The women who took down Larry Nassar
As the year ends, I find myself frequently turning to my own experiences in gymnastics, particularly being so proximal to Larry Nassar’s practice. Within the last few weeks, a settlement was reached for the survivors of Larry Nassar’s sexual abuse. At this point in time, there are over 500 women who have come forward about their assault and abuse at the hands of Nassar. For more than 14 years, USA Gymnastics was aware of Larry Nassar’s abuse of young female athletes. Complaints were made at every level—to parents, club, college, and olympic level coaches, and even to the association itself. On every single level, these young athletes were shut down and denied, made to believe they had misconstrued his care for them as abuse. Not only did USAG turn a blind eye to Nassar’s sexual abuse, but through the FBI’s slow response time, they also failed these athletes. This harrowing display of strategic inefficiency, as Sara Ahmed discusses in Complaint! as one of the causes for the long periods of time where complaints receive no response, resulted in the abuse of hundreds more young women at the hands of Nassar. In their non-responsiveness, those in power chose the side of the oppressor and failed these young women.
It was not just those who failed to adequately respond to the complaints at fault. It is all members of the system—particularly coaches, that instill to their gymnasts that abuse (verbal, emotional, and physical) is normal. Abuse is not normal. Harassment is not normal. Whether it be in the sport of gymnastics or in academia, the normalization of violence against women is causing immeasurable harm.
(By Jordan Dopp. Jordan Dopp, from Ann Arbor, Michigan, was a competitive gymnast in her hometown for 14 years.)
(Photo Credit: Glamour / Jason Schmidt)