The Sexual Harassment Purge Trials of 2017 - ?

The very serious and likely criminal allegations against producer Harvey Weinstein have opened the floodgates for all sorts of sexual harassment charges in Hollywood, the media and politics. The charges range from child molestation in the case of Senate Candidate Roy Moore to groping in the case of Senator Al Franken. But given the mob mentality and the media firestorm most of the charges are being conflated.

However there are real differences and they range from what I would call petty infractions (boorish behavior) all the way up to felony rape. I am afraid that over the near term the very real distinctions are not going to matter. Thus the near innocent will be punished along with the really guilty.

In the case of the Congress, hypocrisy reigns; no surprise here. Pro-choice Democrats shouldn’t get a pass because they line up on the feminist side issues. If they do it would be akin the middle age practice of the Catholic Church where indulgences were sold to the highest bidder. Similarly conservative Republicans shouldn’t get a pass because they vote for tax cuts and support right leaning judges.  Simply put, sexual predators know no party labels.

Indeed my guess is that once we find out, and we will find out, where the $15 million paid out by Congress to settle employee disputes went, heads will really roll. Further it is my educated guess that both Speaker Paul Ryan and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi were informed. Both of them know where the bodies are buried.   What will happen to them? Instead of passing bipartisan legislation we are now witnessing a bipartisan scandal. All the while the head “pussy grabber” is still the president.

My fear is that a short run unintended consequence of the enveloping scandals is that many men will become reluctant to mentor women. As a professor, a leader in a mentoring program and as a managing director I have had the occasions to mentor many women who have gone on to do great things. However with the temperature rising the simple solution for too many men might be to adopt the Mike Pence and Orthodox Jewish rule of never being alone with a woman not their wife. As a result the mentoring of women by men would likely decline. That would hardly be a consequence that even most feminists would desire.