Hey, Women's March, Her Name Is Tara Reade, Say It
Not once did Women's March mention Tara Reade directly in their official statement.
In an official statement, Women's March — which seeks to empower a diverse array of women to "create transformative change" — spoke on the sexual assault allegations made by Tara Reade about Joe Biden in the early '90s.
However, they forgot one key thing in their statement. Her name.
Not once did Women's March mention Tara Reade directly. This is interesting given they supported a massive social campaign entitled Say Her Name, using "...the hashtag on their Twitter in recognizing transgender women of color killed in 2017," according to Wikipedia.
Although saying her name was created for those who have lost their lives to police brutality, the message it's passing is important: saying her name creates visibility. And, although Reade's name is becoming more well known due to the national attention the allegations are getting, it still says something that Women's March did not mention her name in their official statement. Instead, opting to tag it at the bottom of the page.
Similarly to what they said of Vice President Biden, that he "...has a responsibility to model what it looks like to believe women," Women's March has a responsibility to align their statements with the core set of their beliefs.
And that means saying her name. So, really, why didn't they say her name?
Their statement, while calling on Joe Biden to take action — actions he's seemingly already taking — isn't really saying much in the way of opinion and is certainly not backing the accuser specifically, opting to approach this from the lens of all sexual assault victims instead of where the focus rests, on Tara Reade's allegations.
Activists and organizations like Women's March find themselves between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, Biden is going to battle for the presidency against Donald Trump, someone who also has a host of sexual assault allegations. And on the other hand, Biden could be an assaulter as well.
Tara Reade has received criticism in the media for these allegations and differing recollections of the story among other things. However, one thing that organizations like Women's March was founded on was believing women and uplifting their stories.
Women's March had a chance to lend a hand in uplifting Reade's name in a way few other activists and organizations could. So why didn't they?
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