While I was away I viewed from a distance the amazing explosion in stories about Harvey Weinstein. First a trickle and then a flood of stories emerged.
What interests me in the story isn’t the reaction of HRC or Bernie or anyone else in political world. It is the incredible naivete of people. I have worked for two major law firms. Some of the leading partners in those firms had affairs with young staff as a matter of course. They were inherently coercive affairs: my wife came home one night and talked about a partner pressuring her. Where does she go? Does she just tolerate it? She was young: moving to another firm would raise questions about why she wanted to leave.
Polly Townbee writes:
I guess that this week all women my age have been mentally re-running the bum-pinching, grabbing, intimidating humiliations from men in power of our youth. I remember as a gauche and inadequate 22-year-old reporter, that interview with the author Saul Bellow. Bored, bullying, he ordered me to walk ahead of him in the park so he could look at my legs as they were better than my questions. And shamingly, I did. Mordecai Richler, the Canadian novelist, assumed a fixer had set me up for the night with him on his publicity tour in exchange for an interview. He was outraged when I ran off. I never wrote those things into my interviews, as now we would.
I would learn later as a prosecutor that the behavior of the powerful extended fair beyond requests to walk ahead of them. I would try a rape case where the mother, unsure of what to do and scared for her life, would purchase contraceptives for her daughter. A daughter that was being forced to have sex with her father.
Trump boasted of how his wealth and power allowed him to sleep with married women. There are enough allegations for me to believe many of the allegations of harassment.
If Trump leaves earlier, those allegations are far more likely to be the reason than the Russian stuff.
Trump. Bill Clinton. O’Rielly. Ailes. Bellow.
We think these are the exceptions.
Not so much.
In the interests of accuracy, do you have a reference for Trump’s claim that his wealth/power allowed him to sleep with married women? That’s not what he said in that ‘Access Hollywood’ transcript.
In that he claimed to have put the moves on a married woman but struck out. That woman has chosen not to respond to Trump’s claims about her, but did issue a critical statement about women being objectified by Trump.
What he did say was:
A description of sexual assault/battery that he appears to believe is his (and men like him) right based on his stature. Like a secret club. Do men not in the club know about it? Protect, envy, and admire those in it?
The reports about Weinstein now make me less inclined to dismiss Kathleen Wiley and Paula Jones.
Here:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/christians-cringe-at-donald-trumps-sexy-past
Thank you. Odd since that was published in ’97 that Cruz and none of the other so-called ‘family values’ wannebes didn’t make use of that. Yeah, I know the fundies/teabaggers are mostly immune to ‘facts,’ but there was trolling of Cruz’s personal life based on reports of his creepiness. That’s a few degrees off from a man boasting of multiple affairs with married women.
Are the fundies now enjoying the public sparring between the first and third wives?
Who the hell buys such a book? Book publishers can be so proud of the crap they release.
I find myself wondering what percentage of men (particularly middle-aged and older?) in positions of power–the degree of power of an Ailes, Weinstein, Clinton–don’t use that power coercively against young women.
I hate to find myself sorta halfway in agreement with Pence’s weirdly misogynistic ‘never be alone with the Succubi’ but it feels like a serious design flaw, one that is baked into the majority of men at a fairly fundamental level. And it’s not the only flaw. I’m not sure if men are increasingly problematic, but goddamn are we a problem.
Men in prominence do receive disproportionate (and easily confusing) female attention, compared with the majority of men “in quiet desperation”. Design flaws or predatory behavior can be found on both gender sides. Just ask Boris Becker.
2017: Tennis legend Boris Becker is selling his Wimbledon trophies `after racking up £44million in debt’
I think the percentage is pretty high.
Add Jack Welch for example to the list.
Our culture (and most cultures) glorifies men in power getting what they want. A large number of men who achieve great power operate at the edge of the law or cultural norms, but just close enough to the edge to avoid getting in trouble (I’m not including those who just inherit their wealth/power and do nothing). Even worse, many classify these traits under “leadership qualities’. Further, they are often desensitivized due to the significant numbers of women who go for such men knowing fully well that they are jerks (though that doesn’t apply to the Weinstein cases we have heard so far).
I wonder if an analog will hold true for successful women as their numbers grow.
I think this is very right.
Interesting hypothesis. I suspect in time we will find out. In the meantime, I long ago stopped being astounded at how many of my female friends and acquaintances (some personal, some professional) had been sexually harassed or assaulted. Doesn’t seem to matter which profession we focus on when it comes to workplace sexual harassment and assault. Disgusted by a culture that would cultivate that behavior and enable those who perpetrate it? Oh, damn skippy. Astounded? Hardly.
Progressive beliefs are so young on the evolutionary scale, while hierarchical instincts and strategies are still very strong. There is a lot of necessary social BS regarding sex and power. Particularly, most men are supposed to be duped into glorification of own oppression, or into accommodation to own benign, non-controlling status. That is how the civilizations were build and populations carried on. Hypocrisy is fair when it comes to love and war.
Judging from the examples of Thatcher, Merkel, May (and perhaps Chinese history), powerful women will be well-suited for certain destined transitions.
OIG – Dept of Justice INVESTIGATIVE SUMMARY:
Findings of Misconduct by a Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal for Engaging in Sexual Activity Within Government Space, Attempting to Impede the OIG’s Investigation, Making a False Statement to the OIG, and Unauthorized Disclosure of Non-Public Information.
Traded prime USG parking spaces for sex. “Prosecution declined.”