I volunteer at a railroad museum. We (males and females, all of us between the ages of 65-75) were talking about this at lunch a few weeks ago. A volunteer put it very simply: “Men can learn to behave themselves at work.” It is just that simple. The workplace isn’t a bar. It is a workplace.
I’d agree that rape is different from “regular” sexual assault or flirting as if you were on the autistic spectrum.
However, no one should have to deal with assault or rape in the workplace.
posted by Josh on
There is quite a bit of blurring the lines between assault and feeling “pressured” to consent.
As Heather McDonald writes in the piece above:
“And yet females are apparently still so beaten down by sexism that the Times’s gender editor Bennett asks rhetorically if females should even be deemed able to consent to sex, since “cultural expectations” make it awkward to say no.”
posted by Jorge on
“>>We are to believe both these powerhouse women, Ms. Streep and Ms. Winfrey, despite their close personal and working relationship for years with an alleged sexual predator, are the only two people in Hollywood who had no idea what was happening. Got it.”
Why can’t close personal and professional friends be in the dark?
If I reflect for months at a time on the character of someone I am close with, I can make reasonable inferences about what their virtues and demons might be. But even if I have direct knowledge that something is probably not right, what I don’t know is powerful. By the time I do know for certain, i am in too deep to disassociate myself.
4 Comments for “Moral Panics”
posted by Tom Scharbach on
I volunteer at a railroad museum. We (males and females, all of us between the ages of 65-75) were talking about this at lunch a few weeks ago. A volunteer put it very simply: “Men can learn to behave themselves at work.” It is just that simple. The workplace isn’t a bar. It is a workplace.
posted by David Bauler on
I’d agree that rape is different from “regular” sexual assault or flirting as if you were on the autistic spectrum.
However, no one should have to deal with assault or rape in the workplace.
posted by Josh on
There is quite a bit of blurring the lines between assault and feeling “pressured” to consent.
As Heather McDonald writes in the piece above:
“And yet females are apparently still so beaten down by sexism that the Times’s gender editor Bennett asks rhetorically if females should even be deemed able to consent to sex, since “cultural expectations” make it awkward to say no.”
posted by Jorge on
“>>We are to believe both these powerhouse women, Ms. Streep and Ms. Winfrey, despite their close personal and working relationship for years with an alleged sexual predator, are the only two people in Hollywood who had no idea what was happening. Got it.”
Why can’t close personal and professional friends be in the dark?
If I reflect for months at a time on the character of someone I am close with, I can make reasonable inferences about what their virtues and demons might be. But even if I have direct knowledge that something is probably not right, what I don’t know is powerful. By the time I do know for certain, i am in too deep to disassociate myself.