Recent Posts
Culture March 23, 2017
Now more than 100 former patients of Larry Nassar are in the process of suing over alleged sexual abuse.
Nearly all of them are women, who were college-age or adolescents when this professional creep treated them for back, hip and other injuries. The most common allegation is that his “treatments” involved vaginal and/or anal penetration without consent.
And yet this garbage human tried to argue against claims, saying anything he did was part of treatment. Are you f**king kidding me? But of course, Nassar is a privileged white man in a position of power so that paper-thin excuse worked, most recently forcing a 2014 suit to be dropped.
A former patient had reported a laundry list of claims against Nassar, alleging he “cupped” her butt over her sweatpants, massaged her breast – after asking another doctor who was present to leave – and massaged her “vaginal area under her underwear” despite the patient asking him to stop – oh, and all while being noticeably sexually aroused.
The plaintiff also reported that Nassar was “extremely persistent” in trying to schedule a follow-up appointment, despite protestations. And yet, legal counsel determined that Nassar was not inappropriate, the plaintiff simply “did not understand the ‘nuanced difference’ between sexual assault and appropriate medical procedure.” Riiight.
Abusive doctor Larry Nassar claimed his sexual assault of patients was just part of procedure. Image via Giphy
So that plaintiff’s complaint was dropped. But it was such a shocking situation that Michigan State University probably kept an eye on the creepy doctor then, right? Nope! They merely issued a “written directive” asking him to have a third party in the room during exams “close to a sensitive area.” It wasn’t until two years later, after continuing to ignore that directive – as well as allegedly sexually assaulting patients… – that he was finally fired in 2016.
But of course, the reason wasn’t for sexual misconduct. It was just for “failure to follow directives.” Okay, great. Well, as you could probably guess, almost all of the lawsuits against Nassar also list Michigan State, USA Gymnastics and Twistars (a local gymnastics club) as co-defendants, since it seems pretty clear they chose to ignore red flags about the touchy doctor’s behavior.
And this certainly isn’t new behavior for the former gymnastics doctor, as complaints date all the way back to the Nineties. He’s basically been (allegedly) abusing women for his entire career. How does this keep happening?
Decades-long abuse from men in powerful positions – Jerry Sandusky, Bill Cosby – keep coming to light after years of cover up. In some cases it’s been so long that legally nothing can even be done. And that’s not okay.
It’s easy to see why survivors of abuse would choose to keep quiet. One of Nassar’s victims, Tiffany Thomas Lopez, was made to feel crazy after reporting him. A supervisor in March 2000 somehow saw Nassar’s reputation as a “world-renowned doctor” as more pressing than Lopez’s story of him sexually assaulting her. As a result the athlete eventually stopped playing softball and left Michigan State altogether.
And it’s pretty well-documented that officers struggle to believe women’s claims of abuse and try to pin any culpability on those reporting it. But what about everyone else? Two Penn State officials just admitted they should have report Sandusky sooner. Um, you think?
Until the system stops victim blaming and shaming, everyone else needs to step in to stop these kinds of atrocities. Like Homeland Security says, “If you see something, say something.” Hell, even if you feel something is off – like the doctor asking you to leave in the middle of treatment with a young, female patient – just say something. You could be saving someone’s life.
