Summary

When a woman speaks out and impugns a man especially about sexual assault, they are met with skepticism and questions about her right to speak out. Women are seen as “asking for it” or “delusional” or is characterized as a woman scorned. Rush Limbaugh called Sandra Fluke a “slut” for defending a woman’s right to have access to birth control methods. Rachel Carson who wrote Silent Spring which exposed the dangers of DDT and other pesticides was referred to as “too hysterical.” Even Time Magazine called her assertions about unsafe chemicals unfair and one-sided. She was right about the dangers; her exposé led to the banning of DDT and other harmful pesticides and herbicides and ultimately to the founding of the Environmental Protection Administration.

The term hysteria which was Greek for uterus was for centuries a term reserved just...