One morning, a man decided to contend King Orange’s reign. His name was Viscount Handsy. He was well known: a former senator and Vice-President, back in the time when democracy ruled the land and before King Orange took the throne. In his announcement that he was running, he said, “America is a country founded on the principle that all men are created equal.” What about women?
Even though this contender was an honorable man who served with an honorable president, and authored the Violence Against Women Act, he had a woman problem. In 1992, a man named Clarence Thomas was nominated for a spot on the Supreme Court. A woman named Anita Hill came forward to accuse Mr. Thomas of sexual assault. During the Senate confirmation hearings, Viscount Handsy, who was the head of the Senate Judiciary Committee at the time, treated Ms. Hill unfairly, and Clarence Thomas was confirmed.
Women also accused Viscount Handsy of unwanted physical contact. A placing of his hand on a woman’s shoulder here, an unsolicited hug there. In the #MeToo era, when women’s voices were being heard ever more loudly, sensitivity to any unwanted touching of any kind was heightened. Another woman came forward with a claim of sexual assault. Could progressive women and feminists, or any women for that matter, overlook such behavior, especially when it was politically expedient to do so?
After all, 53 percent of white women voted for King Orange, who cheated on his first wife with his second wife, and his second wife with his third and current wife, slept with a porn star with his third wife pregnant at home, and boasted on tape that he could get away with grabbing women by the pussy. Numerous women also came forward to accuse him of sexual assault. Maybe standards were lowered to the point where it didn’t matter.
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