IT’S RAINING CREEPS

IT’S RAINING CREEPS

A wave of powerful men misbehaving has become a crisis.

Two great film directors. A high-profile minister. A Supreme Court Judge. A U.S. president. The most dominant golfer in history. A Super Bowl-winning quarterback. A Republican presidential primary front-runner. A rising-star congressman. One of the most popular sit-com characters in the history of TV. Another U.S. president. The most powerful man in television. The top-rated cable TV host.

The roll call is impressive:

Roman Polanski. Woody Allen. Jimmy Swaggart. Clarence Thomas. Bill Clinton. Tiger Woods. Ben Roethlisberger. Herman Cain. Anthony Weiner. Bill Cosby. Donald Trump. Roger Ailes. Bill O’Reilly.

More recently a slew of others including Harvey Weinstein, one of Hollywood’s most powerful men, have been revealed.

It is, as the song goes, raining (creepy) men.

Why do so many men resort to a trip to the gutter of sexual harassment, sexual assault and other tawdry means to manipulate and demean women?

The obvious answers are they are on a power trip, have a superiority-entitlement complex, are just narcissistic assholes or, all-of-the above.

Like racism, mistreatment of women is not tucked away in a few isolated, backwards, uneducated corners. It is not a red state thing or a blue state thing or a black thing or a white thing. It is a man thing.

Not all men of course. But there is something about the convergence of money, power, and fame, mixed with greed and narcissism, combined with power/influence/authority over women, that turns too many men into sleazebag creeps who regularly harass and assault women.

Two of the last four U.S. presidents are creeps. Which is not to say one of them didn’t find ways, legislatively, to be productive and still do some good for the U.S. However, based on their treatment of women, they are creeps.

Our current president, Commander in Creep Donald J. Trump, has had 16 women allege that he sexually assaulted them.

Trump admitted on the infamous “Access Hollywood” video that he commits sexual assault. He brags about sexual assault as if he’s bragging about hitting a hole-in-one playing golf.

Not only is he intellectually, morally and ethically unfit for the presidency Trump, like Bill Cosby, should be in a courtroom defending himself against sexual assault charges.

Trump boasted on the Howard Stern show that he entered the dressing room at one of his teen beauty pageants. This has been substantiated by a handful of young women who, at the time it occurred, were teenagers.

This puts Trump in the ballpark with Jerry Sandusky and Dennis Hastert, neither of whom the average, reasonably intelligent parent would want anywhere near their children.

(And yet many conservatives, who regularly rely on religious moral arguments and family values as their guideposts, elected this monster president.)

Sadly, when it comes to interacting with women, there are still a lot of men who are sleazy, ignorant fools. And some men cannot fathom treating women as equals worthy of equal pay, equal opportunity and 24 hours-a-day respect.

Truthfully, the argument can be made the world would be better and safer with women in the highest positions of authority (not Betsy DeVos).

For example, if the leaders of the U.S., North Korea, Russia, and China were women, it’s doubtful we’d be playing brinksmanship with world-ending nuclear weapons.

Similarly, if the percentage of women and men in Congress, and the percentage of women and men who are members of the National Rifle Association, were reversed during the past 50 years the U.S. probably wouldn’t be the gun-toting, violent society it has become.

As it stands, we have a crisis of wealthy, powerful men who think it’s OK to express themselves in the most guttural manner around women.

And if powerful, in-the-public-eye celebrity men are acting this way, one can only imagine (and cringe) at what may be going down at the local bowling alley or tavern in a forgotten coal-mining or farm town, or at a 4 a.m. nightclub in the inner-city.

Some rappers, notorious for lyrics and videos drenched in misogyny, excuse themselves with the tired refrain they are simply projecting what it’s like in the ‘hood. Nelly is a recent example of this foolishness. And R&B crooner R. Kelly has long been suspected of being the worst of creeps, exercising his power over underage teen girls.

Ironically, a few weeks ago Harvey Weinstein’s situation took an unexpected turn when Lisa Bloom, a strong, feminist attorney who frequently reps women in high-profile cases against men (including the Bill Cosby case) initially agreed to advise Weinstein.

Bloom’s credibility was immediately compromised. Bloom, along with her mother, attorney Gloria Allred, has been a forceful defender of woman’s rights the past 25 years. Even Gloria Allred criticized her daughter for advising Weinstein.

Bloom recently reversed course and removed herself from Harvey Weinstein’s damage control team. In the process she may have saved her reputation, although her judgment is in question.

Donna Karan also raised eyebrows when she said some women in sexual harassment/assault cases may have been asking for “trouble.” She apologized but wow, what was she thinking?

One only hopes Weinstein is unsuccessful in suppressing his accuser’s voices, so the full truth comes out. Bill Cosby and Donald Trump successfully muted enough of the women who came forward with allegations against them that both are skating by without just consequences for their actions. (Cosby may still get his comeuppance at his retrial).

Since the Weinstein story broke, and proving the point that some men just don’t get it, Amazon Studios’ top exec, Roy Price, was forced to resign. New Orleans celeb chef John Besh stepped down. MSNBC political analyst Mark Halperin was fired. NPR head of news Michael Oreskes was placed on leave. And actor Kevin Spacey’s popular show “House of Cards” will not be renewed after Season 6.

All due to allegations of sexual misconduct against women and, in Spacey’s case, against a boy and men.

Clearly, it is long overdue to stop the barrage of men who think their name is Neanderthal and their home, office or hotel room is a cave.

Douglas FreelandNovember 2, 2017