Linda Kay Klein is the author of the important and challenging book before us. In the age of #MeToo and #ChurchToo such beliefs are being challenged, and rightly so. That is the line that has bandied about by politicians and from pulpits from time immemorial. Was she drinking? Was she wearing revealing clothing? Was she flirting? If any or all these factors are in play, then she must have been asking for it. And if something untoward happens, like sexual assault, then she must be at fault. The call for purity/virginity is combined with a warning about being a stumbling block to men. In fact, until that point she should be a nonsexual being, lest she begin a slippery slope into sin. At the heart of such questions is a long-standing belief that a woman should keep herself pure until marriage. In the past a man’s word would have been taken over that of a woman, unless there was corroborating evidence (see the deuterocanonical story of Susannah). The question raised in the hearing was who should be believed. But there may be more to the story than appeared on the surface. These two people are both highly educated and at least outwardly successful people. Supreme Court that she believed had sexually assaulted her when both were in high school. Senate had only hours before concluded its day-long hearing that pitted the memories/claims of a previously obscure woman and the nominee for a life-time appointment to the U.S.
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