President Joe Biden took a rhetorical turn down the dark alleys of the internet during a White House speech on Wednesday about the Violence Against Women Act when he spoke of people who took a “revealing photo” just to be blackmailed or humiliated when she fell into the hands. posted on the web.
He championed the provisions of the re-enacted Violence Against Women Act, which he had a hand in creating in 1994.
He talked about establishing “a new civil rights cause of action for those whose intimate images were shown on the public screen” and then went into detail about how it works, telling an audience of lawmakers and women who have benefited from the law that how compromising images can be used online.
“How many times have you heard – I bet everyone knows someone somewhere like this – that in an intimate relationship, a guy takes a revealing photo of his naked friend or someone else in a compromising position and then literally sends blackmail or humiliate that a person – sends it out, puts it on the Internet, ”he said.
“Now we are giving survivors real resources against abuse. Former partners and stalkers who seek to humiliate and offend them,” he added.
According to the National Association of Attorneys General, in 2016, 2 percent of Americans reported being victims of pornography without consent. By 2017, this figure had jumped to 12 percent among those aged 18-29. A 2019 study showed a 400% increase compared to 2016.
“Overall, these statistics show that the number of victims continues to rise at an alarming rate, although both the legal system and society as a whole are trying to solve this problem,” the association said in a statement.
Biden’s comments came during a speech in the East Room of the White House, where he sometimes pounded on the podium and sometimes lowered his voice to a whisper to describe the trauma people endure in abusive relationships.
“I bet everyone knows someone somewhere on the line – what happened in an intimate relationship was that a guy took a revealing photo of his friend naked… in a compromising position” and this is used to blackmail or humiliate the person. , President Biden said at an event marking the re-approval of the Violence Against Women Act.
Biden also said that “literally, the most frequently asked questions during the first three years of the act” that he was asked were, “Well, why are you so into this? Was your mother a victim of domestic violence? Or your wife? Were they… were they victims? I swear to God. That was the most common question I was asked,” he said.
But he said it wasn’t some form of family trauma that drew him to it.
“And I would say, ‘No, that’s not the answer.’ I was brought up by a meek, decent man who taught all his children – and I say this from the bottom of my heart – Lisa, you know that; you knew my father. My dad would say that the greatest sin anyone can commit is abuse of power, and the mortal sin for a man is raising a hand against a woman or a child.”
President Joe Biden shares a moment with Katie Sherlock (left), whose daughter Kayden was killed by her biological father during a court-ordered unsupervised weekend visit following an event to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act in the East. The White House Room on March 16, 2022 in Washington DC.
Biden helped write the original bill in 1994 while he was a senator on Capitol Hill. He held an event to seek reauthorization of a law that helps protect women from violence.
Biden said it’s time to change culture, not just US law, to stop violence against women, noting expanded protections for victims of sexual assault and domestic violence.
A day earlier, Biden signed a spending bill that included an update to the Violence Against Women Act that also provides more resources and training for law enforcement, among other things.
Every month, an average of 70 women are shot dead by an intimate partner in the United States, according to a new report that claims that intimate partner violence and gun violence in the US are inextricably linked.
Stay-at-home orders linked to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic appear to have contributed to the spike in domestic violence, experts say.
“Change the culture, not just the law,” Biden said at a White House event attended by advocates, survivors of violence and lawmakers.
“In fact, not so long ago, this country did not want to talk about violence against women, let alone the fact that this is a national epidemic that the government had to fight. As a society, we literally looked away.”
Biden said the law would now do more for survivors in rural areas and low-income communities. For example, tribal courts will now be able to exercise jurisdiction over non-native perpetrators of sexual harassment and sex trafficking, he said.
As a senator, Biden helped draft the bill, which was originally signed into law in 1994. It expired under then President Donald Trump in 2019.
In 2018, the United States was named the only Western country among the 10 most dangerous countries for women in a Foundation survey of global experts after the #MeToo campaign sparked a flood of complaints of sexual harassment and assault.