Joan Tarshis, one of 50+ women who have publicly accused Bill Cosby of rape, discussed some of the consequences of coming forward with her story on A&E’s Cosby: The Women Speak special, which aired earlier tonight.
“A woman drove by just two weeks ago and spit at me and called me ‘liar,’ which really shook me up,” said Tarshis, who came out as a rape survivor last November in The Washington Post. “Nobody likes to be called a liar. Nobody likes to be spit at, especially when you’re not lying. Why would I lie? That’s not how I want my legacy to be.”
Victoria Valentino, another Cosby accuser, verbalized the difficulty of speaking out in the first place as she told her story about Cosby. “He unzipped his fly, had me perform oral sex, then he stood me up, turned me backward, and did me doggstyle, OK?” said Valentino. “And he walked out. And if there is any question about why women don’t report rape it’s because it’s so damn humiliating you don’t ever want to talk about it again.”
Valentino and Tarshis were among the 35 women who shared their stories in an incredible, overwhelming July New York magazine piece called “I’m No Longer Afraid’: 35 Women Tell Their Stories About Being Assaulted by Bill Cosby, and the Culture That Wouldn’t Listen.” Three women who came forward after that piece ran—Charlotte Fox, Eden Tirl, and a woman who goes by the pseudonym Elizabeth—told their stories on The Women Speak. Additionally, Joseph C. Phillips, who played Denise’s husband Lt. Martin Kendall on The Cosby Show, shared his story about initially disbelieving the accusations only to come to believe them when an as yet unnamed friend of his claimed that Cosby raped her. All of their stories are below.