After Trump's Mockery of Ford, Actor Tatum O'Neal Claims That She Was Sexually Assaulted Since Age 5

Actor Tatum O’Neal, who became the youngest-ever Academy Award winner at age ten, has responded to the flagrant victim-shaming which demonstrably aided the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh this week. On Thursday, she posted a letter on Instagram alleging a series of sexual assaults beginning at age five, “all by older men who I thought were safe”. Writing that it has taken her 55 years to overcome the blame which she endured for her assaults, she says that Trump brought the presidency to a new low by rousing a crowd to laugh at a survivor’s difficulty in recalling her memory of being sexually assaulted as a teen. O’Neal writes:

M O O D!! I am a woman and i have been sexually assaulted more than once !! It was not my fault when i was 5, 6 12 , 13 , 15. – All by older men who i thought were safe ! I rarely have known safety and was always blamed for for the assaults and,my loudness , and curiosity. It’s taken in me almost 55 years to know how to advocate for myself But I learn fast and here I go!! To see the president of US.Mock a woman, let alone a sexual assault victim. We’ve sunk to a depth of depravity that I never thought the president of the United States could ever sink to you. With uproarious laughter for someone who was assaulted at 15 years old. Whether it was 35 years ago to a 75-year-old man at 15 I remember everything !! It’s time to band together. So this time in history is having a lot of negative impact and Activation-for alot of people like me. there are people will say, I had it coming or it was probably my fault. Or I deserved it -that’s what America has come to you now. Together we fight on for the empathy, and kindness towards one another, whatever your preferences are , whether you’re black or white or conservative or liberal we are Americans and we should always fight for people who have had trauma or who have suffered, and never hurt others for whatever reason. I’ve never seen such a dark time in our country . I was too young to remember 68 – but I feel like we’re headed to something much worse -Before gets better. Let’s,lead with love and kindness and empathy Towards one another.But we , victims the victim of sexual Assault,or violence,must NOT put down our armor.It’s time to fight for one another and each other in this dark time ! America We can do better – we will be better!!’

O’Neal is familiar with bullies, namely, her famed father and Paper Moon co-star Ryan O’Neal, whom she claims toted her to 1970s Hollywood parties rife with sex and casual drug use. In her 2004 memoire Paper Life, she wrote:

“I remained Ryan’s companion on the Hollywood party circuit, growing inured to sex and drugs before I was in my teens. A needy little girl, still haunted by neglect, I clung to him and even to the women in his life — Bianca Jagger, Anjelica Huston, Melanie Griffith and many more.”

She claimed she was pulled into an orgy at age 12, was molested by a family acquaintance at age six, and was molested by her father’s drug dealer. She wrote that after her Oscar win for Paper Moon, her father beat her out of jealousy.

In turn, Ryan blamed her for speaking out. When Vanity Fair asked about her allegations in 2009, he told the magazine: “She wrote a book—bitch! How dare she throw our laundry in the street for money!” For the same piece, Tatum told the magazine that she forgave him.

The gold digger attack is ritually lodged against victims (see Cosby trial). Money, too, factored into Christine Blasey Ford’s case when she was questioned at length about who paid for her F.B.I.-administered polygraph test, an insinuation which prompted her lawyers to clarify that they were working pro-bono. When supporters started GoFundMe initiatives to help her cover security costs incurred after she received death threats and had to flee her home, Fox News mouthpiece Laura Ingraham went so far as to speculate that the campaigns could have created a “new incentive” for “accusers,” as though the possibility of money is worth the certainty of security expenditures incurred from being bullied and mocked on television.