Column
The Weinstein Verdict Feels More Surprising Than It Should
Why did so many women expect Harvey Weinstein to walk?
On Monday, a New York jury handed down two guilty verdicts in the charges against disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein — felony crimes that put him in prison for anywhere from five to 29 years. Weinstein was also acquitted of three other, more serious, crimes.
I was legitimately shocked. And I’m not the only one — nearly every woman I know was expecting a “not guilty” verdict in his trial. Not because we weren’t fully convinced of his guilt or that there wasn’t an abundance of evidence, but because women are so used to losing. Especially when it comes to sexual assault.
We live in a country where a man found guilty of raping an unconscious woman behind a dumpster was given just months in jail because the judge believed a longer sentence would “have a severe impact on him;” where an heir to the DuPont fortune served no jail time for raping his three-year-old daughter because the judge said he wouldn’t “fare well” in prison. A place where it took not one or five or 10 women — but 60, for Bill Cosby to finally face justice.
Even when women are believed, our stories are often not considered important enough to make a difference. When Dr…
