There have been a slew of cases of sexual harassment in the news. The latest culprit is New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who joins a list from the entertainment and business worlds. The various incidents ranged from inappropriate behavior to outright crimes.
And all of the perpetrators were men.
While everyone was appalled at the most egregious behavior of these famous men, left-wing feminists took to vilifying all males with a bevy of hashtags including #BelieveWomen and #MeToo. Somehow, even though almost all men do not harass women, because almost all of the perpetrators were men, the essence of manliness was seemingly to blame.
It was sharp departure from the alt-left’s defense of terrorists, where the vast majority of terrorists are Muslim, even though those terrorists make up a small percentage of the global Muslim population. In those cases, liberals defend Islam as a religion of peace, but decry the abuse of the religion by some extremists.
Liberals adopted the opposite approach regarding men. They have vilified all men, and question how they can talk to their daughters about being friends with boys when they are inherently perverts. They do not attribute the bad behavior to outliers.
Consider how some liberal forums suggest that the pathway to raising a new generation of men to be more respectful of women, a basic idea, with foolish suggestions. They suggest encouraging boys to wear pink, do dress-up and play with dollhouses. I kid you not.
Newspapers published guides for how to raise boys to be feminists with ideas ranging for promoting non-stereotypical boy toys, and discouraging those traditionally associated with boys (no more trucks or erector sets). Here’s a selection from The New York Times:
“Even as adult gender roles have merged, children’s products have become more divided by gender than they were 50 years ago, research has found: pink princesses and blue trucks, not just in the toy aisle but on cups and toothbrushes. It’s no wonder that children’s interests end up aligning that way.”
“Offer open-ended activities, like playing with blocks or clay, and encourage boys to try activities like dress-up or art class, even if they don’t seek them out, social scientists say. Call out stereotypes. (“It’s too bad that toy box shows all girls because I know boys also like to play with dollhouses.”) It could also improve the status of women. Researchers say the reason parents encourage daughters to play soccer or become doctors, but not sons to take ballet or become nurses, is that “feminine” equals lower status.”
““Teach our sons to cook, clean and look after themselves — to be equally competent in the home as we would expect our daughters to be in the office,” said Anne-Marie Slaughter, chief executive of New America, a think tank.”
This is ridiculous. The pathway to combatting sexual harassment according to these feminists, is to attack the entire notion of “manliness.” If they could get boys to take estrogen, I am sure that they would promote it. Would this cohort ever attack core Islamic teachings as an underlying reason why so many terrorists are Muslims? Never. They would focus on the nature of the violence, and the terrible break in otherwise normal behavior. The Koran inspires many Muslims to be kind and peaceful just as playing with blocks and trucks guides men to become productive members of society.
The problem of sexual harassment isn’t about men; it’s about violence. The solution is not neutering and de-programming boys. It is about teaching boundaries.
Here are two appropriate examples for society that could help curb the incidents of harassments:
- Know and respect boundaries. Almost every incident of sexual harassment would have been okay if the actions were consensual. It was the nature of men not knowing appropriate boundaries and taking advantage of their situation that made the incidents wrong.
When kids are young, let them break up their toys into two groups: those that are personal – that they needn’t share with anyone if they do not want – and those that are public and available for general use. When they engage with siblings or friends, they must offer up the public toys, but have complete discretion on sharing those that they decided to keep private. They will learn the power of “no” – by saying it and hearing it. - Stop making women passive. Why do men ask women out on dates? Why do they pay for the activities? Society has put men in the position of taking the assertive role and women as stationary. As described in “The Misogyny of Treating Women like Victims,“ we are not helping women by treating them as passive. Protecting them at all times ultimately undermines and hurts them.
Sexual harassment is a subset of violence, not sex. Sex is a good thing if fully consensual and “manliness” is not a disease. Stop the attacks on testosterone as billions of men manage it without ever abusing women.
Men can be gun-totting, football watching, sarcastic CEOs, and never harass a woman. If Andrew Cuomo had worn pink he would still have taken advantage of women. If Matt Lauer had played with more dollhouses, he would still have sexually assaulted people. How stupid are these feminist writers, and how stupid do they think their readership is?
I am confident that if liberal rags wrote articles about verses in the Koran that encourage violence, there would be an uproar. If they would suggest that more Muslim boys should take ballet, there would be a lawsuit and people would be fired.
But for the feminist extremists, the “patriarchy” is the rightful target, and sexual harassment is just a tool to redistribute wealth and power.
Related First One Through articles:
Between Terrorism and Sexual Harassment is a lot of Money
NY Times, NY Times, What Do You See? It Sees Rich White Males
Progressives Judge Past American Actions and Ignore Today’s Foreign Culture
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