ESPYS
Nassar Victims To Receive Arthur Ashe Award For Courage
Tonight at the ESPYS, the victims of Larry Nassar will receive the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage. These women showed incredible bravery in coming forward to speak out against the abuse they suffered at the hands of someone who was meant to be helping them. Larry Nassar was the national medical coordinator for USA Gymnastics. He also had a practice in East Lansing and was involved on campus at Michigan State University. He used all these platforms to abuse young girls in his care. Under the guise of providing them legitimate medical treatment, Nassar sexually abused more than 265 girls. That is the number of them who came forward. There are doubtless many more who did not come forward. Because they showed such incredible bravery, these women are being honoured tonight.
Dismantling Rape Culture
In current society, people are working hard to dismantle rape culture. People are working hard to stop victim-blaming, and to bring justice to women who have been victims of sexual assault. This is proving to be a very long and difficult process. Therefore, women who come forward with accusations of assault rarely receive support, let alone justice. It takes a great deal of bravery to step forward and declare yourself a victim. It takes even more incredible bravery to not allow yourself to be treated as a victim, but to demand that you be treated as a human. Rachael Denhollander, the woman who first came forward and accused Nassar, showed such bravery. The women who stood with her showed the same bravery. Larissa Boyce, who reported Nassar to MSU in 1997, showed exceptional bravery. These are some of the women who will be honored tonight, and they deserve it.
According to the reports of those who came forward, Nassar had been abusing young girls since 1997. Additionally, this is the first recorded incident from the trials. After all the sentences, Nassar’s earliest release date will be March 23, 2069. He would be 105.
Written by Susannah Schmidt
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