most believable? If the committee trust her account or even suspects the Trump nominee for the Supreme Court is lying, the president should start looking for someone else to nominate.