Posted on 01/07/2018 10:59:20 AM PST by Kaslin
While the Me Too movement has brought down creepers in various industries, some feminists are feeling that this whole moment could be coming off the hinges. It’s devolved from rooting out legitimate predators via shared stories of sexual harassment to an inquisition-like mentality where some accusations are unproven. No, this is not to marginalize the women who came forward and torched Hollywood heavyweight Harvey Weinstein, Matt Lauer, Mark Halperin, Louis C.K. and Charlie Rose. C.K. admitted to his misdeeds, as did Halperin and Rose. C.K’s latest movie has been shelved, while Rose and Halperin were fired from CBS News and NBC News respectively. Matt Lauer was fired from the Today Show for gross sexual misconduct as well.
Yet, in an op-ed for The New York Times, Daphne Merkin wrote how there are multiple ways the Me Too movement coul fray. She says that we seem to be going back and viewing women as frail “Victorian housewives.” She cited a pair of Manhattan feminists, who tried to remove a Balthus painting of a young girl in a sexually provocative pose. That’s censorship, and luckily the campaign ended in failure. She also noted the lack of due process when it comes to these accusations, the absence of clarity between sexual harassment/assault and “inappropriate conduct,” and the “re-moralization” of sex based on a corporate and legalistic consensus. Merkin added that some of her feminist friends are criticizing some of the recent allegations, telling fellow women to suck it up, asking whether female predators are getting a pass, and lamenting how flirting has become an inappropriate activity:
…privately, I suspect, many of us, including many longstanding feminists, will be rolling our eyes, having had it with the reflexive and unnuanced sense of outrage that has accompanied this cause from its inception, turning a bona fide moment of moral accountability into a series of ad hoc and sometimes unproven accusations.
[…]
The women I know — of all ages — have responded by and large with a mixture of slightly horrified excitement (bordering on titillation) as to who will be the next man accused and overt disbelief.
Publicly, they say the right things, expressing approval and joining in the chorus of voices that applaud the takedown of maleficent characters who prey on vulnerable women in the workplace.
In private it’s a different story. “Grow up, this is real life,” I hear these same feminist friends say. “What ever happened to flirting?” and “What about the women who are the predators?” Some women, including random people I talk to in supermarket lines, have gone so far as to call it an outright witch hunt.
[…]
I think this confusion reflects a deeper ambivalence about how we want and expect people to behave. Expressing sexual interest is inherently messy and, frankly, nonconsensual — one person, typically the man, bites the bullet by expressing interest in the other, typically the woman — whether it happens at work or at a bar. Some are now suggesting that come-ons need to be constricted to a repressive degree. Asking for oral consent before proceeding with a sexual advance seems both innately clumsy and retrograde, like going back to the childhood game of “Mother, May I?” We are witnessing the re-moralization of sex, not via the Judeo-Christian ethos but via a legalistic, corporate consensus.
Stripping sex of eros isn’t the solution. Nor is calling out individual offenders, one by one. We need a broader and more thoroughgoing overhaul, one that begins with the way we bring up our sons and daughters.
These are scary times, for women as well as men. There is an inquisitorial whiff in the air, and my particular fear is that in true American fashion, all subtlety and reflection is being lost. Next we’ll be torching people for the content of their fantasies.
It’s certainly worth a read; a grounded critique about if we’re rushing to judgment, coupled with uncertainty about whether we're on the right path to finding solutions.
p
Well, Carrie Nation supposedly ended up living in a giggling academy.
I’m so tired of hearing about the pound me too movement.
No--It's hurting Democrats much more than Republicans.
In a book entitled, “Mr. Jones, Meet the Master,” there appears a sermon called, “The Keepers of the Springs,” by Dr. Peter Marshall, a former highly-respected chaplain of the U.S. Senate.
Today, we read frequent news stories about female sexual predators who abuse their positions of trust as teachers in America’s public schools by using the children entrusted to them for their own selfish ends. Some of them are, themselves, mothers.
For centuries, societies have recognized the important role of women, especially as mothers, in instilling and training the minds and hearts of their young for citizenship and service.
Could the following excerpt from Dr. Marshall’s sermon help us focus on the seriousness of what has happened in recent decades and of its potential impact on future generations?
“Once upon a time, a certain town grew up at the foot
of a mountain range. It was sheltered in the lee of the
protecting heights, so that the wind that shuddered at the
doors and flung handfuls of sleet against the window panes
was a wind whose fury was spent.
“High up in the hills, a strange and quiet forest dweller took it
upon himself to be the Keeper of the Springs.
“He patrolled the hills and wherever he found a spring, he
cleaned its brown pool of silt and fallen leaves, of mud and
mold and took away from the spring all foreign matter, so that
the water which bubbled up through the sand ran down clean
and cold and pure.
“It leaped sparkling over rocks and dropped joyously in crystal
cascades until, swollen by other streams, it became a river of
life to the busy town.
“Millwheels were whirled by its rush.
Gardens were refreshed by its waters.
Fountains threw it like diamonds into the air.
Swans sailed on its limpid surface
and children laughed as they played on its banks in the
sunshine.
“But the City Council was a group of hardheaded, hard-boiled
business men. They scanned the civic budget and found in it
the salary of a Keeper of the Springs.
“Said the Keeper of the Purse: ‘Why should we pay this romance
ranger? We never see him; he is not necessary to our
town’s work life. If we build a reservoir just above the town,
we can dispense with his services and save his salary.’
“Therefore, the City Council voted to dispense with the un-
necessary cost of a Keeper of the Springs, and to build a
cement reservoir.
“So the Keeper of the Springs no longer visited the brown pools
but watched from the heights while they built the reservoir.
“When it was finished, it soon filled up with water, to be sure,
but the water did not seem to be the same.
It did not seem to be as clean, and a green scum soon befouled
its stagnant surface.
“There were constant troubles with the delicate machinery
of the mills, for it was often clogged with slime, and the
swans found another home above the town.
“At last, an epidemic raged, and the clammy, yellow fingers of
sickness reached into every home in every street and lane.
“The City Council met again. Sorrowfully, it faced the city’s plight, and frankly it acknowledged the mistake of the dismissal of the Keeper of the Springs.
“They sought him out in his hermit hut high in the hills, and
begged him to return to his former joyous labor.
Gladly he agreed, and began once more to make his rounds.
“It was not long until pure water came lilting down under
tunnels of ferns and mosses and to sparkle in the cleansed
reservoir.
“Millwheels turned again as of old.
Stenches disappeared.
Sickness waned
and convalescent children playing in the sun laughed again
because the swans had come back.
“Do not think me fanciful
too imaginative
or too extravagant in my language
when I say that I think women, and particularly of our
mothers, as Keepers of the Springs. The phrase, while poetic,
is true and descriptive.
We feel its warmth ...
its softening influence ...
and however forgetful we have been ...
however much we have taken for granted life’s precious
gifts we are conscious of wistful memories that surge out of
the past —
the sweet
tender
poignant fragrances of love.
“Nothing that has been said
nothing that could be said
or that ever will be said,
would be eloquent enough, expressive enough, or adequate to
make articulate that peculiar emotion we feel to our mothers.
“So I shall make my tribute a plea for Keepers of the Springs,
who will be faithful to their tasks.
“There never has been a time when there was a greater need
for Keepers of the Springs,
or when there were more polluted springs to be cleansed.
If the home fails, the country is doomed. The breakdown of
home life and influence will mark the breakdown of the
nation.
“If the Keepers of the Springs desert their posts or are un-
faithful to their responsibilities the future outlook of this
country is black indeed.
“This generation needs Keepers of the Springs who will be cou-
rageous enough to cleanse the springs that have been polluted.
“It’s not an easy task — nor is it a popular one, but it must be
done for the sake of the children, and the young women of
today must do it.” - From, “The Keepers of the Springs,” Dr. Peter Marshall
“””””””””I’m so tired of hearing about the pound me too movement”””””””””””””””””
What? I sexually abused myself yesterday so I could be part of the #metoo movement. I’m going to rat myself out tomorrow.
I’ll bring the tar and feathers ;)
Yes, witness Roy Moore.
Then almost exclusively it was Leftists...
The Trump attempt a few weeks back fell flatter than a piece of paper.
We’ve all known...since, forever!
I learned everything I needed to know about women during HR management training.
And I never felt comfortable working with them again.
In other words - “We need to put the brakes on this thing before we start hitting the pedophiles”
“...and the ‘re-moralization’ of sex...”
Beavens to Hetsy! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
These women were sexually harassed?
Were the men blind?
Or was this some sort of fantasy?
#MeTooAsLongAsItHurtsAConservative
what they really meant...
It served it’s primary purpose of derailing Roy Moore.
It has outlived its usefulness.
HIT THE BRAKES, HIT THE BRAKES! We’re nailing too many liberals with this movement... (and have barely scratched the surface... Wait for the break outs coming this primary season...)
They should have dubbed it #me!me!
When is Bill Clinton the all-time abuse champion going to be added to this list? For Slick Willy it would be “Me Too” times a 1000!
>>I learned everything I needed to know about women during HR management training. And I never felt comfortable working with them again.<<
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Usually I pass the time at HR training sessions by fantasizing about how I could help by hiring the handicapped.
I would hire a person who is challenged with Tourette Syndrome ... someone who compulsively shouts profanity ... and bring them to the HR training sessions.
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