Former Florida House Candidate On Kavanaugh Accusation: 'What Boy Hasn't Done This?'

[TomCADem]

Source: Huffington Post

Former Florida GOP congressional candidate Gina Sosa has completely dismissed a sexual assault accusation against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. “Tell me, what boy hasn’t done this in high school?” she asked on camera on CNN. Sosa made the starling comment in a story Thursday on reactions from a group of five Republican women in Florida on Christine Blasey Ford’s allegation against Kavanaugh.

Blasey has said that Kavanaugh shoved her into a bedroom at a house party when they were both in high school, locked the door, pinned her to the bed, groped her, pulled at her clothing and put his hand over her mouth when she tried to scream. She said she managed to escape when a second teen in the room jumped on top of them.

“We’re talking about a 17-year-old boy in high school, with testosterone running high,” said Sosa. “Tell me, what boy hasn’t done this in high school? Please, I would like to know.” Sosa lost the Florida GOP primary for the 27th congressional district last month with less than 2 percent of the vote.

All five women in the group said they believed Kavanaugh’s denial that the alleged attack occurred.

Read more: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/candidate-gina-sosa-on-kavanaugh-what-boy-hasnt-done-this_us_5ba6d044e4b0375f8f9d9c0b

---

The amazing thing is that several Republican women activists either minimized the attack of just believed Kavanaugh's denial. I guess this is not unlike how Democrats acted with Al Franken when partisanship impairs the ability to see women as people.

Also, the thing we assume is that folks would find a sexual assault reprehensible. A large segment of Americans, mostly Republican, see this as fairly normal. While we condemn India's spate of rapes, in the U.S., you even have women political candidates asking, "What Boy Hasn’t Done This?’"

https://thehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/384266-were-outrage-over-india-rape-cases-but-we-need-deeper-discussions-about

We're outraged over India rape cases, but we need deeper discussions about rape culture in America

In the past few years, India has been depicted as the rape capital of the world after a recent series of high-profile rape cases. After nationwide protests erupted after the shocking gang rape of an eight year old girl and the brutal assault and murder of a teenager, India, which has seen a 39 percent increase in reported rapes since rape laws were strengthened a few years ago, has become viewed as hostile territory for women. The news has been met with shock around the world.

Yet, while these incidences have rightly caused an outcry, we ought to use this chance to take a harder look at the realities of rape culture here in the United States.

When sexual assault cases from other countries become widely publicized, they are often utilized in a racist way to paint these countries as “backwards” or inherently misogynistic. Yet, the very same pervasive rape culture exists in the United States. We would be amiss to brashly set this aside as the type of incident that only occurs in other countries.

Sexual harassment, assault, rape and all kinds of gender-based violence happen in our country on a daily basis. The rape culture that led to these rape cases in India, which shocked millions of people, is same kind of rape culture the United States condones through implicit and explicit ways women and girls are objectified for the purposes of pleasure of men and boys.

[KCDebbie]

1. So, by stating that she considers it normal behavior

for teenage boys to hold down girls in an attempted rape, is she admitting that this has happened to her?

Is this woman a rape survivor in denial?

[Nitram]

22. She admits it happened to her and she didn't mind.

[keithbvadu2]

36. and would not mind if it was her daughter or sister.

[Nitram]

40. Or else she's lying though her teeth.

[at140]

2. What I remember growing up in India (1950's)

is if any woman in my town was molested/attacked, the perpetrator would be badly beaten up by mob action. Result was such crimes were very rare. Things may be different now.

[TomCADem]

9. I Wonder Whether This Focus on India Is A Way To Justify Western Rape Culture?

It is like how we do a story on women in Saudi Arabia gaining the right to drive, and use that to justify inaction on income parity in the United States, because, "Hey, we are further along then (insert name of country)."

The Republican party organizing Republican women to normalize sexual assault sounds like a scene written by Margaret Atwood:

https://www.amny.com/entertainment/women-roles-handmaid-s-tale-1.18656550

Standing faithfully behind (not next to) their husbands who rank as Commanders, the Wives are generally infertile women tasked with expanding the population of Gilead through the help of an assigned handmaid. Their financial status in the pre-Gilead society allowed them to transfer over into this world with a certain level of comfort, though they are still viewed as lesser-than, due to their gender.

Their most important role in the household is during the Ceremony, a culture of “ritualized rape” in which the Wives hold down the arms of their household handmaid.

[at140]

18. That methodology is used more often than not!

To try to make us look better. In realty, rate of rapes is actually higher in USA than India.

https://www.quora.com/Is-the-rape-rate-in-India-higher-than-in-the-US-Why

[Hoyt]

3. Maybe all GOPers did this, but not everyone. Christ, these people are sick.

[RainCaster]

4. Is this how she raised her sons?

The GOP needs to be replaced by humans

[Haggis for Breakfast]

43. She has never married and has NO children.

[sueh]

5. When I was in high school, a couple of boys tried to persuade me to "go all the way", but what they

did NOT do, was lock the door, and put their hand over my mouth, try to disrobe me, and try to rape me. Gina Sosa, you are part of the problem.

[True Blue American]

12. Now most boys would do as you said, but they

Certainly did not try to rape you.

You are quite right.

[dhill926]

6. this one....

jesus christ...

[forgotmylogin]

48. Same here.

Got through high school and college and my entire life without attempting to force myself on someone.

[Perseus]

7. " I guess this is not unlike how Democrats acted with Al Franken when partisanship impairs..."

Neither is right.

1. The Democrats acted to fast to crucify Franken
2. Republicans act too fast to dismiss charges and make the victim a liar.

Both groups should demand investigations, no personal opinions given, let the investigation find what is out there, then make your opinions count with facts.

[dameatball]

8. I never did and I never heard about anyone else attempting to rape someone.

We had about 1100 kids in my high school. Maybe a small percentage attempted something, but word gets around about stuff like that. I never heard anything about any attempted or actual rapes when I was in high school. What world has this woman been living in?

[Guilded Lilly]

10. Pure Puke from this woman. There are millions of teenage boys who would NEVER go there, ever...

However-Part of the serious problem of the “boys will be boys” epidemic of hideously entitled sexual abuse that DOES exist in this country is the hideously repugnant acceptance by women of this damned enabling cliche.

[Grasswire2]

11. This is what they said about Senator Bob Packwood, who resigned...

....because of allegations of groping and unwanted sexual advances.

[7962]

13. The difference is, when told "no", you have to respect that.

Yeah, I've been there when I was young. And drinking was involved many times. But I NEVER went any further than I was allowed.

[rurallib]

14. Even if "every boy did it" that doesn't make it right

That is still wrong and illegal and should not be dismissed. Attempted rape causes harm an long term consequences and perpetrators should be dealt with.

[still_one]

15. This is a disgrace as the OP has said that some women actually enccourage this culuture of rape

[eggplant]

16. 2% Why does she still have a microphone? n/t

[Marthe48]

17. Shame on sosa!

In my teens, I was attacked by strangers twice, once by a boy a couple years younger than me, who I bested and got away from, and once on a Greyhound bus. The driver had to help me.

When I was a teen, I had different dates with 2 or 3 guys I didn't know well. We were all in the same age group and exploring new territory. We were necking and those guys ASKED if we could go further. They each one ASKED. When I said no, we stopped necking, the evening tapered off, and I went back to my home or dorm.

Not every boy attacks girls (or other boys) trying to get sex. It is aberrant behaviour and completely unacceptable!

[truthisfreedom]

19. Republican family values.

[Jedi Guy]

30. Not really, no.

I was raised in a Republican household and my parents are both still diehard Republicans. They taught me to be a gentleman, to respect women and to treat them with kindness. For that matter, they taught me to treat all people like that. My dad's rule is to respect everyone until they prove themselves unworthy of respect.

If I'd ever done anything like what Kavanaugh is alleged to have done, my dad would have beaten the stupid out of me before letting my mom get in a few shots. Then they'd have dragged me to the police station to face the music.

Sosa knows she's wrong here. She's just blindly supporting Kavanaugh for political reasons. He's part of her political tribe so she reflexively defends him. It's not unlike how people here on DU reflexively defended Al Franken when he was accused. It's political tribalism, that's all.

[atreides1]

49. Your dad has a good rule

Too bad he doesn't apply it to his choice of political parties!


What exactly is it that your dad respects about the Republican party, and what would it take for them to become unworthy of respect?

[Jedi Guy]

56. I don't really know, honestly.

I try to avoid discussing politics with my parents. Life is just easier that way. One of my uncles is very progressive, and whenever he talks politics with my folks it always ends up with one side or the other getting butt-hurt. I just don't engage.

He's ex-military, so that probably has a lot to do with his conservatism. Both of my parents are also very religious, so that probably plays into it, as well. I wouldn't call them evangelicals, though. They're content to do their own thing without caring much what other people do, religion-wise.

[LanternWaste]

54. Yes really, yes.

Don't confuse the statistical aeration (your anecdotal experience) with the numerical standard.

Yet if you are going to attribute this wholly to political tribalism, you'll of course, offer evidence to support your conclusion, yes?

[Jedi Guy]

57. Oh give me a fucking break.

So truthisfreedom, or you, can provide evidence to support that rape, and supporting rapists, is a Republican family value, yes? If you are, after all, both asserting this, and it's on you to provide evidence to back up your assertion, yes? Let's see the studies showing that Republican or conservative households teach their children that rape is okay, yes? Like you're going to show me a poll which found that Republicans think rape is just dandy, yes?

If you don't see political tribalism in the knee-jerk defense of Al Franken by folks here on DU, and in the knee-jerk defense of Kavanaugh by conservatives, then all I can suggest is that you get your prescription checked. Progressives had a political and personal reason to defend Franken; conservatives have a political and personal reason to defend Kavanaugh. It's not rocket science.

Hell, Senator Mazie Hirono suggested that Kavanaugh has no presumption of innocence against these allegations because she doesn't like how he ruled in his body of case law. Do you not see what a nakedly political (and frighteningly wrong-headed) stance that is? If that isn't political tribalism, what is it?

[progree]

20. A Minnesota state senator: "Even if true, teenagers! Frankly, I don't believe her...."

Minnesota senator sparks online outrage with tweet about Kavanaugh accusations, Star Tribune, 9/23/18

http://www.startribune.com/minnesota-senator-sparks-online-outrage-with-tweet-about-kavanaugh-accusations/493642311/

State Senator Scott Newman, a Hutchinson Republican, tweeted Monday:

“Even if true, teenagers! Frankly, I don’t believe her. Almost 40yrs and now she self righteously comes forward to save us from a dangerous sex offender. This type of allegation seriously jeopardizes women with a legitimate claim, for who will believe them.”

Newman, in his third term and currently chairman of the Transportation Committee...

Newman was previously an administrative law judge and deputy sheriff, and the GOP nominee for state attorney general in 2014. He was the lead Senate author of an unsuccessful attempt to require people to use bathrooms and changing rooms that match their “biological sex.” During that political row, Newman said the transgender community’s assertive opposition to his bill persuaded him that they are “not the bullied. They are the bullies.”

This is the same state where another fuckhead (R) has been abusing his daughter for more than 10 years

MN Rep. Jim Knoblach ends campaign ahead of MPR abuse allegations story, MPR, 9/21/18
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2018/09/21/knoblach-ends-campaign-amid-abuse-allegations

The above is the long full details version.

[BumRushDaShow]

21. "A large segment of Americans, mostly Republican, see this as fairly normal."

... when it is done by WHITES.

Yet one of the primary acts - or lies about such an act - that was a surefire way to get a black man lynched was to claim he "raped" a white woman. It's to the point where the thing in the WH spent $85,000 for full page ads in 4 NY newspapers back in 1989, going after the so-called "Central Park 5" calling for the death penalty because of the allegations against them and refused to back down despite them being acquitted.





Yet now, crickets.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

44. And let's not forget HOW they were acquitted.

Mathias Reyes, a career criminal, arrested for yet another crime, was proved by DNA and irrefutable forensic evidence to have been the man who beat, raped and sodomized Trisha Meili.

The teens, now men, who had spent almost a decade in prison for crimes they did not commit, went on to sue New York State and won in a unanimous jury decision.

Even after all that, when they were proved, beyond a shadow of a doubt, to be innocent of all charges, trump still demanded they all be put to death. He refused to believe that they were not guilty. Remember - DNA and forensic evidence exonerated them.

Every time I hear someone say that he is not a racist, I remember this story.

[meadowlander]

23. If he was a 17 year old black kid from a poor family, he would still be in jail for it.

[Equinox Moon]

24. He is right.

Unfortunately, men too often do behave like this. It is time to change our culture.

Times up!!!!

[TomCADem]

42. '20 minutes of action': father defends Stanford student son convicted of sexual assault

At the same time, are the comments made to defend Kavanaugh any different from those made by the parents of Brock Turner, the Stanford rapist:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/06/father-stanford-university-student-brock-turner-sexual-assault-statement

The father of a former Stanford University athlete convicted on multiple charges of sexual assault has said his son should not have to go to prison for “20 minutes of action”.

Brock Turner, a former swimmer at Stanford University, was on Thursday sentenced to six months’ imprisonment and probation for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman.

The 20-year-old from Dayton, Ohio – who was convicted of three felonies, including assault with intent to rape – faced a maximum of 14 years in prison.

But Turner was expected to spend only three months of a six-month sentence in county jail after the judge, Aaron Persky, said positive character references and lack of a criminal record had persuaded him to be more lenient. Prison would have a “severe impact on him”, the judge said.

[Equinox Moon]

46. Yep. Times Up!

I LOVE THIS #METOO MOVEMENT, for it is about fricking time we have a shift. And, it will take time for both men and women to understand the damage from their "20-minutes" of assault, as in this situation you comment on.

Power and control in order to pleasure oneself - at the expense of another - regardless of the harm to the victim. (And many men think that is okay.) OMG!! This mentality must stop!

[Doitnow]

25. Well, TODAY has lied to congress 3 (three) times. That alone should disqualify

him, besides the claim of Dr. Ford. Hard to judge which is worse.

[JesterCS]

26. I never did. N/t

[Doitnow]

27. And guess what? It was wrong THEN and it's still wrong NOW.

[Butterflylady]

28. Bull, I can positively say

I know 4 boys that would've never done anything like that, my 4 sons. How do I know this, because my boys and a lot of their friends hung out at our house and I know I would have found out. There were a lot of things I knew that they didn't know I knew. And I was not the kind of parent that thought my kids were angels, nope not by any means. I knew they did some really stupid things, but never would bring harm to anyone. The one thing I did get pounded into their heads was to have respect for girls.

[janterry]

29. I do not agree with this

statement:
not unlike how Democrats acted with Al Franken when partisanship impairs the ability to see women as people

People who defended Franken did not think he did the right thing.

I still stand with Franken, btw.

[Jedi Guy]

32. That's not what's being said, though.

No one made the claim that Franken's defenders thought he did the right thing.

The point is that people defended him because he's one of us, a Democrat. They came right out and said his accusers were lying before any shred of investigation had been done. Their minds were made up that it was all bullshit because he is a Democrat.

So now here we are with an accusation against a Republican, and the accusation is regarded as gospel truth despite the fact that no investigation has been done. The Republicans' minds are made up that it's all bullshit because Kavanaugh is one of them. People here are convinced he did it because he's not a Democrat.

It's political tribalism at its finest in both instances. What should have happened in Franken's case is the same thing that should happen now: an impartial investigation to determine the facts as much as possible.

[janterry]

33. It's not why I defend him

(in as much as my defense is needed or helpful .

He admitted what happened, apologized, and no one thought his behavior was right.

Anyway, that blanket analogy is not okay with me. One denies it -said his accuser is a liar.

The other looked at his own behavior and owned what was improper.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

31. That's the problem in a nutshell. Abuse of girls and women is much too normalized. Period. . . . nt

[trof]

34. Well lady, this boy didn't.

And I don't think I'm in the minority.

[keithbvadu2]

37. What republican mothers teach their sons and daughters

What republican mothers teach their sons and daughters::::

Defending Kav....
"Tell me, what boy hasn’t done this in high school?”

Would the daughter feel that she might be supported if she told mommy?

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/407927-gop-women-issue-strong-defense-of-kavanaugh

Kavanaugh: I can molest a girl/woman on 5TH Avenue and the GOP Senators will still vote for me! MAGA! (Sarcasm?)

[Midnight Writer]

39. Even in prison, among hard core criminals, child sexual predators are the lowest and most hated.

[mwooldri]

41. What boy? Me. I never did this in school. Or Uni.

Though I was more into transistors than the blonde-haired sisters... My family instilled into me real family values. And Respect. Pinning people down and attempting to molest them is not normal, and not part of family values.

[honest.abe]

45. Attempted rape??

I dont think so.

[cstanleytech]

47. Ok, time for some facepalm

[ck4829]

50. I haven't

[dchill]

51. Any guy who says that is fingering himself.

So to speak.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

52. *raises hand*

Me. I've never done this...........

[regnaD kciN]

53. SMH...

Every time I read one of these “what high-school boy hasn’t done this?” lines, all I can think of is that I would have no trouble coming up with a list of several dozen boys of my own personal acquaintance who I am utterly confident never did anything of the sort. And each of them could, no doubt, come up with a similar list of much the same size.

Let’s be clear: most high-school boys would never dream of doing anything like that. But, when Republicans claim it, what they’re really saying is “every high-school boy *of our kind*.” In other words, those from wealthy families or those whose athletic exploits (if they were white, of course) made them the übermensch of their peer group, those who knew that “the rules don’t apply to me.” Those who were the natural Republican elite-in-training...and, yes, if you’re restricting yourself to that group, it’s quite plausible to ask “which high-school boy hasn’t done this?”

[libdem4life]

55. Not my son...

or any of his friends...or anyone they knew. High School of 4,000. Mostly they dealt with trying to smoke pot outside the school fence during lunch hour. I heard lots and lots of stories of that.

We're talking Kavanaugh-style here. I foresee an ugly new noun emerging, even though it's long..."kavanaughing."

[LibDemAlways]

58. I have a Republican former neighbor who

believes the accusers are "whiners" who should suck it up. She thinks this is normal behavior and "no big deal." I don't watch Faux, but I have to assume this is the line they have settled on. Even if he did it, so what?