Maybe One Day a Woman’s Word Will Be Enough
What if women started to believe each other—and found power in the process?
One of the biggest turning points in America around domestic violence wasn’t a public-awareness campaign or a piece of legislation — it was an instant camera. In the 1980s, thanks to Polaroid pictures, women in hospitals and shelters could immediately take shots of their injuries and use them in court if they wanted their abusers prosecuted.
Sometimes, though, the Polaroids never even saw the light of day. Women kept them tucked away in a safe or in the back of their closet — just in case. The pictures were proof of their suffering, of the violence that was happening in their own home.
Most important: the Polaroids were tangible and lasting, something that could prop up the public or private testimony of women, who are so often disbelieved or doubted when recounting their own experiences.
The truth is that a woman’s word alone has never been enough. We’ve always needed pictures, or witnesses, or some sort of irrefutable proof that — in a country where we believe and protect men even when logic and evidence damn them — doesn’t really exist.
Over the last 10 years, that’s started to show signs of changing — and it has men on the right running…
