Editorial Critique

The editorial I chose is titled “Make My Sexual Assault Matter” by Mara Gay. Mara is a member of the New York Times editorial board. In her article, she begins by addressing Christine Blasey Ford’s naming of Mark Judge as “an alleged witness and accomplice in her assault” (Gay). She then goes on to relay a few details of her own assault, and how until now, she had never felt the need to recount her story because she thought it was unimportant due to how frequent the occurrence was for women. Finally, she explains her opinion of how she thinks men (specifically the ones in our government) aren’t doing their part to end this or at least fight against it.

Ms. Gay’s target audience is obviously all women, first and foremost, to rally them together and relate to them. Even more specifically, she is reaching out to women who have some sort of connection to sexual assault. However, it’s also written for men to read and hear and contemplate. And finally, it seems like she intends to spread general awareness and for everyone to hear her message and support the cause.

At the core of the article, Ms. Gay’s basic argument is for people, men specifically, to believe women when they tell their sexual assault stories, because currently, not enough people do. Focusing in on the specific situation at hand, she gives several examples of groups or people that she thinks need to take responsibility and do better. Regarding the United States’ government, she includes Congress, U.S. senators, and lawmakers in her list. This points to her next argument that even the U.S. government isn’t doing their part, and that to make any sort of positive progress, the first step is to believe the women but it is not enough to stop there. She thinks that even if you believe the stories, you must also act on that belief. Gay’s deeper argument is that the U.S. government is prioritizing popularity over what morally should be done. The evidence she gives for this is how the senators that say they believe Dr. Blasey are voting or Kavanaugh anyway.

I think this is a successful argument. Although many of my own, previous beliefs lie in Mara Gay’s words, I had never really considered who was responsible or should be held accountable, other than who literally assaulted the victims. It is commonly known that sexual assault happens often and that not a whole lot is being done about the issue, so Gay already has those generally known statistics working in her favor which are a huge backbone in her argument. However, with the way she writes, she also does a good job of being relatable and calling upon many different sets of audiences to have a reason to listen and feel something in support of her arguments.

The political implication in this article is that the U.S. government, is still male-driven. And when it comes to who “wins” in the political process, what should seem to make a difference, unfortunately does not.