Photo credit: Georgetown Preparatory School Yearbook 1983 year; (R) Andrew Harnik/Pool via Bloomberg.
Brett Kavanaugh sat before the Senate committee last week, his open weeping punctuated by moments of white, hot anger and petulance directed at Democrats for "unleashing" the ordeal in which he currently finds himself involved. That being the accusations of rape and sexual assault he is said to have committed in high school. The effects of which, he says, have destroyed his family and will keep him from working—and potentially even "coaching sports"—ever again.
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But that yearbook is an artifact of a time before he held a gavel, when partying and drinking were, in fact, such a regular occurrence they required a calendar to keep track of the ragers; where it is possible to see traces of a culture where the degradation of women was enabled by the insular nature of private schools and the advantages that come with wealth and being a white male that afforded these boys protection. What's found in those 35-year-old pages functions as an unsettling reminder that high school can be the time in a young man’s life where he discovers his power as a predator.While studies have found that gender dynamics are instilled since birth, and understanding of consent, power, and bodily autonomy can and should begin to be inculcated soon after, high school is where sexual abuse and the misogynistic, sexist power structures that reinforce it seem to blossom ; predatory boys come of age, and the world around them often provides an environment for their unsettling behavior to flourish.RAINN reports that women ages 16-19 are four times more likely than the general population to be victims of rape, attempted rape, or sexual assault. More specifically, according to the US Department of Justice’s National Sex Offender Public Website (NSOPW), approximately one in five female high school students report being physically and/or sexually abused by someone they’re dating. A study funded by the Department of Justice reports that only 16 percent of victims of rape come forward to the authorities, and that victims of drug-facilitated or incapacitated rape are less likely to report their assault for a variety of reasons, including not wanting others to find out about the rape, fear of retaliation, and uncertainty about "whether a crime was committed or harm was intended."
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While Renate Schroeder, now Schroeder Dolphin, initially signed a letter in support of Kavanaugh, she later discovered the inscription and provided a statement to the Times: “I don’t know what ‘Renate Alumnus’ actually means. I can’t begin to comprehend what goes through the minds of 17-year-old boys who write such things, but the insinuation is horrible, hurtful and simply untrue. I pray their daughters are never treated this way.”Schroeder Dolphin’s discovery of this demeaning ridicule that enveloped her in high school and is now hounding her decades later speaks to the conversations boys are encouraged to have among their cohort, and how that talk presents a challenge for them to see women as equals or even human, especially because it's been socialized as something that's part of being a boy.
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As the information he gave in his testimony comes back to haunt him now that it's been found that he either misrepresented the truth or was incorrect in his account of the facts, it's unclear how long he can play chicken with authorities and the public at large. Republican voters don't seem to care; Brett Kavanaugh is still that high school boy that can yell, cry, and defiantly evade questioning simply because he doesn't like that he has to be questioned at all. But his bros are still rallying behind him and the White House is only now allowing the FBI to interview whomever is necessary in their investigation, only after it was reported that there had been interference. Republicans are working to protect him, because in doing so they are ultimately protecting themselves.What we could grow to understand from this behavior, if anything, is the damage that occurs when predatory action is empowered by privilege, and perhaps one day, how we can stop it. Can men who have been socialized to dehumanize and harm women change? Is it possible to grow out of patterns of predatoriness? Some say yes. Even so, the power a male abuser holds is able to flourish from his teenage years into adulthood because it is fiercely protected at the cost of women. Even as Kavanaugh sits under the glaring gaze of media entities, government agencies, and public at large, the “Renate Alumni” lives on because our society works to ensure it does.Sign up for our newsletter to get the best of VICE delivered to your inbox daily.Follow Alex Zaragoza on Twitter .