Sex Will Win
This is not to disparage the growing scandal of men using their roles of power to sexually harass female subordinates.
Males of every species, whether they walk on two feet, four legs, or soar on wings, are sexual predators. That is what keeps populations young and growing.
The predations, however, can and do get out of control. Then you have rape by brutal force or work force intimidation. The only difference between the two is that there may be more physical injury with the forceful type.
What is newsworthy of this roll out of power based harassment is how long it had been known and covered up.
The millions of dollars—our taxpayers’ dollars—paid out in hush money is the real scandal. This is a classic case of fraternity brothers banding together, closing their eyes, and using someone else's money to protect a brother.
Even more unbelievable than the cover-ups is the assertion that there is no record of how many claims of this type have been paid and who were the ones being protected. There is a very good, but unprintable, exclamation in response to this weak denial.
There is only one answer to this cover-up. There has to be a detailed audit or investigation of the funds used to usher the victims off the stage. Every dollar paid out and for whom it was paid has to be identified. Then the guilty party should reimburse the treasury for every penny of the hush money.
The humiliation resulting from the public disclosures and closing the slush fund of hush money might stop this kind of conduct for a while. Whenever and wherever this is a daily mix of the same males and females, however, there are going to be incidents and claims of misconduct.
The current hubbub also does not address the other side of the problem. Females are sexual aggressors also.
Anyone who thinks the attractive woman who comes to work every day dressed in tight and low cut blouses with mini skirts is just trying to make her counterparts in slacks envious is pretty naive. They are, instead, wearing flashing signs for their male colleagues to look but don’t touch.
For some men, that is a form of sexual harassment. Even a pat on the shoulder for a job well done could be misconstrued.
And God forbid a pat on the butt like professional athletes do to each other for plays well done.
Some women actually go further than provocatively dressing. I know from personal experience.
Early in this 65 year old marriage I had the wives of three friends and neighbors come on strong to me. These are not figments of my imagination, and my wife is well aware of the encounters. In each case, there was a clear invitation by actions, not words, to “Let’s go find a room away from our spouses and have some fun.”
Those encounters differ from the allegations currently floating around various men in the spotlight only by the absence of a superior/subordinate relation.
More recently, our son who is an officer in a major national coporation, experienced a more serious relationship. Because of some observable overtures from a female subordinate, he found it necessary to insure others were present whenever he had to be in her presence.
The head of every, well almost every, female reading this is shaking with violent NO! NOs! Their thoughts are that nothing like the four instances of female aggression mentioned here could have ever happened. They might be surprised if they got some of their spouses, family members, or friends to be frank with them on this subject.
So here’s the perspective.
The most serious part of the drama now unfolding on the male/female stage is the atmosphere that condoned this conduct by making it difficult to complain and then buying off the victims with public funds.
Unfortunately, eliminating that policy of sweeping the problem under the rug with hush money will, in the long run, have minimal effect on the practice.
Sex will win in the end.
enough
