12-06-2017, 11:03 PM
*** 7-Dec-17 World View -- International #MeToo movement generates backlash against women from 'Mike Pence rule'
This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
****
**** Time Magazine makes international #MeToo movement 'person of the year'
****
![[Image: g171206b.jpg]](http://Media.GenerationalDynamics.com/ww2010/g171206b.jpg)
Time Magazine's funereal cover: Person of the Year 2017: the #MeToo Silence Breakers
The #MeToo movement has gone international. In the US Congress and
businesses, people are being forced out of office by anonymous sources
and kangaroo courts. In Europe, Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf has
warned men to start listening to women, after tens of thousands of
Swedish women have shared their stories under the #MeToo hashtag.
Female MEPs are talking about their experiences in the European
Parliament, and are openly displaying "#MeToo" placards at their
desks.
The #MeToo hashtag has also spread to China. In China, the state-run
media was forced to retract an article that said that sexual
harassment was a Western problem, but "Chinese men are taught to be
protective of their women. Behaving inappropriately toward women,
including harassing them sexually, contradicts every Chinese
traditional value and custom." The article was taken down after a
furious reaction by women on social media. Women in factory positions
are frequently abused, and Chinese police don't investigate domestic
violence complaints, claiming that it's a family matter.
Time Magazine has now made it official. What Time used to call "Man
of the Year" is now the "Person of the Year," and the winner this year
is "The Silence Breakers," the female movie stars who broke their
silence and openly accused powerful men who harassed and sometimes
abused them.
According to Time, this has been a long time coming:
<QUOTE>"This reckoning appears to have sprung up
overnight. But it has actually been simmering for years, decades,
centuries. Women have had it with bosses and co-workers who not
only cross boundaries but don't even seem to know that boundaries
exist. They've had it with the fear of retaliation, of being
blackballed, of being fired from a job they can't afford to
lose. They've had it with the code of going along to get
along. They've had it with men who use their power to take what
they want from women. These silence breakers have started a
revolution of refusal, gathering strength by the day, and in the
past two months alone, their collective anger has spurred
immediate and shocking results: nearly every day, CEOs have been
fired, moguls toppled, icons disgraced. In some cases, criminal
charges have been brought."<END QUOTE>
And there's no end in sight. Any man who said or did something
to a woman even decades ago that she finds offensive can now
be accused and judged by a kangaroo court to be guilty.
What are the rules? Can a man flirt? Can a man ask a woman he works
with out on a date? Can a man tell a woman that she looks good today?
Can a man have a sexy picture of his wife on his desk? Can a fireman
read Playboy in the firehouse? In the circus atmosphere of today's
he-said/she-said world, any interaction between a man and a woman can
be turned into an accusation of sexual harassment.
Female BBC news anchor Katty Kay says that a backlash is already
developing:
<QUOTE>"The next fear is that men will get so nervous that
they're going to be accused of harassment that they will simply
stop hiring, meeting or socializing with female colleagues. There
are reports this is already happening. We will get shut out of the
room where important decisions are made because men fear our
presence? How ironic would that be?"<END QUOTE>
As more and more men are forced to face sexual harassment accusations
in the current circus atmosphere, it's pretty safe to say that the
circus can't last, and that this will pass in a few months.
This will be a big relief to everyone, especially women, who are going
to be facing an increasing backlash, the longer that this continues.
Time Magazine and Politico (EU) and The Local (Sweden) and BBC and Guardian (London, 17-Oct)
****
**** The 'Mike Pence rule' shows how the #MeToo backlash will hurt women
****
People are talking about the current sexual harassment circus as
if this is the first time that anything like this ever happened.
Actually, exactly the same thing happened in the 1990s, and the
backlash that women felt in the 1990s tells us a great deal
about the backlash that women are going to be facing today.
At the beginning of the decade, feminists attacked Clarence Thomas
because he had asked Anita Hill out on a date a decade earlier. At
the end of the decades, feminists fought bitterly to protect Bill
Clinton from seven or more women who credibly accused Clinton of
violent forcible rape while he was governor of Arkansas. The entire
decade was a circus.
The decade was a disaster for women. The relations between men and
women in the workplace were extremely toxic, as was reported by
many commentators.
I spent much of the 1990s decade doing research for a book on gender
issues called Fraternizing with the Enemy - A book on gender issues
for men and for women who care about men. I researched the whole
range of gender issues - divorce, domestic violence, rape, teen
motherhood, sexual harassment, child abuse, incest, including detailed
discussions of the Clarence Thomas and Bill Clinton issues. The book
was based on thousands of interviews and online conversations, as well
as extensive research into such things as "feminist legal theory" and
"feminist social theory."
The book is available as a free PDF, on my download page, http://generationaldynamics.com/download/.
During my research, I spoke to many men who considered talking to any
woman in the workplace to be a career risk. Several men told me
stories of making some innocent remark and being charged with
harassment.
Earlier this year, it emerged that Vice President Mike Pence had a
policy of never having lunch alone with any woman except his wife, or
of drinking alcohol unless his wife was by his side. Since Pence is
an evangelical Christian, the mainstream media mocked this as some
sort of religious rite. Maybe religion was part of it, but many men
who were in the workplace in the 1990s feel the same way. Mike
Pence's policy is what I've heard many men describe.
This toxic relationship between men and women in the workplace is
growing again today. NBC News quotes labor attorney Nestor Barrero as
saying that "many people" have already asked him if they should take
"the Mike Pence approach." He advises against it, but this and other
anecdotal evidence indicates that the 1990s are repeating themselves
in that men would rather work with men and not with women, because
working with women is too great a career risk.
Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook, says that sexual harassment is a
serious problem, but says "I have already heard the rumblings of a
backlash: ‘This is why you shouldn’t hire women." (She adds,
hopefully, "Actually, this is why you should.")
I want to quote some excerpts from my book, Chapter 2, "Real Rape"
(the title taken from the title of the book "Real Rape" by Democratic
activist Susan Estrich). What I described then is what exactly what's
happening today, except for a few name changes:
<QUOTE>"The country's largest feminist organization, NOW (The
National Organization of Women), began the 90s by vocally and
defiantly screaming harassment at a black man who allegedly told a
woman a few dirty jokes, and ended up the decade by defending,
condoning and carrying water for a white man who allegedly and
credibly is a serial rapist, a man who gropes, flashes, uses and
abuses every woman in his life.
If the great, all-powerful male patriarchy had wanted to hatch a
plot to cause as much damage and destruction as possible to women
and feminists, they could never have done anything so destructive
as NOW did to women during the 90s. NOW has damaged men, women,
and society so much that it will take years, perhaps decades for
the country to recover from it. The only good thing about what
happened is that they've totally discredited themselves by
carrying water for Clinton, arguably the country's most abusive
politician.
Long before the Clinton sex scandals, the policies advocated by
NOW and other feminist groups, the relationship between men and
women in the marketplace became enormously hostile, and this
hostility ended up hurting women.
For example, one man is a friend of mine who runs a professional
office with his wife. They had had the practice since the 70s of
hiring a married woman college graduate each year to serve as an
intern for a year. Many of these women went on to become
professionals in their own right. However, following Anita Hill's
testimony, this man changed his policy, and decided he would never
hire another woman intern. Since that time, he's only hired male
interns.
Another example: Another friend of mine ran an office where he
normally had about a dozen women social workers working for him.
He told me, "I don't dare even tell an employee, 'You look nice
today,' because I'm afraid she'll bring sexual harassment charges.
The only exception is my secretary -- she's worked for me for ten
years, and I can trust her." In other words, this man could not
trust the other women working for him.
Almost every man I spoke to had some story. One man told me that
he'd seen a condom machine in a men's room, and he mentioned
briefly to a woman associate how shocked he was to see it; she
brought a sexual harassment complaint. He told me, "There's
something wrong with women today. They're crazy."
In fact, I've tended to call these stories "crazy women stories,"
because every man I asked always seemed to have some story, and
always seemed to add to it some words like, "These women are
crazy."
One man after another told me they didn't want to have anything to
do with women in the workplace. By extrapolating the examples I
heard, I would estimate that literally millions of jobs nationwide
suddenly became unavailable to women. And women in the workplace
were viewed by men as being unstable, unreliable, or "crazy." ...
It's easy enough to blame men about all this, and I'm sure any
feminist reading this automatically does so, but this catastrophe
was brought about by NOW and other feminist organizations
encouraging women to act this way. ...
And did women gain anything from all this turmoil? They didn't,
and for a reason that feminist "theory" didn't anticipate. When a
sexual harassment complaint roils a workplace, a lot of hostility
gets generated, and that hostility appears to break half against
the alleged victim and half against the alleged perpetrator.
I've heard from women who brought sexual harassment complaints
against someone, and it was always disastrous for the accused man,
but it also backfired against the accusing woman. These women
were treated with hostility by everyone else, including other
women. ...
I saw one occasion like this with my own eyes between two people I
knew at work. The man said something dumb to a woman and got her
angry. She complained to the HR rep. The HR rep, a woman, called
the man into her office and accused him of harassment. He got
pissed off, stormed out of her office, and quit, and got another
job immediately elsewhere, at higher pay. The company lost a
valuable worker, and everyone, especially the women,
[i]especially the man's (female) manager, were pissed off as
hell at this woman who brought the sexual harassment complaint and
caused so much trouble."<END QUOTE>[/i]
There's a great deal more information in my book, and I recommend that anyone interested in the subject of
gender issues should download the PDF and read it.
This is now an international issue, and it really is a circus. Many
women feel that "something must be done," but they can't figure out
what that something is.
Katty Kay, the female BBC news anchor, says:
<QUOTE>"A backlash now against women would be the worst thing
that can happen, it would shove this topic back under the carpet
for years. So let's tread carefully, act soberly and use this
moment, with the willing support of our male colleagues, to make
our workplaces safer and happier."<END QUOTE>
She's right. The backlash that developed in the 1990s did shove the
topic under the carpet for almost 20 years.
Why should any man take sexual harassment seriously, when feminist
organizations and the Democratic establishment protected Bill Clinton
from multiple credible forcible rape accusations for years? Susan
Estrich was Clinton's principal supporter after the multiple forcible
rape charges. Estrich herself had been raped, and been an active part
of the 1990s sexual harassment circus, but then sold herself out as a
woman and a rape victim to defend Clinton. Why should any man take
sexual harassment seriously after that? Even worse, feminists make
wild, irresponsible claims that 25% of all female college students are
raped, when the actual figure is about 0.1%. And no one doubts that
feminists and the Democratic establishment are protecting other
harassers and rapists today.
The bottom line is this: Men will never take sexual harassment
seriously until women do. NBC News and Washington Post (30-March) and Fast Company and Book: Fraternizing with the Enemy (PDF)
Related Articles
KEYS: Generational Dynamics, #MeToo, Time Magazine, King Carl XVI Gustaf,
Katty Kay, Mike Pence, Clarence Thomas, Anita Hill,
Susan Estrich, Bill Clinton, Nestor Barrero,
Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook, National Organization of Women, NOW
Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail
Contribute to Generational Dynamics via PayPal
John J. Xenakis
100 Memorial Drive Apt 8-13A
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 617-864-0010
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com
Forum: http://www.gdxforum.com/forum
Subscribe to World View: http://generationaldynamics.com/subscribe
This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
- Time Magazine makes international #MeToo movement 'person of the year'
- The 'Mike Pence rule' shows how the #MeToo backlash will hurt women
****
**** Time Magazine makes international #MeToo movement 'person of the year'
****
Time Magazine's funereal cover: Person of the Year 2017: the #MeToo Silence Breakers
The #MeToo movement has gone international. In the US Congress and
businesses, people are being forced out of office by anonymous sources
and kangaroo courts. In Europe, Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf has
warned men to start listening to women, after tens of thousands of
Swedish women have shared their stories under the #MeToo hashtag.
Female MEPs are talking about their experiences in the European
Parliament, and are openly displaying "#MeToo" placards at their
desks.
The #MeToo hashtag has also spread to China. In China, the state-run
media was forced to retract an article that said that sexual
harassment was a Western problem, but "Chinese men are taught to be
protective of their women. Behaving inappropriately toward women,
including harassing them sexually, contradicts every Chinese
traditional value and custom." The article was taken down after a
furious reaction by women on social media. Women in factory positions
are frequently abused, and Chinese police don't investigate domestic
violence complaints, claiming that it's a family matter.
Time Magazine has now made it official. What Time used to call "Man
of the Year" is now the "Person of the Year," and the winner this year
is "The Silence Breakers," the female movie stars who broke their
silence and openly accused powerful men who harassed and sometimes
abused them.
According to Time, this has been a long time coming:
<QUOTE>"This reckoning appears to have sprung up
overnight. But it has actually been simmering for years, decades,
centuries. Women have had it with bosses and co-workers who not
only cross boundaries but don't even seem to know that boundaries
exist. They've had it with the fear of retaliation, of being
blackballed, of being fired from a job they can't afford to
lose. They've had it with the code of going along to get
along. They've had it with men who use their power to take what
they want from women. These silence breakers have started a
revolution of refusal, gathering strength by the day, and in the
past two months alone, their collective anger has spurred
immediate and shocking results: nearly every day, CEOs have been
fired, moguls toppled, icons disgraced. In some cases, criminal
charges have been brought."<END QUOTE>
And there's no end in sight. Any man who said or did something
to a woman even decades ago that she finds offensive can now
be accused and judged by a kangaroo court to be guilty.
What are the rules? Can a man flirt? Can a man ask a woman he works
with out on a date? Can a man tell a woman that she looks good today?
Can a man have a sexy picture of his wife on his desk? Can a fireman
read Playboy in the firehouse? In the circus atmosphere of today's
he-said/she-said world, any interaction between a man and a woman can
be turned into an accusation of sexual harassment.
Female BBC news anchor Katty Kay says that a backlash is already
developing:
<QUOTE>"The next fear is that men will get so nervous that
they're going to be accused of harassment that they will simply
stop hiring, meeting or socializing with female colleagues. There
are reports this is already happening. We will get shut out of the
room where important decisions are made because men fear our
presence? How ironic would that be?"<END QUOTE>
As more and more men are forced to face sexual harassment accusations
in the current circus atmosphere, it's pretty safe to say that the
circus can't last, and that this will pass in a few months.
This will be a big relief to everyone, especially women, who are going
to be facing an increasing backlash, the longer that this continues.
Time Magazine and Politico (EU) and The Local (Sweden) and BBC and Guardian (London, 17-Oct)
****
**** The 'Mike Pence rule' shows how the #MeToo backlash will hurt women
****
People are talking about the current sexual harassment circus as
if this is the first time that anything like this ever happened.
Actually, exactly the same thing happened in the 1990s, and the
backlash that women felt in the 1990s tells us a great deal
about the backlash that women are going to be facing today.
At the beginning of the decade, feminists attacked Clarence Thomas
because he had asked Anita Hill out on a date a decade earlier. At
the end of the decades, feminists fought bitterly to protect Bill
Clinton from seven or more women who credibly accused Clinton of
violent forcible rape while he was governor of Arkansas. The entire
decade was a circus.
The decade was a disaster for women. The relations between men and
women in the workplace were extremely toxic, as was reported by
many commentators.
I spent much of the 1990s decade doing research for a book on gender
issues called Fraternizing with the Enemy - A book on gender issues
for men and for women who care about men. I researched the whole
range of gender issues - divorce, domestic violence, rape, teen
motherhood, sexual harassment, child abuse, incest, including detailed
discussions of the Clarence Thomas and Bill Clinton issues. The book
was based on thousands of interviews and online conversations, as well
as extensive research into such things as "feminist legal theory" and
"feminist social theory."
The book is available as a free PDF, on my download page, http://generationaldynamics.com/download/.
During my research, I spoke to many men who considered talking to any
woman in the workplace to be a career risk. Several men told me
stories of making some innocent remark and being charged with
harassment.
Earlier this year, it emerged that Vice President Mike Pence had a
policy of never having lunch alone with any woman except his wife, or
of drinking alcohol unless his wife was by his side. Since Pence is
an evangelical Christian, the mainstream media mocked this as some
sort of religious rite. Maybe religion was part of it, but many men
who were in the workplace in the 1990s feel the same way. Mike
Pence's policy is what I've heard many men describe.
This toxic relationship between men and women in the workplace is
growing again today. NBC News quotes labor attorney Nestor Barrero as
saying that "many people" have already asked him if they should take
"the Mike Pence approach." He advises against it, but this and other
anecdotal evidence indicates that the 1990s are repeating themselves
in that men would rather work with men and not with women, because
working with women is too great a career risk.
Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook, says that sexual harassment is a
serious problem, but says "I have already heard the rumblings of a
backlash: ‘This is why you shouldn’t hire women." (She adds,
hopefully, "Actually, this is why you should.")
I want to quote some excerpts from my book, Chapter 2, "Real Rape"
(the title taken from the title of the book "Real Rape" by Democratic
activist Susan Estrich). What I described then is what exactly what's
happening today, except for a few name changes:
<QUOTE>"The country's largest feminist organization, NOW (The
National Organization of Women), began the 90s by vocally and
defiantly screaming harassment at a black man who allegedly told a
woman a few dirty jokes, and ended up the decade by defending,
condoning and carrying water for a white man who allegedly and
credibly is a serial rapist, a man who gropes, flashes, uses and
abuses every woman in his life.
If the great, all-powerful male patriarchy had wanted to hatch a
plot to cause as much damage and destruction as possible to women
and feminists, they could never have done anything so destructive
as NOW did to women during the 90s. NOW has damaged men, women,
and society so much that it will take years, perhaps decades for
the country to recover from it. The only good thing about what
happened is that they've totally discredited themselves by
carrying water for Clinton, arguably the country's most abusive
politician.
Long before the Clinton sex scandals, the policies advocated by
NOW and other feminist groups, the relationship between men and
women in the marketplace became enormously hostile, and this
hostility ended up hurting women.
For example, one man is a friend of mine who runs a professional
office with his wife. They had had the practice since the 70s of
hiring a married woman college graduate each year to serve as an
intern for a year. Many of these women went on to become
professionals in their own right. However, following Anita Hill's
testimony, this man changed his policy, and decided he would never
hire another woman intern. Since that time, he's only hired male
interns.
Another example: Another friend of mine ran an office where he
normally had about a dozen women social workers working for him.
He told me, "I don't dare even tell an employee, 'You look nice
today,' because I'm afraid she'll bring sexual harassment charges.
The only exception is my secretary -- she's worked for me for ten
years, and I can trust her." In other words, this man could not
trust the other women working for him.
Almost every man I spoke to had some story. One man told me that
he'd seen a condom machine in a men's room, and he mentioned
briefly to a woman associate how shocked he was to see it; she
brought a sexual harassment complaint. He told me, "There's
something wrong with women today. They're crazy."
In fact, I've tended to call these stories "crazy women stories,"
because every man I asked always seemed to have some story, and
always seemed to add to it some words like, "These women are
crazy."
One man after another told me they didn't want to have anything to
do with women in the workplace. By extrapolating the examples I
heard, I would estimate that literally millions of jobs nationwide
suddenly became unavailable to women. And women in the workplace
were viewed by men as being unstable, unreliable, or "crazy." ...
It's easy enough to blame men about all this, and I'm sure any
feminist reading this automatically does so, but this catastrophe
was brought about by NOW and other feminist organizations
encouraging women to act this way. ...
And did women gain anything from all this turmoil? They didn't,
and for a reason that feminist "theory" didn't anticipate. When a
sexual harassment complaint roils a workplace, a lot of hostility
gets generated, and that hostility appears to break half against
the alleged victim and half against the alleged perpetrator.
I've heard from women who brought sexual harassment complaints
against someone, and it was always disastrous for the accused man,
but it also backfired against the accusing woman. These women
were treated with hostility by everyone else, including other
women. ...
I saw one occasion like this with my own eyes between two people I
knew at work. The man said something dumb to a woman and got her
angry. She complained to the HR rep. The HR rep, a woman, called
the man into her office and accused him of harassment. He got
pissed off, stormed out of her office, and quit, and got another
job immediately elsewhere, at higher pay. The company lost a
valuable worker, and everyone, especially the women,
[i]especially the man's (female) manager, were pissed off as
hell at this woman who brought the sexual harassment complaint and
caused so much trouble."<END QUOTE>[/i]
There's a great deal more information in my book, and I recommend that anyone interested in the subject of
gender issues should download the PDF and read it.
This is now an international issue, and it really is a circus. Many
women feel that "something must be done," but they can't figure out
what that something is.
Katty Kay, the female BBC news anchor, says:
<QUOTE>"A backlash now against women would be the worst thing
that can happen, it would shove this topic back under the carpet
for years. So let's tread carefully, act soberly and use this
moment, with the willing support of our male colleagues, to make
our workplaces safer and happier."<END QUOTE>
She's right. The backlash that developed in the 1990s did shove the
topic under the carpet for almost 20 years.
Why should any man take sexual harassment seriously, when feminist
organizations and the Democratic establishment protected Bill Clinton
from multiple credible forcible rape accusations for years? Susan
Estrich was Clinton's principal supporter after the multiple forcible
rape charges. Estrich herself had been raped, and been an active part
of the 1990s sexual harassment circus, but then sold herself out as a
woman and a rape victim to defend Clinton. Why should any man take
sexual harassment seriously after that? Even worse, feminists make
wild, irresponsible claims that 25% of all female college students are
raped, when the actual figure is about 0.1%. And no one doubts that
feminists and the Democratic establishment are protecting other
harassers and rapists today.
The bottom line is this: Men will never take sexual harassment
seriously until women do. NBC News and Washington Post (30-March) and Fast Company and Book: Fraternizing with the Enemy (PDF)
Related Articles
- France's Dominique Strauss-Kahn acquitted of 'aggravated pimping' (13-Jun-2015)
- France's politics in turmoil from collapse of Strauss-Kahn rape case (02-Jul-2011)
- Collapse of Duke rape case represents cultural change (22-Apr-2007)
KEYS: Generational Dynamics, #MeToo, Time Magazine, King Carl XVI Gustaf,
Katty Kay, Mike Pence, Clarence Thomas, Anita Hill,
Susan Estrich, Bill Clinton, Nestor Barrero,
Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook, National Organization of Women, NOW
Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail
Contribute to Generational Dynamics via PayPal
John J. Xenakis
100 Memorial Drive Apt 8-13A
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 617-864-0010
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com
Forum: http://www.gdxforum.com/forum
Subscribe to World View: http://generationaldynamics.com/subscribe
