Fuck. This. Shit.

[BainsBane]

141. The equivalency is in the responses

That people make excuses for behavior in their own party and seize upon sexual harassment and child molestation only when it suits their purposes politically. Pretending it’s just about the photo is the exact same minimization the right engages with. It ignores the woman’s account and pretends that one picture is all that matters. http://www.kabc.com/2017/11/16/leeann-tweeden-on-senator-al-franken/ She was asleep during that photo. You think it’s funny for men to touch women and pretend to grope them without their consent while the sleep. Your amusement does not take precedence over other women’s rights to control over their own bodies. You don’t have the right to consent for her. Only she does.

Franken is accepting responsibility for his actions, and many Democratic lawmakers, including Klobuchar and DFL Chair Ken Martin, are taking it seriously. This site, however, is another story.

I think you know there is nothing unpopular about your position. It is in fact the dominant view in a society that devalues women, that treats them as liars—unless it suits their political agenda to do otherwise. I’ve seen it countless times here before. Many, perhaps most, DUers refused to as much as acknowledge the existence of a valid arrest warrant for rape against Julian Assange because they admired him. I saw dozens of people insist Woody Allen’s daughter Dylan was lying about his molestation of her at 6 years old, insisting she was manipulated by Mia Farrow, a position that hinges on the assumption of women as inherently dishonest. That was a case of child molestation rather than assault or harassment of an adult woman, but because it served no political purpose to believe Dylan Farrow, she was vilified, just as the woman speaking about Franken is, just as many Republicans have done to Moore’s and Trump’s accusers.

When people decide sexual assault only matters when it’s someone they dislike and excuse it when it is someone they admire, they ensure that the behavior continues. It most certainly does undermine women, and male victims as well. Whether you think Franken’s treatment toward that woman was funny is utterly irrelevant. What matters is consent, and she didn’t give it.

Clearly child molestation is worse than assault on an adult, and Moore’s serial predation makes his situation far more serious. What is the same in these two situations is the reactions of some of their supporters. It is they who display the same hypocrisy, who reveal that the rights of victims are irrelevant compared to their political agendas.

Franken has admitted his actions were wrong. He refuses to engage in the minimization and attacks on the victim that go on here. Yet some Democratic supporters seem determined to display just how much they have in common with defenders of Republicans facing allegations of assault. I am relieved that many Democrats in public life are responding to this matter with far more integrity.

Franken is my Senator. I volunteered on both of his campaigns. I have considered him one of the very best in the Senate, but I sure as hell and not going to act like his behavior was okay because I happen to agree with him politically. I couldn’t look myself in the mirror if I did.