Home / General / Sexual Harassment As A Reactionary Prop [UPDATED SEVERAL TIMES]

Sexual Harassment As A Reactionary Prop [UPDATED SEVERAL TIMES]

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Glenn Reynolds has, of course, joined the ranks of glibertarians charging Jessica Valenti with being photographed while having breasts. He links to this post by Dr. Helen, who calls the people who met the President “a support group for gropers.” Leaving aside the idiocies of the theater critic approach to politics, what she omits is the actual evidence that Clinton is one of the “biggest gropers around.” As far as I know, the only groping accusation against Clinton is the exceptionally non-credible accusations of Kathleen Willey. What he did with Lewinsky is potentially open to criticism on (genuinely) feminist grounds (and he received some), but again–it was not only consensual but initiated by Lewinsky. It is sexual harassment only under an extremely broad definition of the term, and isn’t “groping” (which in context implies a lack of consent) at all. The Paula Jones incident certainly would have been sexual harassment, but (even if true, which is far from clear) one incident from 1991 does not “one of the biggest sexual harassers around” make. Does meeting with George Bush mean that someone is acting as part of a “support group” for “one of the biggest alcoholics and cocaine abusers around?” (Smith’s hubby has been making this silly argument for a while, failing to understand such obvious points as “not supporting a frivolous impeachment” or “not supporting candidates who are far worse on women’s rights” does not constitute giving Clinton a pass, and also failing to explain why the Lewinsky incident was an example of sexual harassment.)

But even if she had evidence to back up her charges against Clinton, this is all unserious anyway. When given a candidate who actually did have an extensive history of flat-out sexual assaults on women, Reynolds was outraged…that the LA Times would cover the story. Reynolds doesn’t care about sexual harassment; he cares about bashing feminists while trying to keep his bullshit-libertarian facade. His celebration of Althouse’s reprehensible sniggering about Valenti is just the latest example. Myself, I prefer reactionaries who don’t make any pretense of caring about feminism.

…see also Amanda on the lovely commenters chez Althouse and Dr. Helen. (This is particularly funny because according to Althouse, the Democratic Party is responsible for sexist comments in Atrios’ comment section–including the ones that are obvious attacks in sexism if you have any ability to detect irony at all–but apparently openly misogynist commenters at her site are not only to be tolerated but encouraged.) She also notes the traditional conservative inability to distinguish between consensual and non-consensual acts:

Dr. Helen’s excuse is we feminists are opposed to men groping women in bars. This means we are supposed to avoid men who have consensual sex with women. Dr. Helen’s unwillingness to understand the concept of consent still boggles my mind.

…Dr. Helen has engaged in…what noted feminist scholar Ann Althouse has called breastblogging! Oh, the humanity! I’m afraid I can no longer take her claims of being a feminist seriously.

…This is classic. Reynolds: “And if Atrios thinks that publishing this photo is embarrassing to either of us, well it just proves he’s missing the point as usual.” You think Atrios is missing the point? Perhaps it will help if I put it in boldface: Of course there’s nothing wrong with being photographed while wearing a T-Shirt on your blog. This is exactly why Althouse’s post is such loathsome, mean-spirited nonsense. Yeesh.

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