I think there are a couple of things happening here. First, the New York Times is not doing damning and well-researched exposes about alleged campus rapists. Having Harvey Weinstein’s history of sexual predation laid out on A1 with testimony by famous women and corroborating details by witnesses willing to be named is very, very hard for studios to ignore. That’s not always the case – Bill Cosby still enjoys a lot of support despite everything we now know about him. But that kind of coverage is very powerful and convincing cause it comes from a storied institution with a lot of built-up integrity. Young college women telling their friends the same thing about a mutual friend of theirs – who everyone loves and thinks is a great guy – do not necessarily have that kind of credibility.
Second, the power dynamic that exists between powerful executives like Matt Lauer and his assistants or between celebrities like Kevin Spacey and an 18-year- old actor is very easy to understand. It’s easy to put yourself in the position of Lauer’s assistant or a teenager being hit on by one of the most famous people in Hollywood and understand how they might have been forced to do something they didn’t want to do, or couldn’t say no to, because they had no power in that situation.
It’s a lot harder – especially for men – to put themselves in the position of a college girl who initially agreed to get into bed with a guy but who then did not want what followed, because for a lot of guys, as soon as you are in the bedroom you have consented to everything. Believing a victim is often about being able to empathize and put yourself in their place. And for a lot of people hearing college girls describing their rapes, for whatever reason something is blocking them from being able to put themselves in that situation.
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