She didn’t cry out, make a scene or even tell her friends that night. The “he covered my mouth” part is the feeble lie – the fig leaf so to speak – that allows her and her supporters to claim that her allegation, if something resembling it actually happened, constitutes assault. But it is a transparent fabrication, because she says that she got out and said nothing.

Maybe, and more likely in my view, Kavanaugh rejected her advances, or never noticed her in the first place. Women can and often do concoct fantasies about the objects of their desire ravishing them, and they often sound a lot like this Kavanaugh story. A common theme is that the man uses force, but the force does not rise to the level used in actual rapes. For example, “he took me in his strong arms, and looked into my eyes with a passionate gaze; I felt my ability to resist slipping away as he removed my blouse, I would have cried out to preserve my honor, but he placed his hand over my mouth” instead of “he grabbed me by my throat and threatened to kill me if I made a sound, my eyes were wide open in terror, I tried to scream but he squeezed so hard I couldn’t make a sound and it felt like my eyes would pop out of my head, then after stunning me with a blow to the face, he displayed a knife and told me to shut up and take my clothes off or he’d gut me like a fish.”