Today Matha McSally, the first female Air Force pilot to fly in combat and now a U.S. senator in Arizona, announced that she had been raped while serving in the Air Force.
McSally, who narrowly lost her 2018 Senate race to former Code Pink protester Kyrsten Sinema before being picked to fill the seat departed by the late John McCain, made the startling disclosure during a Senate hearing Wednesday.
Speaking to sexual assault survivors in the military, McSally said:
So, like you, I am also a military sexual assault survivor, but unlike so many brave survivors, I didn’t report being sexually assaulted. Like so many women and men, I didn’t trust the system at the time. I blame myself. I was ashamed and confused. And I thought I was strong. But felt powerless. The perpetrators abused their position of power in profound ways. And in one case, I was preyed upon and then raped by a superior officer. I stayed silent for many years. But later, in my career, as the military grappled with scandals and their wholly inadequate responses, I felt the need to let some people know, I too was a survivor. I was horrified at how my attempt to share generally my experiences were handled. I almost separated from the Air Force at 18 years over my despair. Like many victims, I felt the system was raping me all over again.
While most offered their sympathies in response, others heaped scorn.
Popular progressive writer and lawyer, Jill Filipovic, went on a tirade against McSally and conservatives more generally after the former Air Force pilot confided being a rape victim.
While Filipovic praised McSally’s bravery, she also attacked her for “being a member of the exact movement that is hostile to sincere and holistic efforts to combat violence against women, and that folds misogyny into much of its politics.”
Conservatives, Filipovic claimed, are “staunchly anti-feminist, deriding many women who talk about sexual violence as having a ‘victim mentality.’”
Grabien asked Filipovic for examples of conservatives who’ve attacked rape victims as she’s described but did not hear back before this piece was published.
Popular progressive comedian Tony Posnanski used McSally coming forward about her rape to attack her for doubting Brett Kavanaugh’s accuser:
Another big progressive Twitter account — this one anonymous — echoed the same theme:
This reaction resembles what happened after Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) announced she had been assaulted by her husband, and had also been raped as a student in college.
While most directed sympathy toward Sen. Ernst, some progressives instead attacked her all over again.
AlterNet reporter Matthew Chapman said Ernst’s conservative politics “killed” her empathy:
Others likewise suggested Ernst is somehow a hypocrite for not automatically believing Christine Ford:
According to the logic expressed in the statements above, it appears that when the survivor of sexual assault happens to be politically conservative, they’re less deserving of sympathy.