Is a Long-Term Affair Really Worse Than Sexual Harassment?: the Conservative Understanding of Sexuality and Herman Cain
The bizarre moments in our political and cultural lives are sometimes the best windows into currents of thought underlying our explicit beliefs, currents that are so deep that we often don’t even recognize them as our own. Which is worse: sexual harassment or a long term affair? Consider, for example, the reactions of conservatives to Herman Cain’s alleged sexual misconduct. Two weeks ago, when Herman Cain was charged with sexually harassing multiple women, conservative ran to his defense. They claimed that sexual harassment is an overblown phenomenon and attacked the credibility of the women who accused him. And yet last week, when a woman came forth to say that she had a long term affair with Cain, most conservatives criticized him and said that his candidacy was or should be over. One would think that sexual harassment—that is using material inducements and physical pressure to induce a woman to have… Continue reading