The assault happened when they were alone in Professor Keyes’s office. One minute they were discussing Alice’s career prospects after graduation and the next he was exposing his penis and throwing his heavy body against hers. Alice had fought back: she’d felt disgusted, repulsed. He was an old man! Her professor. What was he doing?
“You’re feisty,” he’d said, after she slapped him. “I like a challenge.” Then he had tried kissing her again. This time, Alice had slammed her laptop against his face and hurried out of his office.
She had filed an official complaint with the university’s administration. From the very beginning, they hadn’t taken her seriously. The questions they asked had been insulting, possibly criminal.
Are you sure that’s what happened?
Thomas Keyes has been teaching here for a very long time, and no one’s ever accused him of anything untoward.
Could you maybe have given him the wrong idea?
But Alice hadn’t been intimidated. The man had attacked her. Twice. And he deserved to pay. She refused to drop the charges, refused to back down. She held on to her principles—for her sake, but also on behalf of all women. And she’d paid handsomely for it.
“I don’t mean to make light of it,” Antoinette says. “I’m supportive of #MeToo, of course. But I also understand what people mean when they say Eva is taking it too far. It was a consensual affair, by her own admission. Even with the power imbalance between them, it’s… controversial.”
Alice disagrees. A controversy suggests the existence of a debate. And there is no real debate. Sure, the scandal is being discussed on social media. But what about in boardrooms? C-suites? Nothing will ever change until men understand that the very behavior they thought was acceptable for so many years is, in fact, predatory and abusive.
It isn’t enough for women to share their stories, to post #MeToo all over their timelines to reveal they’ve suffered sexual harassment or sexual assault in the workplace. Men need to share theirs, too. They need to post #MeToo to indicate they recognize that they’ve committed sexual harassment and sexual assault. The problem is that most men have convinced themselves that they haven’t done anything wrong. They think women were asking for it. Or that times were different. Or that what they did was justifiable because the woman in question got something out of it, too.
“Although I suppose it might be good for your book,” Alice offers. “It’s all over social media. Scandal sells, I imagine.”
“I won’t lie. My publisher has expressed an interest in seeing a proposal about the scandal. Assuming the zeitgeist holds.”
“Interesting,” Alice says. A lot more interesting than a book about small towns.
“Though it might be difficult to get anyone to talk to me. I’m an outsider and if there’s anything I’ve learned about small towns, it’s that they don’t trust outsiders. Especially journalists.”
Alice looks at Antoinette for a moment, her expression neutral. Then, she sets her teacup on the coffee table and leans back on her seat.
“I’ll talk to you.” Alice’s lips curl into a smile.
Sixteen
Zofia
Thursday, September 12th
Dr. Woodward is in a chatty mood today. Their session began twenty-two minutes ago and already he’s asked Zofia eleven questions. That is 1.2 questions per minute when you factor in the thirteen minutes Dr. Woodward spent reading from Zofia’s orange notebook. Dr. Woodward is a fast reader, which Zofia admires but does not appreciate. She would prefer that he take his time reading her entries because that would mean less time for questions. For the most part, Zofia doesn’t answer Dr. Woodward’s questions and Dr. Woodward seems to accept this as a matter of course. When she does reply, she does so by using her expertly sharpened #2 graphite pencil, ideal for writing, but not for sketching. Zofia will then pass Dr. Woodward her blue notebook (the blue notebook is for answers to questions only) and Dr. Woodward will read her answers and hum and then ask her at least one follow-up question. Dr. Woodward has never not asked a follow-up question, not even when all Zofia offered were extremely clear one-word answers, such as yes or no or never. Now, Dr. Woodward is asking about R, which is very upsetting, since Zofia does not like to talk about R. Dr. Woodward is suggesting that Zofia write R’s full name in her blue notebook because naming things fully is an important part of the healing process. Zofia appreciates Dr. Woodward’s good intentions, but she finds it upsetting and more than a little ironic that Dr. Woodward isn’t following his own advice. R is a person, not a thing. Dr. Woodward should’ve said: naming people fully. But Zofia does not point this out because it would take too long to write and also because Dr. Woodward would respond by asking her a follow-up question.
Interview with members of the ASC Party Planning Committee
Holly Morgan; Nancy Simmons; and Abigail Swallow
Holly: I’ll be honest: none of us believed Bobby when he said he didn’t do it. Not that we said as much to poor Gina. We’re not heartless. And I, for one, don’t blame her for standing by him, not one bit. He’s her husband!
Abby: Gina’s not an idiot. She knows he did it.
Holly: Does it matter if Bobby did it? It’s not like the woman accused him of assault, for crying out loud. So he cheated on Gina. I once read that something like 50% of all men have at least one extramarital tryst. Are they all supposed to lose their jobs, too? Men will be excluded from
