Commentary: Why now? Because that's how trauma works. Get over it

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Why now? Why now? Every time a woman comes forward with her story of sexual assault, this is the first question she faces.OK, maybe the second — after some variation of “Are you a lying slut?”At least we are consistent.

But on behalf of all survivors everywhere, of any gender, identity or age, let me give you some blanket answers to “Why now?”Survivors come forward now, whenever now is, because they have reached the point in their recovery when facing the inevitable “lying slut” accusation is less terrible than watching their abuser strut around as if that person is not a dangerous, cruel predator who is almost certainly going to hurt someone else if they are not stopped.Whether it’s in Congress, on a movie set, in the halls of their school — wherever that predator is just living their life without consequence — there is a survivor who has been cowering in the shadows of her own life, in pain, wanting to scream to the world that this person is not what they seem.

But the price of that honesty has always been steep.Too steep.

Even after #MeToo.Ask Cassie Ventura.

Ask Jennifer Siebel Newsom.Ask E.

Jean Carroll.Dolores Huerta.

Simone Biles.California Lonna Drewes alleges Rep.

Eric Swalwell drugged her drink and sexually assaulted her in Beverly Hills in 2018.‘I lost consciousness and I thought I died,’ she says.Even powerful women can’t escape the blowback, the fear.

Even powerful women are steamrolled over and over again by the overwhelming presumption that they are lying, and that there is an ulterior motive for coming forward at this particular moment.Imagine just being an average person holding that secret.

Who are any of us to stand up alone against a rich and powerful man whose very freedom will depend on crushing our credibility? P.Diddy.

Harvey Weinstein.Donald Trump.

César Chávez.Larry Nassar.

Eric Swalwell.Those men know power, and ...