Meghan Daum
E. Jean Carroll’s Advice and Non-Consent
Shouldn’t a rape allegation against the president be bigger news?
On June 21, New York Magazine published a 6,000-word excerpt from a new memoir, What Do We Need Men For?, in which the Elle Magazine advice columnist E. Jean Carroll describes Donald Trump raping her in a department store dressing room more than two decades ago. Carroll didn’t use the word rape — she has also said she does not see herself as a victim — but by any reasonable definition, even considering that the encounter began as a flirtatious game, the word applies. The president has denied Carroll’s account, saying that he doesn’t know her (never mind the photo of them together) and that “she’s not my type.”
Carroll’s story was almost immediately followed by the story of why it wasn’t a bigger story. Out of the more than 20 women who’ve publicly accused Trump of assault or sexual misconduct, Carroll is only the second to recount an incident involving forced penetration. (The other was his first wife, Ivana Trump, who recanted her story after their divorce settlement.) In any other presidency, this would almost certainly have been thunderous news, but the only major newspaper to put it on the front page was The Washington Post, which ran it under the fold of the print edition. New York Times…
