On Oct. 6, America showed that it didn’t care about sexual assault survivors. With most senators voting along party lines, Judge Brett Kavanaugh was voted into the Supreme Court. Of course, this was after Dr. Christine Blasey Ford came forward with her allegations of sexual assault, none of which seemed to have mattered to the 50 senators.

Kavanaugh’s conduct at the Senate hearings was completely unprofessional, which alone should’ve halted the confirmation process, but the fact that there wasn’t a complete and thorough investigation of the accusations was awful. Rather than investigate claims that were very valid, senators preferred to further their political agenda.

It’s appalling that now a third of the men on the Supreme Court have had accusations of sexual assault levied against them. But there they are, on the highest court in the land, like nothing happened.

So why do I say that America doesn’t care about sexual assault survivors?

Let’s look at the president. Aside from the many gross things he says on a daily basis, Trump has said many lewd and disgusting things about women, even before he was president. Voters didn’t care about that. Before the 2016 elections, a tape came out where Trump and “Today” reporter Billy Bush were saying very rude things about women, more or less boasting about sexual assault. A “Today” show host dealt with more repercussions (he was fired) over that tape than the president of the United States ever has. Not to mention, sexual assault allegations came out against Trump. Again, people didn’t care and voted him in any way.

Something to add on the never-ending list of the awful things the president does is that Trump mocked Dr. Ford. The president of the United States mocked a sexual assault victim. That alone is ridiculous.

He also said that Dr. Ford was a hoax fabricated by Democrats to stop the confirmation hearings. Let’s ignore the fact that Dr. Ford showed tremendous nerve in speaking in front of Congress and the nation and that her life was uprooted by her coming forward, but furthermore, only about two percent of sexual assault allegations are false. There is a much bigger percentage of sexual assault survivors who don’t report it (about 60 percent). Of all the incidents reported, only 18 percent lead to an arrest and only about one percent go to jail. That alone is a huge reason why many survivors don’t come forward.

We can also add the fact that by coming forward, they relive their assault over and over and many times they’re not believed unless they have a bunch of eyewitnesses and a ton of DNA samples.

A question that was brought up during the confirmation trials was, “Why did she wait so long to come forward?” What many assault survivors do is try to forget about the experience instead of dealing with the overwhelming tide that would come against her if she reported it. However, if you hear that someone who assaulted you is about to be confirmed to the highest court in the land, you would want the public to know exactly what type of person that judge is.

There is now a new movement called #MenToo. It claims that men are not safe anymore because women are running rampant, accusing every man of rape, and that men should be scared. The whole movement is designed to undermine sexual assault victims. The one thing the movement did get right is that men should be scared. The only reason men shouldn’t be scared is if they didn’t sexually assault or rape anyone (which, hint, is a majority of men).

A tweet that gained a lot of attention said, “If you have a son, make sure you buy him a notepad, a body camera, & a recording device. Get him a battery pack too so he can always protect himself with video evidence of every single encounter he has with a woman. Men aren’t safe in America anymore. There is a war on men.” Wouldn’t it be easier to teach your “sons” to not rape or assault anyone? It would be a lot easier and cheaper than buying all the equipment. The #MenToo movement should be a way to bring light to male sexual assault survivors.

Overall, we all need to do better when it comes to rape and sexual assault victims. For starters, let’s not give rapists and assailants high government positions. Let’s not ask questions like “What was she wearing?” or “How much did she have to drink?” Let’s take more time to investigate claims and let’s teach people about consent and how wrong it is when you violate that.