49
How many personal stories must women share to
convince others of their humanity?
BY LYZ LENZ
Essay
You cannot see Maria GallaGher at first. all You
hear are her words, spoken quickly, each one sounding as
if it had taken the long way out of her—drenched in the
deepest parts of her rage and pain. What you can see is
the man, Senator Jeff Flake, looking down, looking away,
looking anywhere but at Gallagher.
“I was sexually assaulted, and nobody believed me. I
didn’t tell anyone, and you’re telling all women that they
don’t matter, that they should just stay quiet because if
they tell you what happened to them, you are going to
ignore them,” Gallagher says to Flake, while she stands
outside the elevator and he stands inside.
You can see Gallagher’s head now. “Don’t look away
from me,” she says, desperation in her voice.
Elevators are liminal, in-between places of transition.
This one is stopped by two women, Gallagher and Ana
Maria Archila, as they force a U.S. Senator to hear the truth
about their bodies. I watched the clip, over and over, in
my bedroom. Watching felt like a scream. It felt like all
of us screaming.
The day before, one year ago this September, Flake had
heard the sworn testimony of Christine Blasey Ford, who
accused then Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh
of sexually assaulting her when they were in high school.
Now, confronted with two more stories of assault, Flake
nods but remains largely silent.
A week later, he voted to confirm Kavanaugh to a life-
time appointment on our nation’s highest court.
SHOUTING
INTO THE VOID
PHOTO-ILLUSTRATION BY SEAN MCCABE FOR TIME
