A survivors’ rights activist who was featured in a photo with former Vice President Joe Biden at the 2016 Oscars that went viral penned an op-ed in the Washington Post on Thursday, saying Biden needs to have a reckoning for his past “paternalistic behavior.”
Sofie Karasek wrote that she used to like the photo of herself and Biden — he’s holding her hands and their foreheads are touching — because it going viral helped the family of an Alabama college student, who died by suicide after she was raped, seek justice. While in the moment, she said she felt “taken aback” and said the intimacy was “unwelcome,” she said she once had it framed in her room until people began commenting that it looked like he was going to kiss her.
As time passed she said the photo brought about a sense of “shame and belittlement” even though she thinks the gesture may have been well-intended as a paternalistic or comforting act. But that “paternalistic behavior was another form of the sexism that for years he worked to oppose,” she said.
Read Karasek’s op-ed here.
Udder cowflop
This shit is going to drive me crazy.
(Short trip, I know)
Grandfather exhibits paternalistic behavior! Shocking film at 11:00!!!
Communication is a two-way street. When someone comes into my personal space and makes me feel uncomfortable, I either move myself away, position my body at an angle to them, or if unable to do either, I tell them to please give me space.
I haven’t seen any of these women write that they did or said anything to let him know that he made them feel uncomfortable, or that they even took non-verbal action to indicate that.
At a certain point, people are responsible to speak up about what they do/don’t want in life. Some people are huggers and all touchy-feely. Some people aren’t.
ETA: and if you framed the picture and hung it up, no takes-backsies later to say that it was a horrifically traumatic event.
Hit job. This daily drip drip drip is being planned somewhere, by someone.