Granted, nothing he’s alleged to have done is as bad as Roy Moore’s behavior. And Al Franken has been a reliable progressive voice in the Senate.
But it is damaging to women to countenance sexual harassment. Doing so sanctions treating women as objects. For some men, that’s grabbing a little ass here and there. For others it’s forcing a kiss — or worse. In all cases, you, as a woman, are not you. You’re some guy’s sex toy.
Here are the latest allegations that Franken has been a mighty handsy fellow:
www.huffingtonpost.com/…
“My mother loves Al Franken. She listened to Air America [on which Franken had a radio show] every day,” the first woman said. ”I saw him and asked if we could take a photo together for my mother, and we stood next to each other ... and down his hand went.”
HuffPost spoke to two sources close to the first woman who corroborated her account.
One fellow choir member, Sarah, remembers not only being there for the groping incident but hearing another choir member say that Franken wouldn’t stop looking at her chest.
Ten years ago, it was easier to shrug off predatory behavior as “boys being boys,” Sarah said, especially when that predatory behavior came from a political ally.
Franken has been a great political ally in his public life.
And I am pragmatic enough to want the Democrats to outnumber the Republicans in Congress—regardless of how imperfect those Democrats might be. Most of us here would agree that the Republican party is dangerous to civil rights, the environment, the general health and well being of most Americans and the planet.
So if Franken has to be a Democratic placeholder in Congress, so be it. (However a Democratic governor would promote a Democratic replacement for him should he step down.)
But it sure is getting hard to accept his “I respect women.”
I know that former women coworkers and staffers have testified that he did treat them with respect. I believe them. Too.
Few of us humans are complete assholes or complete angels. I’m sure Al Franken has a lot of wonderful qualities. I think this is why these allegations are particularly disturbing to me: Even “good guys” can treat women as tits and asses.
I’m glad I’ve aged out of target range. Interesting how much safer I feel as an increasingly feeble old lady. But I worry for the younger women. And on their behalf I deeply resent the victim-blaming and denials. I’ve seen far too much of the damage that causes. Edited to add this important comment from The Distillery: “….I was a rape crisis advocate where I met victims at the hospital. You never age out of the target range. The hardest victim for me to maintain my composure around was 70 years old. I cried while she was getting her exam and couldn't see me. Men do this regardless of age. You can be 8 or 80. It's effed up, and all assailants need to be held accountable regardless of the level of abuse.”
I would hope that most people in this community are able to say that it is wrong to treat women the way Franken is alleged to have treated them—and that his “humor” in the photo is...fucked up.
I appreciated his apology and his own acknowledgement that the photo was demeaning. And I will feel sad if he resigns.
I’m sadder still that a good guy thought it was OK to grab strange women’s asses (allegedly) and pretend to grab a woman’s tits (definitely) in photos.