Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum has said she will press charges against a man who groped her during a public appearance.
Mobile phone footage of the incident on Tuesday shows Sheinbaum speaking to a group of supporters on a street near the National Palace in Mexico City. A man approaches her from behind and attempts to kiss her on the neck and place his hands on her body.
“My view is, if I don’t file a complaint, what will happen to other Mexican women? If they do this to the president, what will happen to all women in our country?” Sheinbaum said at a news conference on Wednesday.
I think it’s that #believeallwomen is a hard hill to die on. Any internet troll is a Google search away from proof that you shouldn’t blindly believe all women. It just reminds me of when Joe Biden had some allegations against him, and he got caught between a rock and a hard place: believe all women, just not this one.
Instead of belief, it’s about respect. Whether true or not, any accusation should be taken seriously and avoid sensationalism. It’s also about understanding your role. It’s easy for me to say all of this about a situation thousands of miles away; I have an infinitely small role. If it happens closer to home, to someone you know, belief may be a part of that role, but it still needs to come from a place of respect and understand of the situation. If religion is any example, blind belief doesn’t help anything but fuel division.
It’s not about blindly believing all women all the time. It’s about believing them by default, and as you say, taking them seriously. In this case they were willing to discard the evidence of their eyes in favor of some pretty far fetched conspiracy theory, and considered anyone who didn’t agree to be some naive idiot. And they paradoxically claimed to take sexual assault very seriously, while doing this. SMH