TIME

Christine Blasey Ford’s complicated legacy

Ford is sworn in before testifying on Sept. 27

EVEN IF YOU COUNT THE TIME TELEVISION CAMERAS lingered on her face after she left the packed Senate Judiciary Committee hearing room, Christine Blasey Ford’s appearance on the public stage lasted less than 4½ hours. For any other well-known figure, that would be a blink of an eye. But for Ford, it was long enough to establish herself, for millions, as something of an American hero.

As she described having been sexually assaulted by then Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh when she was 15 years old, protesters in the Capitol scrawled we believe on the palms of their hands. The hashtag #WhyIDidntReport exploded on social media—both a rallying cry for survivors and a rebuke to those who doubted that a woman might wait decades to

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