I say in increasing order of severity, with names of men accused of it
Sexting women with whom you’re having a consensual affair (Joe Barton): not an offense at all
Repeated butt grabbing (Franken, GHW Bush)
Sending unsolicited penis pictures (Weiner)
Repeated drunken unwelcome sexual advances to younger, less powerful co-workers (Glenn Thrush)
Forcing unwilling women over whom you have career power to watch you masturbate (Louis CK)
Repeated unwelcome touching of private parts of women (Conyers-- I haven’t followed all the accusations here and he may be accused of worse)
Rape (Weinstein)
Attempted rape of 16-year-old (Moore)
I draw the line where the line is above. Anyone under the line should be summarily fired, or in the case of an elected official should resign on the spot. We don’t know what Lauer is accused of doing.
Should people be judged by their worst moment or their best moments? I think that is what a lot of us are grappling with. But until the story comes fully out, it is hard to know what to think about the latest casualty.
I just hope Anderson is not next!
And @“Cardinal Fang” - good post.
“Nobody is asking or telling us how to judge these people”. Oh I disagree. I think that they’ve been tried and hung in the court of public opinion and for many, their lives will never be the same. Some of them absolutely deserve it and I hope they get what’s coming to them. Let’s not forget, though, the Rolling Stones article about the UVA fraternity or the Duke LaCrosse team. Those kids lives were tremendously adversely impacted. Just saying that judgment should be reserved until all the facts come out.
But that’s the question, are they consensual when the power level is different. Is the 25 year old trying to keep her job “consenting” when first approached? I worked at a corporation that didn’t allow married people to work at the company. If you got married after starting, one had to resign. If both refused to resign, the newer employee was terminated.
And George H.W. and Franken claim they, maybe, bumped into these women when getting a picture taken but didn’t grope them. The women thought otherwise. Taylor Swift sued a radio guy for doing it during a photo shoot.
In the case of George H.W. Bush, he is also accused of merrily telling a joke about how his favorite magician is David CopAFeel before he groped women’s butts. Makes it a little more difficult to say his hand merely bumped into their butts.
from momofthreeboys–" It’s very unfortunately that you can no longer admire a man for his leadership or his job skills if someone says he’s done something inappropriate that is totally unrelated to the quality of their work or even their friendships"
This.
I don’t excuse inappropriate behavior but I certainly do not have such a wide paint brush that erases accomplishments.
Heck, I’m not an Anderson fan. Not a Lauer fan. Never heard of Weinstein until news broke.
We can pick and choose who we like. We all make judgments.
But I am a Garrison Keillor fan. So MN public radio is just erasing him?
Matt just got photoshopped out of the lighting of the Christmas tree. Just heard they erased him. Really?
I don’t personally care they erased him because I’m not a fan.
But I DO care because it is SO easy for an unknown entity to erase history either good or bad to suit their objectives.
Few more clicks and he never was on TV.
We live in an age where history is not being recorded by US in a physical format. We assume ( or at least our kids do) that “it’s out there in the cloud”. That there is so much recorded info in a digital format that it doesn’t matter if it gets written down. But all that “history” just takes a “delete” key.
I say in increasing order of severity, with names of men accused of it
Sexting women with whom you’re having a consensual affair (Joe Barton): not an offense at all
Repeated butt grabbing (Franken, GHW Bush)
Sending unsolicited penis pictures (Weiner)
Calling female co-worker to office, dropping pants, upbraiding her for not performing sex act (Lauer)
Repeated drunken unwelcome sexual advances to younger, less powerful co-workers (Glenn Thrush)
Forcing unwilling women over whom you have career power to watch you masturbate (Louis CK)
Repeated unwelcome touching of private parts of women (Conyers-- I haven’t followed all the accusations here and he may be accused of worse)
Rape (Weinstein)
Attempted rape of 16-year-old (Moore)
I draw the line where the line is above. Anyone under the line should be summarily fired, or in the case of an elected official should resign on the spot. We don’t know what Lauer is accused of doing.
Well, I’m assuming lawsuits coming? Or does everyone just want money instead?
I’m assuming “lewd comments” would probably be on someone’s phone. I would’ve saved them anyway.
I don’t know the time frame of the allegations but if recent I don’t know anybody who would think twice of grabbing their phone and taking a picture and putting it on instagram.
If it was me, I’d be happy that my assaulter got his comeuppance and that would be enough (unless I was unjustly fired). We might see some lawsuits, but probably we won’t see lawsuits from most accusers.
Apparently these rape dungeon buttons are a thing. Executives and lawyers have them to lock their doors if something confidential comes up, for example if they’re on the phone. (and have lost the use of their legs, I guess)
I once worked in the Employee Relations department of a large bank and we had buttons in our offices. However, they were there to send an emergency notice to Security, in case someone we were firing got violent.
I really can’t imagine any legitimate reason to have a button that locks the door, unless you’re really afraid of random shooters in the building. (Which actually, in this day and age, isn’t that crazy an idea.)