Carrie,

Thanks for writing this.

This story goes back...as in decades but it bears repeating.

So in 1968, the brother, (call him Kent) of my younger sister's best friend, had a consensual tryst at a party with someone else's girlfriend on a Saturday night.

They were both 18.

Problem was that at least three 'friends' saw them both go in and come out of the bedroom together.

This of course got back to her boyfriend.

To cover herself, the girlfriend told her absent boyfriend on the Sunday that she had been raped by Kent.

A few days later, Kent is lured to a nearby park.

There he is 'jumped' by the boyfriend and two of his friends. Kent loses all of his lower and upper front teeth, has his jaw and skull fractured and is so severely concussed that he is hospitalized for a week.

His jaw is wired shut for a month.

Shortly after, the truth came out, many of my friends, and hers if not the couples', shared their witness to the flirting that had taken place before Kent and the young woman's barely concealed entrance to and exit from the bedroom. And to the amount of hugging and hand holding that followed.

Eventually, especially after Kent's beating, her accusations of rape were recanted. No apologies. No flowers to the hospital. Nada...but the stigma for Kent as rapist remained.

Fitted with dental plates, his smile, like him, was never fully repaired.

And Kent never pressed charges against the boyfriend or the young woman.

Kent did not return to high school nor did he graduate.

Four short years later, he drove into a freeway abutment just outside Chilliwack BC at over 120 mph.

Sorry, but false charges did and do exist.

And here's another:

How about Brian Banks, after being falsely accused of rape by classmate Wanetta Gibson, and the six years of his life spent behind bars? See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Banks_(American_football)

The point is that in order to make sure that false claims also come to light, the full extent of the law should be laid at the feet of those who, while making these claims, destroy lives, and as you have eloquently stated, delegitimize the very all too real suffering of those who have been assaulted.

And here's some suggestions: that the #timesup and #metoo and #webelieve movements pay the legal bills for those men who had to suffer to get their names cleared.

And make damn sure that twitter hears about it.

As well, they should also use their considerable power to lobby our lawmakers, and prosecutors, to demand that those people who make false claims be charged.

And at the very least demand that those who make false accusations face their victims, atone and be allowed to seek redemption.

You know, so that reconciliation can take place, something that the #mania does not even consider.

Wouldn't that help return the term egalitarian let alone critical thinking to new wave feminism?