Last week, the newspapers were flooded with the news that Donald Trump has been accused of sexual assault by several women. When Trump supporters reacted on social media, adopting the hashtag #NextFakeTrumpVictim and questioning why the women didn’t come forward sooner, a counter hashtag returned.
#WhyWomenDontReport is a hashtag that crops up when high-profile sexual assault allegations are made.
Now, actor and feminist activist Rose McGowan has joined the conversation – taking to Twitter to explain why she herself never reported her own rape by a Hollywood executive.
McGowan says that she never took a case against her attacker because, when she sought legal advice, she was told by a lawyer that a conviction would be difficult since she’d performed sex scenes in previous films.
The tweets are not the first time McGowan has referenced the attack, telling Buzzfeed in 2015:
“It’s happened to me. It alters the course of your life; it’s altered the course of my life.”
The tweets come shortly after McGowan appeared in an anti-Trump video premiered online, in which she lists some of the numerous misogynistic comments made by the Republican Presidential nominee.
Lady Gaga has also spoken in support of the hashtag, explaining that reporting her rape was, for her, like “re-living it all over again.”
The news comes not long after the controversial acquittal of footballer, Ched Evans.
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