In a piece written for the Washington Post, Barbara Bowman who claimed that the comedian raped her asks why the case only gained attention after comedian Hannibal Buress mentioned it.
- Nov 14, 2014
AceShowbiz - A woman who claimed that she was sexually assaulted by Bill Cosby has penned an op-ed for the Washington Post. In the piece, published on Thursday, November 13, the woman named Barbara Bowman shared her account of the alleged assault and asked why the case only gained attention after stand-up comedian Hannibal Buress mentioned it onstage.
"Why wasn't I believed?" she wrote. "Why didn't I get the same reaction of shock and revulsion when I originally reported it? Why was I, a victim of sexual assault, further wronged by victim blaming when I came forward? The women victimized by Bill Cosby have been talking about his crimes for more than a decade. Why didn't our stories go viral?"
According to Bowman, back then Cosby "won my trust as a 17-year-old aspiring actress in 1985, brainwashed me into viewing him as a father figure, and then assaulted me multiple times." Once, she "blacked out after having dinner and one glass of wine at his New York City brownstone, where he had offered to mentor me and discuss the entertainment industry" and woke up in her underwear and a man's shirt. The last assault took place in a hotel room in Atlantic City, she claimed.
Bowman then listed some reporters who wrote her story, but the news articles apparently could not bring people's attention. "Only after a man, Hannibal Buress, called Bill Cosby a rapist in a comedy act last month did the public outcry begin in earnest," she continued. "While I am grateful for the new attention to Cosby's crimes, I must ask my own questions: Why wasn't I believed? Why didn't I get the same reaction of shock and revulsion when I originally reported it? Why didn't our stories go viral?"
In the piece, Bowman also calls for changes to legislation about statute of limitations. "Famous and wealthy perpetrators use their power to shame and silence their victims. It often takes years for young women to overcome those feeling and gain the confidence to come forward (by which point physical evidence is long gone)," she says.
A woman named Andrea Constand first filed a lawsuit against Cosby in 2004, alleging sexual assault. Bowman was asked by Constand's lawyer to testify in the case, but Cosby settled it in 2006. The actor also denied the accusations.
