You too? Misconduct response overwhelms
The subject is now so explosive that it’s become fodder for late-night comedians.
Here’s Jimmy Fallon on the firing of Charlie Rose, a respected news analyst and interviewer: “Yeah, they told him to clear out his desk, put on his pants and leave.”
That, in a nutshell, tells you that the topic of sexual misconduct has finally gotten through to the American public.
Someday, studies of sexism and social justice may focus sharply on Harvey Weinstein for accidentally smashing the barrier of silence.
The Hollywood producer reportedly treated scores of women so badly that many now have spoken out, letting loose a torrent of accusations from women nationwide — all of whom tell stories involving some form of sexual misconduct.
A FEELING persists, though, that most men had no idea how awful and common the problem has been.
A lot of well-meaning men — and yes, also those who have been offensive but didn’t realize it — have been stunned by such a massive response to the now-famous hashtag #MeToo.
Millions of women now have responded to that simple, five-letter call to action, and at last there may be a change in public reaction.
BY NOW, we understand the formula for the worst of sexual misconduct — at least in general terms.
Just this week, a group of 200 women who work in national security published an open letter as a reminder that these misdeeds are not, as they said, limited to Hollywood and Congress.
One critical passage in that letter stated: “These are born of imbalances of power, and environments that permit such practices while silencing and shaming their survivors.”
State Sen. Mary Souza of Coeur d’Alene mentioned that same dynamic as a source of possible problems.
Souza recalled her high school experience of being a page in the Washington Legislature (she grew up in Spokane) and having mentors remind all female pages that they should never go to one particular lawmaker’s office alone.
“Even though I haven’t seen any wrong behavior myself in Boise,” Souza said, “I’m not naïve. When you have young staffers, aides and pages working around legislators, lobbyists and all the other people who are involved in state government, there is the potential for abuse.”
Having said that, Souza also brought up another critical issue: How do you manage to provide due process for men who are accused?
We’ll discuss that side of things in Saturday’s column.
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Steve Cameron is a columnist for The Press. Follow “A Brand New Day” at facebook.com/BrandNewDayCDAPress. Email: scameron@cdapress.com