The abuses are there. They are just so institutionalized that they have become invisible. Now that the bit has flipped and these 'typical' actions are no longer acceptable, there are literally generations of women who are coming forward. What we are seeing is no less then the lancing of an abscess that has been with us for generations - there is going to be a whole lot of 'stuff' before we can start to heal.

Incidentally, there is a statute of limitations on these claims, but since we are dealing with 'influence' and not 'authority', no limitation applies.

I consider this to be part of the adolescence of our society as we try to make a transition from our inherited tribal instincts to a civilized modern society. Women in workplace double the capabilities available to a society without increasing its overhead. In order for women to climb upwards to their individual levels of competence, there cannot be a bottleneck of having to have sex with powerful men above them (so to speak).

Jan

I am becoming increasingly troubled by the corporate instant-firing of employees based on minimal allegations. Today, the story has evolved with Lauer in a manner that appears to confirm that this has long been a problem and with many women. If so, fine, the corporation has to draw a line and can't afford to wait for a judicial verdict. Weinstein, same thing, plenty of women have come forward to justify dropping him. My concern lies more with situations like Garrison Keillor (Prairie Home Companion) who appears to have been tossed under the bus for a relatively minor issue which he did his best to handle on the spot.

His statement...“I put my hand on a woman’s bare back,” he wrote. “I meant to pat her back after she told me about her unhappiness and her shirt was open and my hand went up it about six inches. She recoiled. I apologized. I sent her an email of apology later and she replied that she had forgiven me and not to think about it. We were friends. We continued to be friendly right up until her lawyer called.”

He was fired and his syndicated "Best of" programs have been pulled.

While I don't want to minimize the problem of sexual harassment, I'm concerned where this slippery slope is taking us.

This is funny. The leftists attempted to use political correctness to get rid of Trump (unsuccessfully), Bill O Reilly (successfully), and countless others who oppose them. Now the tiger they let out of the cage has turned on the leftists themselves. I think the leftists deserve it, although I DO THINK that women should grow up and deal with these things (except for forcible rape) on their own. They pretty themselves up to get attention (and money and jobs) from men, then complain when the piper wants to be paid for the favors. They should either NOT take the favors, or pay the piper. These are consensual deals.

Libs will be lying~cough! cough!~laying, I mean, laying claims to a far higher moral ground than we have yet to imagine by the time Gloria Allred trots out her defaming dames yet again when Trump runs for reelection during 2020.
By then the debris of assorted lib careers shall litter our collective consciousness like a virtual battlefield.
No, that's too weak. More like an~yes!~an apocalypse of horrendous annihilation.
No, more like a gargantuan catastrophe! Yeah, yeah, that one. I like that one. The apocalypse of a horrendous gargantuan catastrophe!
Think the Laurer story is shocking? Wait until the Jackass Party piles onto the Clintons like a famished mob of zombies like in a scene of The Walking Dead.
All that shall matter is the victorious at any cost dumping of Trump by 2020.
If not sooner.
Thus me dino hath written. Thus me dino--predicts!

Wait for evidence instead of innuendo. Just another BS distraction from the media.

what Laurer did, he got justice for...I was an airline pilot for 25 years...stayed in the same hotels as these "Celebes"...the women would line up in the hotel bar to take turns being "selected" to go up to the rooms with these "celebs"...they deserved each other....it was "consenting" behavior between adults...easy to see how these "celebs" moved on to "expect" this behavior from all adults...the other "celebs" around them KNEW it was going on and kept quiet....they are all at fault and ALL of them should be fired...I shared what I knew with media reps and was ignored...

And now Garrison Keillor is on the list and booted out the door!!

I can't tell if certain industries just had rampant harassment or if people are going overboard. One of the accounts I heard of Weinstein harassing someone made me doubt. He behaved horribly pressuring someone wanting a job for sex. But the person he was asking for sex reacted paralyzed and terrified. I don't know why she reacted that way, but I assume it's because of the perception Weinstein could make or break her career.

I can't tell if we're becoming less tolerant of sexual harassment or just more sensitive to anything that makes us uncomfortable.