The overturning of Harvey Weinstein’s rape conviction is an affront to women

#MeToo’s real legacy may not be ending predators’ impunity so much as highlighting the tenacity of that impunity

Harvey Weinstein is set to appear in front of a New York judge again next week.

Usually, rape isn’t reported. When it is reported, it is often not charged. And when it is charged, it rarely leads to a conviction. 

These facts shape both our cultural understanding of sexual violence and women’s sense of their own embodied lives, clarifying something many of us already know — that while sexual violence is technically illegal and officially abhorred, it is also tolerated in practice, with actual arrests and convictions being so rare that most sexual violence is de facto decriminalized.