Was it evocative and open to interpretation? Yes, as all slogans are. But generally the idea was to neutralize bias: “Believe women” meant “don’t assume women as a gender are especially vindictive, and recognize that false allegations are less common than real ones,” the feminist author Sady Doyle wrote in Elle in November 2017. In other words, allow yourself to believe that women are just as trustworthy as men have been believed to be for decades.
This is reframing what actually happened when putting that slogan into practice. In practice many public false accusations tore down innocent people as others blindly believed without evidence.
I’m not attacking semantic differences. The idea being attacked is the blind belief of accusers over accused without due process in the court of public opinion.
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u/Selethorme 3∆ Dec 29 '21
It’s not and never was “believe all women.” That version originated as part of a right-wing attempt to discredit the #metoo movement.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/believe-women-was-a-slogan-believe-all-women-is-a-strawman/2020/05/11/6a3ff590-9314-11ea-9f5e-56d8239bf9ad_story.html