Sexual abuse: Physical and collateral damage

This three-part article deals with the recent headlines about well-known men who have been accused of sexually abusing or harassing adult women, and in some cases, children.

For those males who have been confirmed as abusers, what can an ordinary person make of them? It is incomprehensible to the normal human. Yet it seems to be a rather common occurrence.

Recently, women are taking up the cause of sexual abuse of females. It is a movement that is overdue and the number of alleged abusers who are coming out of the woodwork is astounding; Bill Cosby, Kevin Spacey, and Charlie Rose, to name only three.

Bill Cosby was found guilty recently of drugging women in order to have sex with them. If this accusation had been made by only one woman, one might be skeptical. But it was made independently by several women. His actions surprised me. I asked myself: Why would a handsome, personable rich man need to drug women in order to have sex with them? The answer is that he did not have to go to these extremes. He could (almost) have his pick of sexual partners.

Cosby and I were young single men when we were living in the 1970s. The pill was out. Willing partners were there for both sexes to enjoy. Women, as well as men, were sexually liberated by the pill.

This fact still holds true. Then why are so many cases of male sexual abuse or harassment of females making the headlines? I do not have the expertise to answer this question, but I will venture a guess. It comes from the DNA of both sexes and centuries of assertion of the males’ testosterone. It comes from the long history of males assuming the dominant role in the male-female relationship; to stay on top of the pecking order.

Without making excuses for my gender’s sexual predator-like behavior, which was part of surviving in those distant times, it also comes (at least recently in our evolution) from the fixation of many western cultures on the desirability of the female body, all the while ignoring the fact that the female may have the same proclivity to desire an attractive male. But that latter approach does not sell TV ads on a Sunday afternoon. Remember the movie The Outlaw (1943)? Jane Russell posed seductively in a haystack, skirt pulled-up, without a bra, as shown in the figure (thank you Wikipedia). These scenes were criticized by some, semi-censored by others. The result for the film makers and Jane? Dollars poured in.

However, during those times, we did not see a movie with Gary Cooper posed in his Jockey briefs on a haystack.

With a few exceptions, we still do not see the male body advertised as a sex object in relation to the female. As one example among hundreds, the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders are wrapped in undisguised sexually evocative clothing. They do not have a male counterpart. Our culture has been built for men to revere and desire the female body beyond — and I emphasize beyond — what is built into a man’s genome.

Some readers will criticize me for trying to dismiss the behavior of the recently revealed male sexual predators as being little more than Darwinian-ordained behavior or spurred on by the media.

Those assertions are partially true. But to claim there is no reason for the sexual predator behavior of these men is intellectually vacuous. In order to get to the root of the problem, we must address the reality of those roots. That is what I am attempting to do in these articles. I look forward to your comments.

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Uyless Black is an author, researcher and frequent Press analyst and commentator. He and his wife, Holly, reside in Hayden.