A Rude AwakeningDespite my belief in socially progressive ideals, I have come to understand the 2024 election as a mirror—an honest reflection of where we really are as a country. It epitomizes not only how the corrupt elite and corporate conglomerates continue to evade accountability, but the degree to which internalized misogyny still runs deep and unchecked within American culture. There is no class, race, political party, religion, or even gender exempt from this conditioning. Intellectual ideals are one thing; embodying them is another. And as neuropsychology and trauma research show, it’s the body that keeps the score. It’s our unconscious biases that drive most of our actions, and many of us are like fish unaware of the toxic misogynistic waters in which we still swim. This understanding of the world was forced upon me in 2023, when I experienced it first-hand after being sexually assaulted by a neighbor, a Kamala Harris supporter, in liberal West Hollywood. Up until then, I’d always suffered from low self-esteem and people-pleasing and defaulted to taking the blame for others--a coping strategy I’d adopted in childhood to make sense of an unjust world and try to take back control. But that approach completely fell apart in the face of the senseless dehumanization I experienced at the hands of someone I thought was my friend, a blonde haired-blue-eyed Aryan neighbor who’d only shown gentlemanly sensitivity until that night. It was sheer survival that forced me to open my eyes and see the matrix of lies I’d been living in my entire life, no thanks to the misogynistic hatred of women running through my own family line. What I Discovered about Myself and Fellow Humans It was astonishing what the experience revealed about my own beliefs. I initially failed to even take my own side or call out what happened for what it was—a criminal hate crime–even as my lofty spiritual ideals collapsed under the weight of the senseless violence. It was terrifying what it revealed about the beliefs of my perpetrator and what he (and his peers) appears to believe is allowed conduct with women, which I won't go into here, but it's tangential to those involved in sex trafficking. It was heartbreaking what it revealed about the beliefs of my supposedly liberal family and social circle who gas lit me and reflected back the victim blaming and minimization I feared. And it was re-traumatizing when I finally felt strong enough to file the police report, and the officer dismissed my story before it was even heard, completely breaching protocol and manipulating my words around critical points in the timeline where consent was violated as if he was hoping I would be mistaken. (Who knew police officers had such a vested interest in someone not actually being assaulted?) In short, the reactions of thos around me was as much if not more of a betrayal than the assault itself. That said, this rude awakening to the destructive darkness running rampant through society was counter-balanced by a hidden beauty that was revealed as I sought out help from the RAINN crisis hotlines, Peace over Violence resources, assault survivor support groups, and the L.A. district attorney victim’s advocate office. So many courageous survivors and volunteers are actively working to heal, support others, and speak their truths—never minimizing their pain or pretending what happened didn’t shake them to their core. Everything has been upside down: the strong were weak, the wealthy poor, the polished savage, the imprisoned innocent, the quiet powerful. What I Learned About the Law and PredatorsThis experience led me to an eye-opening education that ideally everyone should be taught by the age of 18. Did you know, for example, that under California law consent needs to be continuous and affirmative with both parties understanding the nature of the act? (Cal. Penal Code § 261.6) Did you know that sex by deception can be illegal because it robs a person of their ability to give informed consent? (Licea, 2022) Or that perpetrators exploit power differentials to trigger the freeze-fawn responses in their prey, impeding the woman’s ability to think clearly or resist in the moment? (Kozlowska, 2015) There’s an abundance of free resources and support for survivors, but much of it is volunteer-run and underfunded. Navigating the social support systems, accessing affordable trauma therapy, and achieving justice is an exhausting labyrinthine process. It’s important to keep in mind, predators statistically prey on those perceived as vulnerable and unlikely to pose a threat (Lisak, 2002). They don’t target beautiful women confidently striding down Melrose Avenue, who look like they come from money or influence. They prey on women with awkward gaits, who are neuro-divergent, economically challenged, or emotionally sensitive (Book & Costello, 2013)—in other words, women like me. It’s like they instinctively choose women that are not only less likely to have powerful allies or the resources to seek justice, but less likely to be believed. Yet the justice system ignores these statistics when cases get reported or go to court. It's also important to understand that perpetrators don’t assault women they feel affection for. Sexual assault is not driven by overwhelming sexual desire or passion. It’s about power and dominance (Groth, 1979). It’s an act of violence, often using deception or force to humiliate and degrade, and has the emotional impact of a hate crime that can reverberate through a woman’s self-worth and nervous system for years, decades, lifetimes (UCLA Health, 2022). Like in war, perpetrators rationalize such violence by dehumanizing their targets. But unlike in war, sexual assault often also involves a betrayal of a trust built during the grooming phase where the man is kind and gentle, used to disarm the victim, creating massive cognitive dissonance for her in the aftermath (Gómez, 2018). And since her perceived weaknesses were preyed upon to build the trust, speaking up becomes a heart-wrenching confession of her own vulnerabilities, the ones that prevented her from seeing the truth in time to escape. The cognitive dissonance between the grooming phase and the assault is enough to drive anyone to intensive therapy. And with the nervous system trapped in a trauma loop, it becomes profoundly difficult to navigate the steps towards recovery and justice. It truly felt like overnight I had woken up in the Upside-Down world. But it was actually the real world we live in right now, here in liberal West Hollywood. My eyes were just finally open. The Lucky OnesAnd I am one of the lucky ones. Several months after the assault, I read in a trade publication that my perpetrator had been “let go” for purportedly contributing to an abusive work culture that left staff in tears. This acknowledgment about his character was a major turning point in my recovery—it helped me start believing my own experience. Until then, his higher socioeconomic class and professional status, compared to mine, made it hard for me to see that what he did was criminal. This discovery gave me the determination to seek help, leading me to exceptional therapy at the UCLA Rape Treatment Center, which has been vital to my healing. But what happens to women who don’t receive the kind of external validation I did, or who are less vocal or call the hotlines when support services are stretched too thin? What happens to survivors who don’t believe in their own stories enough to seek help because everywhere they look society minimizes their stories or blames them? Let me tell you: vast numbers of survivors end up institutionalized, attempting suicide, developing eating disorders, or turning to drugs to cope with the PTSD (Miles et al., 2024). It cannot be emphasized enough how deep the psychological and emotional damage cuts when a woman is humiliated and reduced to less than human in this way, especially by someone she trusted or admired. The impacts echo into every facet of her life—distorting the way she moves through the world and how she sees herself—with biological impacts that can be passed down for generations (Yehuda et al., 2014). It cannot be emphasized enough how deep the psychological and emotional damage cuts when a woman is humiliated and reduced to less than human in this way, especially by someone she trusted or admired. Does Anyone Remember Albert Einstein and Martin Luther King, Jr.? It warrants reiteration: it’s not just the perpetrators causing harm. It’s a society that fails to take victims seriously. When I was mugged in Boston years ago, no one ever doubted a crime had occurred. Why, then, when false accusations are rare for both types of crimes, is sexual assault treated as debatable as to whether it even warrants investigation? We live in a culture where the onus is on victims of sexual violence to justify their trauma. “Innocent until proven guilty” rightly protects people from false conviction, but treating sexual assault victims as if they are lying or mistaken until proven otherwise exposes a toxic system that gaslights and silences survivors while letting serial predators roam free. We are all complicit in upholding this paradigm, if only in our silence and unexamined prejudices. No matter how free thinking we believe ourselves to be, this conditioning runs deep. It goes far beyond a single political figure like Trump, or any criminal. It’s about how society, as a whole, responds when a woman speaks out about violence. Nearly half a million women and girls are assaulted each year under every administration (RAINN, 2024). It happened to me under Biden in a progressive California city by someone with a Kamala Harris sign on his lawn. Outward symbols of progressivism have little to do with respect for women. And yet, it’s not hopeless. Real change begins with honesty, and with Trump’s election revealing the underbelly that still dominates America, we are being forced to confront it. Remember that the #Metoo movement started under Trump’s first presidency. Could having an openly fascist and misogynistic figure help galvanize momentum for women’s rights? This is about all of us and we each have a role to play in changing the dynamics that perpetuate misogyny and its inherent violence. We start with ourselves. We start by believing victims and calling out predatory behavior and derogatory language in real time. As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people, but the silence over that by the good people.” Trump is not the enemy. He’s a reflection of a noxious regime—and the apathy that sustains it—that sets up women to be objectified and dehumanized and then gaslights them when they speak up. Liberal Hollywood’s glamorized sexualization and objectification of women is as much to blame as the conservatives who voted for an openly fascist anti-life misogynistic administration. When Misogyny Ends, Everything Thrives (except evil)The thing is, ending the violence of misogyny benefits everyone—not just women, not just the most vulnerable, but Everyone. For a world that honors and protects women means healthier children (Tough et al., 2010), a stronger society, and a brighter more loving future for all. This is not a political issue—it’s a human one. In fact, it may be the single-most important issue for humanity’s long-term survival (United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, 2022). Take away women, and the children they birth, and we have NOTHING. No human life at all. On a larger scale, misogyny underpins the male-dominated rape and desecration of the earth enabled by a corporate funded government and media system that suppresses and silences the voices of the vulnerable. It’s the same damn thing. It's all connected.
And our country's descent into outright fascism is simply an escalation of what was always was. Misogyny is an intrinsic part of fascism, which is by nature anti-life, anti-woman, anti-child, anti-truth, anti-love. And while the actions of this authoritarian regime may be the most evil we've seen in the U.S., there is still hope. For within its darkness lies the seed of its own destruction. Its brazenness has exposed what has been running the show behind the U.S. "success" for decades: murder, rape, war, pillaging and betrayal of those more vulnerable—children, women, minorities, and resource rich developing countries. Over and over and over again. And now they aren’t even hiding it. Now they are turning inwards against its own citizens - all without our informed, affirmative consent. That IS the definition of assault. When misogyny and fascism are allowed to reign free everything that is There's Only One Question Left Which side are you on?
It’s time. Honesty is the first step. Let's start by unveiling the Epstein Files and exposing the system that protects It. Then we might start to see the change we urgently need. Statistics
This continues because of the good people that have been brainwashed to blame victims, do not question it, and do nothing. The world doesn’t go down because of a few thousand psychotic billionaires. It goes down because of the good people that looked on and did nothing. Note: This essay was originally written in December 2024, posted here in March 2025, and then updated with information regarding the connection between misogyny and f@sc1sm in July 21, 2025  Resources 
ReferencesVan der Kolk, B. A. (2014). The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. Viking. California Penal Code § 261.6 (2023). Licea, Ricardo (2022). How to expand rape by deception and protect consent. University of Massachusetts Law Review, 17(2), Article 1. https://scholarship.law.umassd.edu/umlr/vol17/iss2/1 Kozlowska, K., Walker, P., McLean, L., & Carrive, P. (2015). Fear and the defense cascade: Clinical implications and management. Harvard Review of Psychiatry, 23(4), 263–287. https://doi.org/10.1097/HRP.0000000000000065 Lisak, D., & Miller, P. M. (2002). Repeat rape and multiple offending among undetected rapists. Violence & Victims, 17(1), 73–84. https://doi.org/10.1891/vivi.17.1.73.33638 Book, A., Costello, K., & Camilleri, J. A. (2013). Psychopathy and Victim Selection: The Use of Gait as a Cue to Vulnerability. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 28(11), 2368–2383. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260512475315 UCLA Health. (2022, May 17). The long-term effects of sexual assault. UCLA Health. https://www.uclahealth.org/news/article/the-long-term-effects-of-sexual-assault Gómez, J. M. (2018). Gendered sexual violence: Betrayal trauma, dissociation, and PTSD in diverse college students. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, 27(5), 570-594. https://doi.org/10.1080/10926771.2020.1783737 Miles, L. W., Khambaty, T., Petersen, K., & Lechner, S. C. (2024). A systematic review of evidence-based treatments for adolescent and adult sexual assault victims. Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association, 30(3) https://doi.org/10.1177/10783903231216138 Yehuda, R., Daskalakis, N. P., Lehrner, A., Desarnaud, F., Bader, H. N., Makotkine, I., Flory, J. D., Bierer, L. M., & Meaney, M. J. (2014). Influences of maternal and paternal PTSD on epigenetic regulation of the glucocorticoid receptor gene in Holocaust survivor offspring. American Journal of Psychiatry, 171(8), 872–880. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2014.13121571 United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. (2022, November 24). Ending violence against women and girls key to tackling global crises and achieving prosperity. https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2022/11/ending-violence-against-women-and-girls-key-tackling-global-crises-and Ellery, B. (2024, July 23). Violence against women and girls ‘a national emergency’. The Times. https://www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/article/violence-against-women-and-girls-a-national-emergency-68x8pw7dr
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Blog focused on concrete actions we can take towards protecting life, justice and human rights.
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Amanda Ianthe Greene, Research, Policy and Systems Analyst, Archives
January 2026
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