News that Alice Munro’s daughter was left to fend for herself after her stepfather abused her is shocking and sad, but not surprising.
Not only did these hockey players assault this young girl, but they filmed a video without her knowledge, which one of them subsequently rushed downstairs to share with teammates and a coach. A team employee, upon seeing it, told him to delete it. To my knowledge, none of these witnesses reported the incident. They simply erased the evidence.
Society’s minimization of the act itself and the lack of consequences for perpetrators create a culture of silence. Sexual abusers don’t just rely on someone’s complicity, they thrive on it. The complicity sends the message that the sexual abuse is not that important — and that, ultimately, neither is the person being sexually abused.