With the release of the movie adaptation of the novel “It Ends With Us” in 2024, a controversy between the main star, Blake Lively, and the director, Justin Baldoni, arose after Lively accused Baldoni of sexual harassment. As more and more evidence comes to light, some people are convinced that Lively is not being truthful while others say that we should always believe women who claim they have been harassed.
Even if Lively’s accusations turn out to false, that should not lead anyone to begin to doubt other women who have stepped forward about sexual abuse. False accusations of sexual harassment from women are harmful and undermine real victims, even if it is from someone of a high social status.
The rate of false sexual assault allegations are much lower than most people think. A range of different studies show that only 5% of allegations are actually proven false. This means when people think women are lying, though not always, there is a good chance they were being truthful. The image that women lie about sexual assault leads many women to stay silent about their abuse, rather than getting justice for herself.
When a false accusation is proven right, it leads people, mainly men, to think they can now accuse other women of lying. This is extremely harmful to the victims who gathered the courage to speak up about their abuse. One in four women in America will experience sexual assault at some point in their life, however, less than 5% are actually reported. In Lively’s situation, critics were quick to accuse her of lying when other women on the set of “It Ends With Us” also accused Baldoni of making them uncomfortable.
Televised and sensationalized assault cases have only added to this harmful view of the validity of sexual assault accusations. Much like the Lively and Baldoni controversy, the Depp v. Heard court case is one that sparked these same ideas. Amber Heard, Johnny Depp’s ex-wife, lost a case accusing Depp of domestic violence. Losing this case cost the women’s movement a huge blow, and led to the victimization of “falsely accused men”, who may not have even been falsely accused in the first place.
A large portion of people online claim that Baldoni would not commit this crime due to his affinity towards women’s rights and opposition to toxic masculinity since he co-hosts “The Man Enough Podcast”. The idea that men who supposedly care about women’s equality cannot commit assault against women is a harmful one. Anything can be said online and just because Baldoni seemingly denounces violence against women does not mean he is not capable of it. In addition to that, evidence has been shown proving that Baldoni has done some kind of set up to make Lively look bad.
A way we can combat this issue is the continuation of the #MeToo movement. The #MeToo movement is a campaign against rape culture and encourages women who have experienced assault to step up. Though not every accusation is true, most of them are, and we need to continue to believe women that claim they’ve been assaulted.
We should not be quick to believe that women are lying in sexual assault cases, specifically ones that are popularized through celebrities. Just because someone seems likable and supportive of women, does not mean they are allowed to get away from an accusation scott free.
