Powerful Male Gropers and Their Overzealous Female Accusers...
I couldn't keep my "mouth shut" on this one...
So, recently, a number of powerful men have been accused of either groping or sexual misconduct by females that seem to have been hiding in the same hole for years or even decades and have suddenly resurrected only to realize that they were sexually assaulted or groped by a powerful man.
The list is so extensive that I will focus on those that are more famous… but for sure the list includes but is not limited to the following…
Al Franken
Donald Trump
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Roy Moore
Harvey Weinstein
Kevin Spacey
Bill Cosby
Bill Clinton
James Toback
Ben Affleck
George H.W. Bush
Kevin Spacey
David Mueller
I have a problem with both sides (i.e., both the accused and their accusers)… WHY? If you’re a powerful man and you know that you did such a thing, then you should come out and admit that it was done in certain context to do damage control and accept that it should not have been done or deny that it was done altogether.
And if you’re an accuser… Come on now? Decades later?
I don’t want to either be accused of being a man siding with other perverted man or of being un-empathetic to women. But, the stories don’t always seem to add up and reflect the following general themes…
He was too powerful…
I did not want to lose my job…
No one would have believed me…
He had brainwashed me…
BLAH BLAH BLAH…
As a man who had been sexually harassed by a boss who was gay before as a young man in New York, I know that the feeling can be perplexing and uncertain, and at least two of the above mentioned themes do make sense.
But decades later?
How will that ultimately change the course of things… Will it induce men to FLIRT LESS, RESPECT WOMEN MORE… or will it induce them to be AFRAID of WOMEN?
R-E-S-P-E-C-T?
The great Arethra Franklin sang about R-E-S-P-E-C-T… and the only problem with RESPECT is that it has to be PROCURED/EARNED.
Women need to establish their standards early. Often, many of these women accept certain behaviors in order to move up the corporate ladder, and years later after they did, they look at these older and much more unattractive men, and can’t believe that they allowed those men to do things to them. I mean, you cannot have your cake and eat it too. Get real ladies... you know that many of you were playing the game and as you were playing it, you also got played in a quid-pro-quo type of arrangement. I was in Corporate America and watched many women climb the corporate ladder faster than their best performing males. No one is stupid. While many women move up or ascend on their merits. There is a plethora of women out there who moved up because a powerful man wanted to flirt with them or better yet GROPE them from time to time when he is stressed.
What is my point?
The culpability is not only on the side of the men. Yes, there are innocent victims, but there are also somewhat culpable victims too.
These women are acting like they are all saints. I don’t believe them personally. While some of them are, many of them knew exactly what they were getting themselves into.
MONICA LEWINSKY should have been their first role model… At least she did not wait forever to say something…
The longer these women wait to speak up, the less evidence will remain, and of those that remain their authenticity and credibility will be at stake.
No one wins… many men will lose their careers and reputation after working so hard to earn them, and many women will be portrayed as helpless victims or gold-diggers who couldn’t do anything to self-protect.
Men should respect women, and women should also respect themselves… Certain behaviors use to be TOLERATED… if we now need to establish a new status quo, then it should be established in a better way. I don’t like the way these men are RIPPED APART by these WOMEN. It is not nice, and it is TOO RUTHLESS!
But men should learn a lesson… they are never too powerful to watch their reputation tarnished, even if it is at the end of their lives when they should be cementing their reputation and really be honored for their work.
We are all better than that… we should be!
Dr. Pete Lorins is the Chief Editor of LorinsPOST.com. This article was sponsored by LORINS.biz, a multi-industry consulting firm that provides the following types of services… Management of Law Firms, Medical Clinics, Businesses...Project Management, Sales, Marketing, & Leads Generation...Research & Engineering... It can be reached via www.LORINS.biz
