The Herman Cain presidential bid is over. At first glance, it collapsed under the weight of seemingly endless allegations of sexual misconduct. But a closer look will uncover a slightly different set of events. After all, though the previous allegations may have distracted Cain from his intent to only talk about 9-9-9, it is hard to blame his dip in the polls on them. In many ways, particularly in terms of fundraising, being accused of sexual harassment (or, really, being accused of being accused of sexual harassment) actually helped the pizza mogul. Cain lost ground in the polls not because people began to fear him as a seemingly-serial sexual harasser, but because they are beginning to understand that, sex scandals aside, he is completely unprepared for the job he was supposedly pursuing. But, according to the story that the mainstream media spun, it was this affair which finally made him unfit for the presidency. So, what is different about (the perfectly named) Ginger White?
If you listen to those same media outlets, it would appear that White had a lot more proof of Cain’s dalliances than the other women. The many late night phone calls, for example, have received a lot of attention. While yes, that does seem like some good evidence, it can hardly be seen as more convincing than knowledge of the existence of settlements for multiple women. The proof surrounding the seven (or more) accusations of sexual harassment was just as strong, if not stronger, than Ginger White’s.
In many ways this most recent ‘scandal’ shouldn’t have as much impact on Cain politically. There is no indication that his affair with Ginger White impacted his job in any way, while all of the sexual harassment certainly did. This affair was a completely consensual, legal, and private unlike the nonconsensual, illegal, public reports of sexual harassment.
Of course, it should come as no surprise that an extra-marital affairs has brought about the end of another political career. Ethics violations, treasonous statements, and war crimes are all acceptable baggage, but non-normative sex certainly is not. From Bill Clinton to Tiger Woods to (until recently that is) Newt Gingrich, public figures are brought down for having consensual sex at an alarming rate. Rather than looking at the plethora of the ‘scandals’ as proof that we need to seriously re-evaluate the institution of marriage and our devotion to preaching strict monogamy, they continue to be used as grounds to attack every level of the ‘transgressor’s’ character. The lesson of the Herman Cain scandals are, after all, much more about how our media and how we as a nation react to sexual harassment than to sex itself. It is no surprise that a consensual sexual affair should be considered legitimate grounds to destroy a career.
But why is the reaction to the, in my mind and before the law, far more serious allegation of sexual harassment so different? Well, there are two specific reasons, both of which point out the ingrained sexism of our culture. The first is that the ‘accusers’ (not victims) are immediately look at as over-sensitive, gold-diggers, or both. Our media and our politics still propagates the myth that the most trustworthy person is the highest ranking (usually white) male. If you step back and think for a second, is it really all that surprising that the usually vicious men who gain positions of extreme economic or political power treat their female underlings without respect? Of course not. And yet, whenever stories like this are breached, the media seems to always take the side of the much-maligned Boss against his ‘accuser.’ And that’s true in America even if the Boss is French.
The second reason is the more insidious one, and it is the claim that the entire idea of sexual harassment is, for the most part, a farce. From winks by the boss to shouts on the street, the idea that being actively objectified is a compliment rather than an affront is one held by a great number of men and, scarily enough, women. How can we expect our society to respond negatively to harassers when it has such a culturally conservative attitude in it? Accepting this kind of treatment as complementary, or even just natural automatically places all women in a different sphere from men. Whether this belief is accepted or tolerated because we’re all sexists or because we don’t fully understand its implications I don’t know, but if we are to truly overcome the cultural history of sexism it cannot be tolerated.
Perhaps we have begun to devolve back into the morality of the past centuries. Perhaps we never really grew out of it. But this sexism, alive and well in twenty first century America. Women, as a group, must still be classified as a minority. Being a minority is not just about how many of you there are, its about having the minority of power. Its about time everybody admits to themselves that women are facing the same types of barriers to shifting that balance that they always have, barriers that may have been slightly weakened, but which still hold a particular protected place in the American-–and global––mindset.
YES. Yes yes yes yes YES.
ReplyDeleteIt gives me a tiny modicum of faith in America that people started realizing how woefully ill-equipped Cain was for the job at hand.
That faith starts to disappear with, as you discuss, the handling of the "sex scandals." It really is abysmal the way non-normative sex can kill campaigns in ways that objectively terrible, immoral things do not. Our society's obsession with normative, puritanical sexuality is distracting from much larger issues, and hurting all sorts of people: queers, teenagers, women... humans. And it's not just coming from the media, or from conservatives, or even from privileged men. Harmful assumptions about sexuality, the taboo of things like non-monogamy and homosexuality... these are deeply ingrained in our culture, and therefore get continually reinforced. The one thing that doesn't getting pounded into the American psyche is the one thin that should: consent.
We need to continually throw wrenches into this machine. Which is why the work of feminists, and sex-positive activists, and so forth, is largely thankless and unending. It's not just about pointing out the problems. It's about pointing them out again, and again, and again, all the while making what change (and noise) we can.
Which is also why it pains me to hear people talk about feminism being over, or being unimportant, or especially young women who say they're sick of double standards, and want equal rights for women, but would never say they were feminists. As you rightly say, we're living in a society where victims/survivors are still seen as first and foremost as accusers, where there's still an implication that sexual harassment can ever be construed as anything other than disrespect (if not worse). Where women are actively demonized for standing up and protecting themselves. This affects everyone.
Its about time everybody admits to themselves that women are facing the same types of barriers to shifting that balance that they always have, barriers that may have been slightly weakened, but which still hold a particular protected place in the American-–and global––mindset.
Absofuckinglutely. And we're now facing a fun new barrier (which is really a new iteration of the same old barrier), which is that people think it's over, it's done, women are equal, sexism is no more. Now that women can wear pants and vote and hold a job (maybe) and use birth control (MAYBE), we must be all good. It makes it hard for some people to take seriously the fact that sexism is alive and well, and that in many cases our government (or at least a conservative faction) is pretty much waging war against women.
This affects everyone. This is everyone's fight.