What started as “locker room” talk between Donald Trump and then “Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush in 2005 has led to shift in discussions regarding sexual assaults.

The tape was released on Oct. 7, only two days before the second presidential debate. During the debate Trump was asked if he had ever sexually assaulted a woman by moderator Anderson Cooper who referenced the Department of Justice’s definition of sexual assault, “Any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient.”

Trump responded that he had not done those things. It would only be days later that women would come forward to The New York Times claiming that Trump was in fact sexually aggressive toward them. Trump has threatened to sue the Times over their article, but this was not the only article the Times released in relation to the tapes.

Another recent piece by The New York Times pointed to Trump as the catalyst for openly discussing sexual assault. In retrospect, it makes sense that something so paramount would change viewpoints of sexual violence. In an unlikely comparison, it parallels gun control discussions after mass shootings. From this offense though comes a new, stronger and more substantiated voice: women.

The responsiveness to this once forbidden topic does not only stem from Trump, but other recent outcries from women across the nation battling to tell their story about misogynistic men who violated women and their rights. From the dozens of women who spoke out against Bill Cosby back in 2014, to the college student who read her open letter during Stanford rape case, women have been intensifying the fight against sexual assault.

These women have realized that they can now tell their stories and will be believed rather than belittled. In a society that once truly believed that sexual violence was a woman’s fault, we are finding that this is not the case anymore and perpetrators famous, or not, are being ousted by the media for their disgusting actions.

The tape does not make Trump heroic for publicizing what was once an undiscussed topic, but more than anything the tape showed that those we look up to, or even seek to vote for, can be perpetrators too and that women should no longer feel scared to speak out.