Monday, December 5, 2011

How Do Innocent Men Protect Themselves?

Liberal Sally Kohn recently wrote an article for entitled "Let's Quit Bashing Women As the 2012 Presidential Campaign Rolls Along".  In theory this is a great concept. I have a wife and a young daughter. If they were harassed I would certainly want them to come forward and that person should be punished. As a matter of fact, it would be difficult to convince me not to go punish that person myself for harassing my loved ones.

But just because harassment is accused, doesn't mean it really occurred. We have recently seen Herman Cain with his sexual harassment and infidelity claims that men's lives can be destroyed without any ability to protect themselves. I'm not saying I was on the Cain Train, as a matter of fact I'm not really a fan. But Herman Cain, who did have very strong support leading into primary season, is out of the Presidential race and we have everyone in the country assuming he's guilty because the majority of the media hasn't even bothered to use the word accused.

People have cited a legal settlement as proof of guilt. This is a spurious argument, companies settle those type of cases all the time to avoid publicity and limit costs. If it was really that bad, why settle for as little as one year's salary? A case like that could have resulted in hundreds of thouands or millions of dollars in a jury award, why settle if it was really true? Why not make sure he was punished badly enough at the time to protect other women in the future? In other cases the accusation must be true beccause the woman told her boyfriend it happened. How is this proof? Who's to say she didn't make advances to Herman Cain and was rebuffed so she made up the story to cover up for herself in case it came up later?

In the end we just don't know the truth. But if we can't question the motives of accusers in situations where they seem questionable then what is to stop women from making spurious accusations any time they want? If the only possibility is to assume all women are telling the truth so we don't scare off future accusers, what happens to a woman who can never prove her accusations but by trying people in the media they destroy someone's life? How do innocent men protect themselves?

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