The drip, drip of revelations of sexual harassment and abuse in the entertainment industry and politics has turned into a torrent and may turn into a monsoon. Reaction, particularly of the sort intended to do damage control has taken a variety of different forms, from denial to indifference.
Denial
Probably the most famous example of denial in recent American political history was a response to a charge of sexual misconduct: “I did not have sex with that woman…Ms. Lewinsky.” Nearly all of those accused from Harvey Weinstein to Charlie Rose have denied any wrongdoing as their immediate reaction to allegations.
The complication in all of these denials is that some of those accused may actually be innocent of wrongdoing. Some are so obviously guilty I don’t know why they bother.
Times Have Changed
One of the most common reactions to the allegations is that “times have changed”. I think that’s actually a form of deflection.
I don’t think that times have changed that much. Harassment and abuse were thought to be wrong 40 years ago, 10 years ago, and they’re thought to be wrong now. What’s different is people, mostly women, coming forward. That may be because times have changed or that circumstances have changed. I hope it’s the former but I fear it’s the latter.
Maybe I’m particularly scrupulous but I do not ever recall dating a coworker, someone who worked for a customer or someone who worked for a vendor or even attempting to. It has been considered risky behavior for as long as I can recall.
Special Pleading
“Special pleading” means drawing distinctions where none exist, to justify (or condemn) someone. IMO the most egregious example of special pleading has been Roy Moore’s statements to the effect that he’s never dated anybody without their mothers knowing about it. That doesn’t make any difference. The conduct is still abusive by virtue of his age, position, prominence, etc.
Deflection
Deflection is taking so many forms in this matter it’s hard to keep track. As noted above “times have changed” is a form of deflection.
But so are “everybody does”, “all men do it”, and “it’s a problem with men”. Maybe I’m mistaken but I think that all of the revelations to date have been in entertainment (or infotainment, part of the same thing) and politics. IMO the profile of risk and reward and the prevalence of risk-taking behavior in those areas are distinctive. Maybe the problem is a lot broader but we should keep our attention on the wrongdoers actually accused rather than casting a wider net.
Indifference
There are many forms of indifference as well, ranging from “it’s just sex” to “who cares?” to “we need his vote to enact tax reform”. All of these say that the speaker has a hierarchy of values and that sexual misconduct just doesn’t fall high enough in the hierarchy to count. IMO no one should need to engage in sexual behavior to keep his or her job.
I have filed this post under a category of which you may not be aware: “O tempora o mores“, Cicero’s ancient plaint “Alas for the times and the manners”.