SEX AND POWERFUL MEN

Do you get the impression that we have entered a new age?  It seems like the days are gone when powerful men , ah, "ask" women for favors to achieve something.

Think of what has gone on even this year.  There has been the ascension of a sexual predator to the Presidency,* Bill Cosby, the male Venture Capital sex scandal,** the sex scandals at Fox News (esp. Roger Ailes and Bill O'Reilly),*** the Harvey Weinstein sex scandal**** and we are only in October.  Of course these are only the most lurid cases, and there are many others.   We are only seeing the tip of the iceberg.In the past, there are also our presidents like Roosevelt who had a mistress while he was president, plus womanizers who have "IT" like Kennedy, and, of course, Bill Clinton.  We didn't know about Roosevelt and Kennedy until after they were dead.

One of scandal of note is the anti-abortion Repub. congressman Tim Murphy case who urged his mistress to get an abortion (http://nypost.com/2017/10/05/anti-abortion-congressman-caught-in-sex-scandal-wont-seek-reelection/).  This is more funny than anything because there is no indication the mistress was forced to be a mistress.

The idea is going around that that men knowing to be womanizers should have their political donations returned.  What they don't seem to realize is that most large political donations by men would have to be returned.

Some men run scared of being accused of a sexual harassment (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/09/upshot/as-sexual-harassment-scandals-spook-men-it-can-backfire-for-women.html).  I know because when I was in a stage of my career and was the first- or second-line supervisor of 120 to 140 people (depending on the number of temps), I ran scared.  I used to have my administrative assistant (a woman) in the office when I was interviewing or having to discipline a woman employee.  As it was three times in five years I was accused of sex discrimination (but not harassment).  I managed to survive these.  Of a different note, I was accused of "gross misuse of trust" by the safety officer for not shown monthly safety movies to my employees.  This was right after I had received the Safety Manager Of The Year Award!  I won't go into the details because this is a side issue of this post, but I began to feel like big Julie, the guy in Guys and Dolls, who said he was a law abiding citizen, "... as has been proved by my record: Thirty-three arrests and no convictions!."

Sexual harassment is something I never approved of  because in my youth I had a very tight moral code; still, I can think of incidents where I might have been accused of sexual harassment.  I write some more about this in my piece "Some Men Have It, Most Don't" (http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2016/10/some-men-have-it-most-dont.html).  Women never seemed to have any qualms about telling me to get lost.  But then I not only did not have ""IT" but was not a powerful man.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump_sexual_misconduct_allegations
** https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2017/06/30/venture-capital-sexual-harassment-scandal/103336512/
*** http://www.newsweek.com/new-allegations-emerge-heres-rundown-fox-news-sex-and-harassment-scandals-646950
**** https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/08/harvey-weinstein-fired-by-weinstein-company-board.html