800: Jane Doe
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A quick warning, there are curse words that are unbeeper in today's episode of the show. If you prefer a beeped version, you can find that at our website, thisamericanlife.org. Some things in your life you decide you're never going to talk about. For Jules, it was what a youth pastor did to her, long ago when she was a teenager in Texas. Just tried to put it aside, tried to move on. But then, me too happened. And so many more women were putting men who assaulted or harassed them. And Matt Lauer had been on the front cover of the USA Today, and I thought, "Oh my goodness. It inspired me so much that that very day I wrote to my abuser who was now a pastor at a megachurch." He never responded. So she wrote a blog post about it thinking, "You know, maybe a hundred people would see it." But that was not the moment we were in. It became international news. And because of me too, there were consequences that would have been unimaginable just a year before. The former youth pastor resigned from his job at the megachurch. They could change for Jules too. All of a sudden, lots of women were calling her for advice, and I had to handle what they were going through. And she found a lot of meaning in those conversations. She set up a nonprofit that funds therapy for women who have been sexually assaulted. There were aftershocks from her #MeToo moment that she never could have guessed. Like, they were three daughters. There was this conversation a year or two after she came forward. One of them said, "Mommy, why do you have to be a survivor?" And that just broke my heart. And how old was she when she said that? Probably about six or seven. And they had to explain, "Sweetheart, I didn't choose for this to happen. I didn't choose to be a survivor. All my girls have seen me in tears over the years because of all this." And they also know that it takes up a lot of time. All right, because she sees you counseling other people and talking to people about it. Right. So I'll say, "Hold on, honey, I'm on the phone with a survivor. I've got a advocacy meeting at one o'clock or whatever." And so they see it as taking time away from them. But they also see the emotional toll it can take. Five years after the #MeToo explosion, some powerful and well-known men lost their jobs few went to prison. There were 20 states passed laws to make workplaces safer. Some changed statutes of limitations. Some people have more time to report sexual harassment and assault. That change, by the way, is why Eaching Carroll was able to sue former President Trump recently. Lots of employers adopted new HR policies and introduced more trainings. It was a bump in reporting for a while. But you know, we haven't heard that much about how this had played out in the lives
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