Since the release of the Access Hollywood audio tape in which Donald Trump can be heard bragging about sexual assault, and followed by the accusations of 10 women who claim Trump did just that, phones for women’s crisis centers have been ringing off the hook.
The Rape Crisis Center hotline, a D.C. resource that typically receives between 75 and 100 calls each week, saw a 20 percent increase after The Washington Post published a 2005 tape on Oct. 8 that showed Donald Trump bragging about grabbing women’s genitals without their permission.
The Rape Abuse Incest National Network, which serves the country, also recorded a spike in its live chat helpline, with calls jumping 35 percent since the footage hit the Internet.
Trump’s remarks and the accusations have done two things. One, they provide women with language to name their experience, experts say, and two, the public discussion of sexual assault has reminded them of what many went through years ago and buried.
Women who called the rape crisis hotline to talk about unwanted touches — and the pain they inflicted — largely drove the call spike, (Indira) Henard said, (the center’s executive director). The remarks from Trump's accusers had dredged up memories that Americans only recently started to develop a vocabulary to describe, she noted.
Well, thanks to Trump, women’s vocabularies are expanding hand over fist and will no doubt soon include words like “sue” and “settlement.”
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