This article is extremely ignorant.

You have to consider the emotional effects of trauma and how difficult it is to speak up. Secondary wounding, caused by the people you report to ignoring you, not believing you, etc can be more emotionally traumatic than the original harm itself.

When I was barely 18, I had the dorsal nerve of my clitoris cut in a clitoral hood reduction performed without my consent during a labiaplasty. This happened because of a systemic lack of training standards, a systemic lack of education in anatomy, a systemic lack of responsible privileging. At that time, the distal course of the dorsal nerve had not been published at all in modern literature. I was told I was crazy and that what I said happened could not have happened. My OB/GYN went on to be President of the Texas Medical Association and win more awards.

Unlike McGowan, I decided I would stand up for myself at all costs. To this day, 13 years later, I have received no justice or even official acknowledgement of what happened to me.

If mention his name, people won’t even talk to me about improving their training programs or privileging policies. I simply get stonewalled. It doesn’t even make sense. He denies the clitoral hood reduction despite the fact that I have visible scars proving what he did and it has of course been verified by many doctors. This doesn’t matter.

This continues to happen to others, as to the day, there are no training standards. ACGME and specialty boards of OB/GYN and Plastic Surgery certify that they are qualified to do labiaplasties and clitoral hood reductions despite the fact that they are not trained in residency. Not only that, but they do not know the anatomy involved. The dorsal nerve of the clitoris, put at risk during these procedures, is left out of textbooks, curriculums, and board exams. It is not mentioned in any peer reviewed literature on techniques, which are claimed to be safe and effective. Finally, 13 years later, I’m doing a study at UTSW. The Plastic Surgery department decided its important. The OB/GYN department gives 0 fucks. Surgeons are doing surgeries they are not trained to do on anatomy they do not know. Journalists give 0 fucks. The public gives 0 fucks despite the wide-reaching implications of ignorance about vulvar anatomy.

Most people, upon being told, “No that didn’t happen,” “This is your fault,” “You aren’t dealing with this right,” etc will simply move on and walk away. And it isn’t necessarily wrong. Most people don’t have the ability to live off a trust fund, as I have, while fighting an impossible amount of resistance. Rose McGowan is a successful actress now. Who would she be if she kept fighting? Probably not. Would people have listened to her? Probably not. Could she have prevented harm to other women? Probably not. Would she have compromised her own well being and future? Yes, that much is guaranteed. Would she have worsened any psychological effects of her original rape? Probably. Would she have been more likely to develop PTSD in continued pursuit of justice? Definitely. Maybe she would have spent over a decade fighting these people, only to get nowhere. She probably would have gone batshit crazy.

Instead, she took the money, went on to enjoy her life and be successful. She is better off, by far, than she would have been if she tried to stand up back then. And now she is getting justice anyway. So good for her.

Also, if she had stopped him earlier by pushing harder, which would have been extremely difficult, her actions wouldn’t have been valued in any way. She wouldn’t have gotten credit for protecting the future women he victimized. She wouldn’t have received any financial benefit. Instead, she would have harmed her career. Prevention simply isn’t valued. Consider maybe how many women have tried to stop someone like Harvey Weinstein early on. Do we talk about them? I think in the 90s people were probably calling them sluts and liars.

Rose got 100k at a time in her life when that was probably a ton of money for her. Maybe that was all the justice she needed. It doesn’t sound like she had any power to do anything without destroying her future.