On an otherwise slow Friday, E. Jean Carroll lit up the internet. In a cover story for New York magazine, the advice columnist claimed she was raped by President Trump.
As the journalists say: Big, if true. Yet that’s not the only big allegation she makes in the feature. Apparently, Carroll’s life has been full of terrible sexual encounters, involving men from journalist Hunter S. Thompson to former CEO of CBS Les Moonves.
But Thompson, although evidently high as a kite at the time, does not make her list of “hideous” men:
And if having my pants hacked off by a man lit to the eyebrows with acid, Chivas Regal, Champagne, grass, Chartreuse, Dunhills, cocaine, and Dove Bars does not make the list — because to me there is a big difference between an “adventure” and an “attack” — who, in God’s name, does make my Hideous List?
Who indeed. Carroll has had some awful sexual experiences in her time, but only the worst guys, she says, make her list. The list is full of 21 degenerates, Carroll writes, and she began it in October 2017, at the birth of the #MeToo movement. No. 15 on her “Most Hideous Men of My Life List” is Les Moonves, former CEO of the CBS Corporation. Carroll writes:
I say: “Thank you!”
He says: “Smart enough to choose an out-of-the-way hotel,” and he steps into the elevator behind me and, his pants bursting with demands, goes at me like an octopus. I don’t know how many apertures and openings you possess, Reader, but Moonves, with his arms squirming and poking and goosing and scooping and pricking and prodding and jabbing, is looking for fissures I don’t even know I own, and — by God! — I am not certain that even if I pull off one of his arms it won’t crawl after me and attack me in my hotel bed. Hell, I am thrilled I escape before he expels his ink.
The president of the United States is No. 20 on her list. He, Carroll alleges, assaulted her in the dressing room of a Bergdorf Goodman. Trump apparently showed up looking for a gift and asked her to accompany him to the dressing room to try on lingerie. Thinking it was a joke, Carroll writes, she followed him. Behind closed doors, he attacked her:
I am astonished by what I’m about to write: I keep laughing. The next moment, still wearing correct business attire, shirt, tie, suit jacket, overcoat, he opens the overcoat, unzips his pants, and, forcing his fingers around my private area, thrusts his penis halfway — or completely, I’m not certain — inside me. It turns into a colossal struggle.
Carroll says she told two people about it at the time, and they confirmed her story to New York magazine. It will be interesting to see if they share more details with the press as the story unfolds. Carroll may benefit from further corroboration as readers evaluate her story, though the event wouldn’t exactly be out of Trump’s character.
Yet the most interesting thing about Carroll’s story is not that she was (allegedly) sexually assaulted by the future president of the United States. It’s the string of horrible sexual encounters she experienced throughout her life. If people think sexual morals are bad now, well, they were terrible in the ’60s, too.
Carroll’s story is well-written, in the tone of an experienced advice columnist, and it’s also harrowing. From the camp director who touched her when she was 12 years old to the little boy who hurt her when she was a child, Carroll describes a life that sounds like hell.
As much as #MeToo is a political issue, and accusing the president of rape is a political claim, Carroll’s account of a life full of abuse has social implications. Before #MeToo got muddled by conflating harassment with assault and the oversimple tag line “believe women,” the movement had a good sort of momentum. Its goal was to help women like Carroll.
In addressing Carroll’s claims, it’s important to remember that she has a right to be heard, and whether or not her accusations are all completely true, women like her have suffered similar experiences in silence. #MeToo may have devolved from its origins, and false sexual assault claims (while difficult to maintain) still exist. But if Carroll’s life is any implication, there are many women who are afraid to share the harrowing stories in their past, and there are many men who still have to be held accountable for their actions.
Whether or not Carroll’s story is true, its moral is: Sexual assault is all too common in our society, and some women are still waiting to speak out.
