#TheEmptyChair & NY Mag Prompt Sexual Assault Discussion

By Elana Goodwin on July 31, 2015

This week’s issue of New York Magazine featured a black and white cover of 35 women sitting in chairs facing the camera and an empty chair, which led to the hashtag #TheEmptyChair that quickly spread across social media.

Those 35 women are just some of the women who have accused Bill Cosby of sexual assault and the empty chair symbolizes the other 11 women that we know of who have also accused Cosby of assault but who weren’t photographed for the magazine issue.

Photo Credit: nymag.com

Cosby’s accusers cite incidents of sexual assault spanning several decades going back to the 1960s. But a recurring theme in many of the women’s accounts of their assaults is the sad truth that they felt ashamed and feared no one would believe them so they kept silent.

The first public accusation leveled against Cosby came in 2005, when former Temple University employee Andrea Constand claimed Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her at his home in 2004. In November 2006, Constand filed a civil suit against Cosby, with 13 women toting similar allegations prepared to serve as Jane Doe witnesses for Constand. But Constand and Cosby ended up settling out of court so the 13 women never got the chance to act as witnesses.

Aspiring actress Barbara Bowman, one of the Jane Doe witnesses, had her story and allegations about Cosby written up in People Magazine in December 2006. She said she kept quiet about it happening and continued to be mentored by Cosby because “Who’s gonna believe this? He was a powerful man. He was like the president.”

That was almost 10 years ago and after those accusations and the settled suit, the world went on, pretending Cosby was still the beloved sweater-wearing squeaky-clean comedian that Americans fell in love with on “The Cosby Show.”

It was only in October 2014 that Cosby’s name started being linked to rape accusations again thanks to stand-up comedian Hannibal Buress. In a Philadelphia show, Buress called Bill Cosby a rapist in his set and somebody filmed Buress, put the clip up online, and it went viral, bringing Cosby’s past allegations back into focus.

In her interview with New York Magazine, former playboy bunny Victoria Valentino, who Cosby allegedly drugged and assaulted in 1969, said “A woman can be not believed for 30 years. But it takes one man? To make a joke about it?”

And while that’s an unfortunate truth, Buress’s act did prompt the world to take a hard look at Cosby and started the American icon’s downfall.

Photo Credit: wo-magazine.com

Besides finally telling the stories of many of Cosby’s accusers, the New York Magazine also unintentionally spurred a social media hashtag which spread like wildfire after the issue came out earlier this week. On the cover of the magazine in the bottom row, an empty chair sits (which is where #TheEmptyChair comes from).

And beyond representing those 11 non-photographed Cosby accusers, the empty chair also represents countless other women who have been victims of sexual assault and who have never come forward or reported it.

According to statistics, in the U.S., someone is sexually assaulted every 107 seconds, and yet more than half of all rapes are never reported. This problem is also prevalent on college campuses as most statistics on the issue estimate that 1 in 5 female students are sexually assaulted during their four years at school.

Journalist Elon James White was the first to use the hashtag #TheEmptyChair on Twitter and soon after he used it, many were using #TheEmptyChair to further conversation about sexual assault. After his tweet, White received hundreds of Twitter DMs, emails, and other testimonial communications from survivors which he immediately began publishing.

Since Sunday night, when the story was published, #TheEmptyChair has been used about 30,000 times in Tweets (according to Twitter Analytics site topsy.com). Users have posted their own sexual assault and rape stories, commented on the powerful cover, tweeted encouragement to survivors, and generally discussed sexual assault using the #TheEmptyChair tag.

It’s great that there is finally discussion happening about sexual assault and Cosby’s accusers are being recognized and legitimized by the world as brave survivors, but it’s clear from the conversation on Twitter using #TheEmptyChair that there is still much progress to be made.

Because until rape culture and male entitlement have been eradicated from our society, there will continue to be innumerable women who belong in the empty chair.

You can read the New York Magazine article in its entirety on their Tumblr page here.

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