The article explores the level of scrutiny applied to women accusers, the language used to characterize women within the debate, and why women's sexual abuse memories have become the specific and focused target of "false memory" proponents and the media. It compares tactically similar backlash movements against women and feminism. Women have been targeted in memory debates in almost every conceivable way: victims, therapists, mothers, and feminists have all been blamed or held responsible for constructing lies and false memories, and destroying good, honorable men and the family unit they represent. The article claims that memory debates are really debates about women. Naming and acknowledging trauma is essentially a political act; dismissing or minimizing certain types of trauma is undoubtedly political. A real memory debate would include discussion about the recovered traumatic memories of war, of the Holocaust, and of political terrorism. Finally, understanding memory, victims, perpetrators, and abuse prevention and treatment can only come from inquiry that blends scientific empiricism with historical, political, and social contexts. Notes, references