I don't believe a single one of Frankens accusers

[barbtries]

85. totally agree.

trump - yes, he bragged about it; there is no doubt in my mind that all or certainly the vast majority of the women who have told their stories publicly are telling the truth. i'm too battle weary to discuss lauer, conyers, keillor, who's next? but i expect in many cases they are just plain guilty as hell. spacey, cosby. geez it does go on and on.

with Al Franken, it's not the same.

also, and i hope i can express this well, times have really changed. back in the 1970s i had experiences that inspired me to post "Me too" - some of them pissed me off at the time, in some cases i think i took it as a joke, and there were times when i was hoping the dude would "make a pass at me."

However, when a complete stranger (drunk) in a casino in vegas JUST THIS YEAR slapped my ass, I was righteously pissed and even considered flagging down a security officer to have him arrested for assault. (I am now 62 years old, very much overweight, and definitely not looking for love, which is to say that there was no reasonable way to excuse this man's apparent assumption that he could touch my body just for the hell of it - how dare he? My 2 grown sons actually laughed when I told them and one of them the other day said it was exactly my age and appearance that made it funny to him - but i protested and said he was not allowed to do that!)

i never reported any of these experiences, all of which fell far short of rape, to any authority. one was my much older photography teacher, who rubbed up against me in the darkroom. i recall being totally disgusted and thinking he was a fucking pervert but i did not take any kind of action. i was 18 he was probably around 50.

well my point is if these were men in prominent positions they might be getting called out now and most of them (said photography teacher not included) were actually not bad guys. Most of them no doubt grew up to raise families and were probably good to the women in their lives.

i don't believe that i suffered long lasting irreparable harms from these violations while i do believe they were violations. The fact that they remain in my memory tells me I was affected at the time, certainly. my house was broken into once too, but while it distressed me i wasn't about to let it change who i am or my approach to life.

There's been a consciousness raising going on and hopefully these mass reports of abuse will end the practice and men will be more respectful toward women forever from now on.

anyhow sorry for the rant but i am having trouble being expected to shame every man who looked at a woman or made an unwelcome remark or advance toward her. actual physical invasion is something else again, and what louis ck did is despicable don't get me wrong. also, i don't believe every charge being brought forth, particularly regarding Al Franken. it's bullshit.

dynamics between the sexes were pretty ribald during the sexual revolution, at least in my little hippie part of the world. at one point at a disco i agreed to dance with some guy and swear to gawd he seemed to think that by saying yes to the dance i was saying i wanted to fuck him. when i said no he said, "oh you're not feeling well?" seriously - he couldn't believe i just did not want to have sex with him. the world has really changed and hopefully for the better - more honesty all around, more respect for us all.