SEXUAL ASSAULT HAS NO GENDER

via the hill

Tuesday morning actor Terry Crews best known for Brooklyn 99, White Chicks and Everybody Hates Chris met with the Senate Judiciary Committee to discuss the Bill of Rights for Sexual Assault Survivors. Earlier this year, Crews came forward with his own experience of sexual assault by a Hollywood agent. His trip to the Senate with Amanda Nguyen, (Rise founder and original creator of the Sexual Assault Survivors Bill of Rights in 2016), was in hopes to expand the Bill’s civil rights protections and gain more awareness about sexual assault for men.

This moment is monumental in two ways. First, what Terry exemplifies is that sexual assault is beyond just gender. Crews, a 6’3” black man and former NFL player is not the typical image that comes to mind when discussing victims of sexual assault. And this is important. His brave choice to step forward shows that sexual assault is, at its core, a powder dynamic synonymous with toxic masculinity.

Crews spoke: “I sit here before you in this committee just as an example — that a lot of people don’t believe that a person like me can be victimized,” he said, adding, “What happened to me has happened to many, many other men... I have had thousands and thousands of men come to me and say, ‘Me too. This is my story but I did not have the confidence, or I did not feel safe enough to come out’ because you get blacklisted.” (Los Angeles Times)

His statements expose toxic masculinity for what it is. Something that both encourages the domination of people in vulnerable situations, as well as pressures men into maintaining this ideal of what it means to “be a man,” which includes never admitting to being a victim.

This meeting was significant secondly, because the Senate unanimously agreed to pass the Bill. Crews and Nguyen’s next plan is to pass it at the state level The Los Angeles Times reports. watch crews' opening statement below.