Trump’s intimidation tactics risk confirming the worst fears of many survivors, who often don’t report their attacks for fear of retaliation. The Republican nominee rejects the allegations of sexual assault he faces, but has gone far past denial as he pursues retribution. He has made clear that women who accuse him of assault can expect a public counterattack as he and his campaign attempt to discredit their stories. As my colleague Adrienne LaFrance put it, Trump’s message is clear: “Speak out and you will regret it.”

The sexual assault allegations surrounding Trump are just that—allegations. But Trump’s efforts to retaliate against his accusers, and the unserious way he and his allies have discussed sexual assault, threaten to leave a harmful impression that alleged victims are worthy of dismissal if they cannot immediately prove their claims.

The fact that Trump is a major U.S. political party’s presidential nominee could complicate survivors’ experiences further. “If you have experienced sexual assault and have family members who support Trump, you might be fearful that you wouldn’t be believed, especially if you see them disbelieving these other women,” Anna Voremberg, the managing director of End Rape on Campus, said in an interview. “This isn’t about who you support for president, but now there are women wearing shirts that say things like ‘Trump can grab my pussy,’” she said, referring to Trump’s comments on the recently surfaced 2005 recording. “That’s a huge setback for anti-sexual violence efforts, and survivors in general. If you want to give consent, go ahead—but what that’s actually saying is it’s okay for a powerful white man to violate the bodies of women he perceives to be weaker than him.”

The entire controversy threatens the efforts of anti-sexual assault advocates to combat rape culture—a term coined in the 1970s to describe the myriad ways society tolerates sexual violence as normal and to be expected, blaming victims while failing to hold abusers accountable. Trump and his supporters have worked to downplay the 2005 tape, in which he claimed he didn’t “wait” for women’s consent before grabbing or kissing them. His wife, Melania, dismissed the comments as “boy talk” during an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Monday, noting: “I know how some men talk and that’s how I saw it.” The casual way Trump bragged about forcing himself on women without their consent, and the way his defenders have brushed it aside as simply the way men talk, perpetuates rape culture and trivializes sexual assault.

Yet if critics rush to condemn Trump without acknowledging that rape culture operates on a continuum—and that casual jokes and flippant comments can contribute to an environment that rationalizes sexual assault—that could also send a damaging message. For example, that only a certain kind of person is capable of committing sexual assault: “It’s harmful to believe that only evil people commit sexual assault,” Domitrz said. “The problem is if people believe that—and they believe that the people around them aren’t evil—then if it happens to them, they may end up blaming themselves, and the assailants may not be held accountable. … It could also lead people to disassociate what we’ve seen in the allegations against Trump, and his remarks, from their own behaviors that can led sexual violence.”