Busy Philipps Shares Sexual Assault Story to Support Dr. Christine Blasey Ford During Her Senate Hearing

From Cosmopolitan

During Dr. Christine Blasey Ford's testimony in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday, many women on social media came forward to share their own stories to support her. One of them was the actress Busy Philipps, who posted a photo of herself at age 14 on Instagram.

She wrote in the caption: "#tbt This is me at 14. The age I was raped. It's taken me 25 years to say those words. I wrote about it in my book. I finally told my parents and sister about it 4 months ago. Today is the day we are silent no more. All of us. I'm scared to post this. I can't imagine what Dr. Ford is feeling right now."

Philipps's book, This Will Only Hurt a Little, which comes out on October 16, details the assault, which she writes happened in the back of a car at a playground when she was in high school. She described that she and the boy were in the back of his car when he shoved himself inside her, and that she tried to object by saying "I don't think this is gonna work." He continued. After the assault, she was bleeding from her vagina and scratches on her back.

She later convinced herself that she had wanted the incident to happen.

"Obviously, I know now how ridiculous it was to think that, but I was fourteen, insecure, and painfully inexperienced. Also, I couldn't change what happened. Or how it happened. All I could control was how I decided I felt about it and him," she wrote.

The hearing has inspired other women to come forward and share their stories across social media, as has been the case earlier this week with the #WhyIDidntReport hashtag. One woman called into C-SPAN during the hearing to disclose her sexual assault on the air.

“I’m a 76-year-old woman who was sexually molested in second grade. This brings back so much pain,” she said on the call. “Thought I was over it but it’s not. You will never forget it. You get confused and you don’t understand it but you never forget what happened to you.”

Dr. Ford opened her statement by explaining that she spoke in front of the committee not because she wanted to, but because she had to.

“I am here today not because I want to be: I am terrified," she said. "I am here because I believe it is my civic duty to tell you what happened to me while Brett Kavanaugh and I were in high school."

Dr. Ford's portion of the hearing lasted four hours. You can watch a clip of it below, and you can read her opening statement in full here.

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