Dylan Farrow Responds to Woody Allen: 'Distortions and Outright Lies'

[Shivering Jemmy]

48. I support all that

I have been sexually molested myself. Being a nonverbal autistic at the time, telling someone was out of the question. I suppose my abuser must have found me the perfect target. Because telling someone anything was not even something I knew how to do. Once I started speaking,talking about the event was difficult, because talking to my parents about my legos was difficult. Processing and communicating feelings...I still don't really know how to do that.

Because of this, though, I support individuals coming forward about trauma. They should be able to make their claims without any kind of negative repercussion or assumption that they are lying. Communication is hard enough without others making it harder.

Maybe it is simply the way my brain works. But when someone tells me something about themselves, I do not believe it, I do not disbelieve it. It is simply something they have said to me. But I never believe someone is lying. If I am very close to someone I can sometimes move on to belief when I am told something. But that takes a level of intimacy that I can't have with a stranger and certainly not from a person who only exists to me through the media.

I know from my conversations with others that this is not how they process information. I suppose that this can look like indifference to most people. But it's really quite different.