On the 27th of September 2018, Christine Blasey Ford, a Professor at Palo Alto University, appeared in front of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to testify against Brett Kavanaugh, who was at the time a nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, for sexually assaulting her at a high school party they both attended thirty-six years earlier.

Visibly shaken, she went on to describe how Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed, groped her, removed her clothes, and covered her mouth as she tried to scream: “It was hard for me to breathe,” she told the Committee, “and I thought that Brett was going to accidentally kill me.”

Not long after, Kavanaugh submitted a letter to the Committee calling her testimony nothing but a “smear” and affirming that he would “not be intimidated into withdrawing from the process”. Despite public outrage towards this trial, Kavanagh was still confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court by a narrow victory of 50 – 48, and President Trump was quick to offer his sympathy: “What they put him through – the Democrats – over the last few weeks, it’s horrible. If you look at what he’s had to endure – horrible. False – statements. It doesn’t get any worse. But the beautiful thing is he is now in, and he’s going to be there for a long time.”

The interesting thing about this case is that both sides claim to be the victim: Mrs. Ford claims she is a victim of sexual assault, while Mr. Kavanaugh claims he is a victim of a defamatory smear campaign. But are these claims to victimhood equally valid? And how can we adjudicate between the two to determine who the real victim is?

Hamza King sits down with Lilie Chouliaraki to discuss these questions. Lilie is a Professor of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and author of Wronged: The Weaponization of Victimhood (2024).

➡️ London School of Economics and Political Science: https://www.lse.ac.uk/people/lilie-chouliaraki

➡️ Wronged: The Weaponisation of Victimhood (2024): https://cup.columbia.edu/book/wronged/9780231550239/

#philosophy #podcast #ethics

0:00 - Introduction

2:27 - What got you interested in victimhood?

6:01 - Why did you decide to write this book?

7:04 - How has victimhood been understood throughout history?

11:10 - How is victimhood portrayed in the film Forrest Gump?

17:18 - Did reverse victimhood play a role in the overturning of Roe vs. Wade in June 2022?

21:40 - What is the difference between vulnerability can victimhood?

28:25 - How can we evaluate the legitimacy of claims to victimhood?

33:03 - Who is the real victim: Christine Blasey Ford or Brett Kavanaugh?

37:40 - Outro