The "Alleged" Rapes

Jovial dad and everybody’s favorite pudding pop apparently admitted in a suppressed deposition that he got drugs to use in having sex with women.

Cue the shock—not. At what point do we get to take the word “allegedly” out of these rapes?

Although the last of the Bill Cosby supporters are quietly stepping back now, I have to ask why once again it took the man’s sworn word to get people to finally believe sexual assault occurred?

The first courageous woman to make the accusation against the icon was dismissed because, sadly, there are cases when a woman will fling “rape” as leverage for hush money. But I doubt this happens as often as people think.

Ask a woman in your life. Does she know anyone who has been raped? And, by that, I mean forced to have sex against her will even by someone she knows.

Now ask a woman—heck, ask several women—whether they know anyone who has lied about being raped? And by that, I mean lied about having been raped, not lied about a rape that wasn’t really a rape.

I don’t know the women you’re going to ask, but I’m betting I know their responses. Because rape happens, but reporting doesn’t necessarily happen.

So bravo to that first woman who accused Bill Cosby. And to the second woman. And the third. And on to number 42.

It's hard to believe that there were people who still doubted the truth until the deposition came to light. But they didn’t know the accusers. And they thought they knew the man with whom they visited on TV every week for years.

Sadly, a woman accusing a well-liked man—actor, athlete, politician—still needs that man’s word to confirm that she really was raped.