Statement from Debbie Ramirez

[Donkees]

Link to tweet

[MagickMuffin]

1. Thank you so much, Debbie Ramirez

Thank you for sharing even tho the republicrats stopped the investigation.

I guess there was just too much damning evidence against pervy brett that nothing else matters. Move along!

[Beartracks]

2. +1. But curious: Why are there pronouns under her sign-off?

[Garrett78]

4. She's just letting people know how she identifies.

[Azathoth]

5. One of the latest trends among intersectional gender theory enthusiasts

Everyone needs to list their pronouns so that we don't accidentally offend someone by referring to them in a way they don't identify with.

[Hortensis]

18. Oh, thanks. When I first went to work and was typing

letters for others, Ms. was new but accepted for both single and married, but I was informed that, failing knowing for sure which form was preferred, Mrs. was always to be used to avoid offence.

The second wave of feminism was in full swing, but there were still some women signing themselves "Mrs. John H. Johnson" in those days.

[Ms. Toad]

19. Actually that is not quite the point for everyone lisiting their pronouns.

The point is to avoid cis/binary being the presumption unless it is actively challenged.

All of us who are cis/binary/presenting an appearance that matches our gender never have to identify our pronouns. The same is not true for trans/non-binary/genderqueer individuals. If they want to be referred to by their preferred pronouns, they must affirmatively state them - effectively they must either tolerate pronouns they do not identify with or they must come out by announcing theirs.

The movement to state our preferred pronouns is to level the playing field, so that individuals who use pronouns that do not match their gender presentation, or who are non-binary are not the only ones always forced to come out about their gender - by creating an enviornment in which no presumptions are made about pronouns.

[Hekate]

6. If she is a college academic,just know it is all the thing on campuses among the younger generation

Just go with it.

[Ligyron]

17. Totally cool to do so but I don't know too many males named Debbie.

Be kinda hard to get confused with that moniker.

Now if someone is named oh, say, Tracy...

[Ms. Toad]

25. I do actually know males named Debbie.

Not literally - but individuals who use male pronouns who have traditionally female names (and vice versa).

Not all trans individuals change their names or appearances - even though they use pronouns that do not match their name or appearance.

Not to mention that some Debbies may be non-binary - and use pronouns they/them/theirs - or some of the less common variations such as ze/zir or Xe/Xem/Xyrs

The point of everyond stating their pronouns is to discourage assumptions based on name or appearance for everyone (not just those who are trans/non-binary/genderqueer)

[kag]

54. You do a great job of explaining this, Ms. Toad.

I have a son whose pronouns are "he/him" and a non-binary child whose pronouns are "they/them." Having received an English degree many years ago it has been very difficult for me to become accustomed to using plural pronouns to refer to a single person, but when it is important to your child, I suppose you make the effort . I don't always get it right, but I've been trying.

I thought it was cool to see that Ms. Ramirez noted her pronouns in her letter. She seems like a very compassionate person, as do you.

Again, thank you for explaining this issue so throughly.

kag

pronouns: she/her

[Ms. Toad]

56. You're welcome

I have a large number of trans and nonbinary friends (as well as a high school sweetheart & a "foster" kid). I struggle with they/them, as well. Like you - I try.

[Azathoth]

3. Not for nothing, but including her pronouns in the statement doesn't do much to dispell the idea

that she's a political activist.

[Hekate]

8. Nah, imho it just shows she's a college academic. See above re: intersectionality. nt

[IluvPitties]

10. Not all of us sign like that, even if we understand intersectionality.

[Hekate]

12. I'm sorry -- it just made me feel so damn old reading about intersectionality the first time

Yes, I completely got it, and I thought if I were 50 years younger it would be quite interesting to study. Then I felt very very very old.

[SkipG]

44. Don't feel bad for not knowing about intersectionality,

feel bad about how it reflects the zeitgeist and how some folks cannot understand why "snowflakes" has become a trendy term for liberals.

[IluvPitties]

7. Thanks, Ms. Ramirez.

[Hekate]

9. Thanks for your courage, Debbie Ramirez

[MineralMan]

11. Those senators are the same bullies who laughed before.

they've just gotten older.

[Hekate]

13. Yep

[hughee99]

14. She should file a police report. Nt

[orleans]

23. sure -- we all should have

in a perfect world we might have

[hughee99]

37. I am not talking about what she should have done

In the past, I’m suggesting she should do it now.

[orleans]

55. then i agree--

i hope she does which will allow them to investigate!

[BigmanPigman]

29. I think she still can as well as Dr Ford, Rachel said so during her

show last night. In Maryland she can do it. I forget if it is criminal or civil, but she can do it. I hope they both do !

[hughee99]

35. Yes, all three of the women should. Nt

[BigmanPigman]

40. I know they have been through so much all ready, I want them to do what

they are comfortable with of course, but I sure wish they would. I would do it in a heartbeat...don't get over it, get even ..... GET JUSTICE finally!

[k8conant]

15. Senator Mazie Hirono just read this on the Senate floor.

[orleans]

24. glad to hear that! n/t

[Donkees]

28. Senator @maziehirono reading from the statement of Deborah Ramirez:

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[FakeNoose]

16. 35 years ago, the correct response would have been

... to punch Kavanaugh in the nuts when they were so close to your face.

If you'd done that Ms. Ramirez, Brett Kavanaugh would have never forgotten it, or you. As it is now, he can pretend and laugh the whole thing off because that's what the frat boys always do.

[MontanaMama]

22. Really?

Easy for you to say.

They probably would have gang raped her or beaten her to a pulp and laughed that off too.

[FakeNoose]

26. Don't think so

It happened at a party in front of bunches of people. Besides that Kavanaugh was stumbling drunk.

[MontanaMama]

27. I don't think it is fair

to criticize her for what you think she should have done.

[0rganism]

46. and, iirc, she was nearly paralyzed from drinking a quaalude cocktail

this is not even close an easy-answers situation.

but since we're playing the easy answers game, how about one of those people in the "front of bunches" do some nut punching for once? call out the irresponsibility where it actually is.

[tymorial]

42. I was plied with liquor for 3 hours on my 21st birthday and then blacked out

I woke up with the two men who I thought were my friends. I had no idea how I got into that situation and my first thought was I dont want this but maybe I did at some point and asked for it. It was 22 years ago. I didn't punch them in the nuts, I just let them get it over with but refused anal intercourse (never been into it anyway and certainly wasnt going to there).

A year later I was taking an afternoon nap in my dorm with a female friend. She was my best friend but that was it. There was nothing romantic about our relationship. She knew I was bisexual so she must of thought she could make something happen. I woke up with her hands down my pants. I just pretended to stay asleep hoping she would just stop because I didnt want to embarrass her and create a situation unless it went too far. She did stop thankfully. I never brought it up but I stayed friends with her until we drifted apart after college.

I was raped and assaulted. In both of those instances my first inclination was to not attack. If they were strangers then it may have been different, I dont know. I totally and completely understand why victims do not always fight back... especially when its abuse by someone who is familiar.

[backtoblue]

49. .

MeToo

[tymorial]

52. Thanks.

It took a long time to come to terms with those events and to deal with the fallout. The shame, self loathing and anger. It really digs in deep doesnt it?

[fishwax]

31. There are plenty of people whose behavior merits criticism and second-guessing, both then and now

But the victim isn't one of them.

[tymorial]

43. This.

Always this.

[FakeNoose]

47. I was criticizing Kavanaugh not Ms. Ramirez

[fishwax]

57. That's not how it came off. You said she didn't offer the correct response

And implied that had she registered the "correct response" then our country might have been spared this nonsense.

[obamanut2012]

33. NIce victim blaming

Sorry she wasn't "brave" and edgelord enough for you.

[woundedkarma]

34. You just told everyone who has ever been sexually assaulted that it's their fault. n/t

[calimary]

20. More bravery. Thank you Debbie Ramirez. We believe you.

I believe you.

[DallasNE]

21. I Feel Her Pain And Anguish

Just as I did for those Parkland kids and others in a similar dredful situation. But once again nothing will come of it. That is the power of money and it's sidekick corruption.

[brokephibroke]

30. Amazing how tonne deaf the GOP is

Hopefully we continue to fight the CON even after he is sworn in.

BTW, what was the reference to pronouns in her signature line?

[tymorial]

32. Kavanaugh has effectively slandered these women by stating they are liars

Couldnt they sue him? Ford alone has been mocked by the president and harassed. Those are damages.

[LisaL]

38. You could sue anybody for anything.

Whether you are going to win is another issue.

[tymorial]

41. True but he would be forced to answer questions under oath

If he is proven to have perjured himself then its grounds for bad behavior under rules for impeachment

[reACTIONary]

53. Probably not....

.... he didn't literally say "you lie", he said "i didnt"; I don't think proclaiming one's own inocence could count as defemation.

Dotard 45 ssid "you lie" so there's a suit against him.

[obamanut2012]

36. Some of the replies in this thread show such gender privilege

Snarking about her listing her gender/pronoun preference? Snarking it is only some academic trend and construct?

Such privilege. Educate yourselves, then post an apology.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

39. ....

[SuprstitionAintthWay]

45. One thing that added to Debbie's vulnerability to the predatory privileged bros of Yale,

beyond her gender, age, ethnicity, and naturally trusting and guileless personality, was that she was a "cafeteria girl," needing to work as a term of her financial aid package, and that marked her still further, in addition to everything else, as lower ranking in the socio-economic hierarchy. Made her a safer target.

I remember that shit. I went to a prestigious, expensive (co-ed) prep school... on scholarship. No way could we have paid the full tuition of the place. There was a work requirement to the scholarship, which I was fine with. 1st year it was laundry room duty in the athletic dept: I got to wash and dry the athletic teams' socks jocks uniforms and towels. Again, no biggie. But it did identify me to the worst of the rich assholes: Hey, there's a poor one! And it brought some mockery. That's what Debbie's cafeteria duty did "for" her. Oh, look, Debbie Ramirez has to labor while we do whatever we feel like. She's a poor one! It made her just that much more susceptible than she already was to be singled out, isolated, led into inebriation, and targeted for sexual victimization by Kavanaugh and his pack of rich Deke or "Tits n Clits" Club bros.

That element makes what happened to her then, at Yale, with total impunity, infuriate me that much more.

And now here she is, after showing incredible bravery, dismissed as insignificant once again by a bunch of very wealthy, overprivileged, arrogant, self-interested, and ruthlessly lying males. This time by Trump, Kavanaugh, Don McGahn, Grassley, Mitch McConnell, et al.

And Christopher Wray, the Yale Law School and Federalist Society mate of Kavanaugh, just rolled over for Trump and let it all happen.

I've read that there were 46 pages total, of the 9 or 10 interviews McGahn Grassley and Trump allowed to be conducted, in the FBI report.

And another 1,600 PAGES OF CALLS INTO THE FBI TIPLINE, from people trying to get their reports into the background investigation. But failing, because McGahn-Grassley-and-Trump refused to allow the FBI to follow them up. I assume it will eventually leak if this figure is accurate or not. But the FBI effort fending off people like those wanting support Debbie's statements clearly was extraordinary, whatever the number of un-followed-up-on calls turns out to have been.

It was a shockingly ugly and frighteningly authoritarian week in America.

[YessirAtsaFact]

58. Ramirez was also a Latina

This also made her a target for scumbags like Kav.

Regarding the FBI report, I hope that every news organization in America has submitted and FOIA to see all of it.

Publicizing just how far the pugs went to prevent these details from coming out will be interesting to the American people.

[bucolic_frolic]

48. "We will not be silenced"

What does she mean exactly?

[Donkees]

51. It's a rallying cry of the sexual abuse survivor movement.

[mcar]

50. K&R