Yeah, the pressuring is bad, and the implied use of power is bad, but "Hey babe, if you **** me it'll help your career" followed by "Okay" isn't rape. Unless the implication is that women cannot give consent under those conditions, or any condition where the other person is using any persuasion, which is pretty insulting to women - and pretty frightening for men, because now even yes might mean no...
This is the part that I end up focusing on most. So much of all of this sounds pretty ghastly — specifically the various accounts of Weinstein — and undoubtedly is an abuse of power and sexual harassment (if true). But "rape"? I don't know. Though from memory, I don't think I've seen that word thrown around as often as I've seen general sexual harassment. My source lately is predominantly Phil DeFranco, FWIW.
How do you prove someone did something they didn't want to do, when they did do it, in the past? Can you change your mind about consent after the fact? I mean, I'd certainly argue that you can change your mind after initial consent, if things suddenly veer into territory you aren't comfortable with. But is there a time limit? A list of qualifications for when a yes is no longer a yes?
Ultimately, sexual harassment is an issue of
unwanted sexual attention. I've no reason to doubt any of the women (and men) that have come forward so far. It's just made me think about where the crossover is between sexual assault, coercion, and rape. Not that that's even remotely an excuse for what some of these people have done: it's mostly, for me anyway, about being very clear about their actions. I hate having to pull the dictionary card (especially for it being on my browser history):
unlawful sexual activity and usually sexual intercourse carried out forcibly or under threat of injury against the will usually of a female or with a person who is beneath a certain age or incapable of valid consent because of mental illness, mental deficiency, intoxication, unconsciousness, or deception
Emphasis my own. Is the threat of injury solely physical? Because there's obvious emotional/psychological damage. And, if it's a "sleep with me for the job" situation, it's arguably the threat of financial damage too. And that brings us to deception...
Also, can we all agree it's more than a little odd that we're seeing such a strong response from so many people about this this year, but a year ago, people elected someone accused of much the same thing
as the president of the freaking USA?!
And
@Danoff brings up what I believe is a very interesting point: when I first heard about all of this, and then Terry Crews' name floated up, my
very first thought was "oh no, not Terry, Terry
loves yogurt never struck me as the type to assault women". It was only after I read an article that I realized he was the victim of sexual assault — and I think that says a lot, about both the people doing this, and myself. Whether we like it or not, a lot of us do have pre-conceived notions about this sort of thing.
