Written by Robyn Bluhm of MSU with input from, and speaking for, the other MSU-affiliated IJFAB folks: two Editors of the International Journal of Feminist Bioethics (Jamie Nelson and Hilde Lindemann) and the Editor of the IJFAB Blog (Alison Reiheld).
IJFAB is currently hosted at Michigan State University (MSU). Three of the Journal’s editors and the editor of the blog have close connections with the university (one Professor Emerita, two current faculty members, and one Ph.D. alumna). We therefore feel that we should comment on recently disclosed events at the university. Many readers will already be aware that hundreds of children and young women were sexually abused by Larry Nassar, a doctor affiliated with MSU as a faculty member who practiced at MSU’s sports medicine clinic. Nassar used his authority as a physician to molest his patients while telling them that his actions were a medical treatment.
Larry Nassar alone is responsible for his actions. However, the responsibility for the creation of the institutional systems, professional regulations, and social structures that enabled his crimes is widespread. MSU is currently under investigation to determine the extent to which Nassar’s crimes were known by his colleagues and by university administration. There is some evidence that complaints were made about his behavior dating back over 20 years.
A person whose face is not visible holds a sign, which occupies most of the image. Written on it in big black marker is “Nassar Enablers. WE’RE COMING FOR YOU.” A chiron at the bottom says “Hundreds of MSU Students Rally to Support Nassar Abuse Survivors” and bears the logo of a local Detroit, MI TV news station.
IMAGE CREDIT: wxyz.com
Bioethics, frankly, has little to tell us about Nassar’s actions; we don’t need ethical analysis to tell us that what he did was horrible beyond words. But bioethics, and feminist bioethics in particular, may help us to understand how he was enabled to do so. For example, it has been suggested that
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In addition to our tendency not to believe, or even to blame, victims of sexual assault, Audrey Yap has argued that sexual predators like Nassar may be accorded a “credibility excess.” This means that they experience more credibility than they should (and more than their accusers), especially when they don’t fit the stereotype of someone who would commit sexual assault. Nassar’s status as a physician also helps to explain how he was able to continue to abuse so many girls, for so long.*
One bright spot in this whole awful story can be found in the courage of the “army of women” who took the opportunity to confront Nassar during his sentencing hearings. Their bravery has also inspired the MSU community to confront the broader problem of sexual assault on campus and to demand change. As University groups begin to respond to recent events and to organize events to educate people and to show support for survivors, we hope that this is the beginning of real changes to campus culture and to the university’s institutional structure. The survivors deserve to have this legacy.
Most campuses have a rock, though for each one it is The Rock. MSU’s Rock regularly bears messages from students. In this photo, social work students transform the message on the campus rock from “Time’s Up” and “Change Lou Anna” (calling for an end to protecting abusers and the resignation of now-former MSU President Lou Anna K Simon) to “Thank You” with a list of the girls and women who stepped up to voice the crimes of former MSU sports doctor Larry Nassar. IMAGE CREDIT: Woodtv.com
*In many states, sentencing guidelines allow Prosecutors to request–and Judges to grant–harsher sentences in cases where the perpetrator used a position of trust to increase their access to victims. This was true in the Nassar case, and in a recent Illinois case where the IJFAB Blog Editor was present for the sentencing phase.
