- Unwanted Sexual Advances

It was Katy Couric’s shameful performance during the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings, that cemented my budding conservative views onto what was already a libertarian outlook. In her mind she had Thomas convicted and run out of Washington on a rail before testimony was even offered. The accusation alone was more than enough for her to all but demand his head on a pike - to hell with innocent until proven guilty. So from a fairly early point in my political awareness, it’s been an established fact for me that women don’t react rationally to sexual harassment charges.

In my 20 something years on Wall Street I’ve never seen nor heard of any actual sexual harassment, but I’ve met dozens of women who were perfectly willing to make unreliable or totally false accusations of it. In fact, the latter being so much more common than the former in my experience, I’m very reluctant to believe the charge unless there is more supporting evidence of some kind. Show me a blue dress with DNA, and I’m convinced. Short of that, it’s all just he said she said. And in that circumstance I think the man should almost always get a break.

It always seemed to me that the idea of ‘unwanted sexual advances’ being illegal was subjective and silly. If fat bald Joe from accounting tells you that your shoes are nice then it’s harassment, but if Brad Pitt accidentally unfastens your bra, then it’s perfectly OK. That doesn’t seem right to me, and in point of fact it isn’t. Joe from accounting would never be prosecuted – the law requires more evidence than that. But these days, where the great spinning wheel of justice is seen as a chance to cash in by many, in practical terms the law no longer works that way.

I’m 40 something, tall, lean, I have all my hair, and more than one woman whose opinion I trust has told me that I’m not bad looking. I’m no Brad Pitt by a long shot, but there are no villagers following me around with torches and pitchforks either. In short, I’m a relatively normal, if slightly nerdy guy.

And as a relatively normal guy with a very well documented lack of charm when it comes to most women, I know for certain that a large portion of the sexual advances I’ve made in my life have been unwanted for one reason or another. In fact if you ask my wife, I wouldn’t be so surprised to find out that many of my current sexual advances still are. But obviously that doesn’t mean that I’ve broken the law. Even the Pope says it’s ok to proposition your own wife – even if she’s not really in the mood. So the standard for illegality is obviously set a little higher than that. But in my experience, many women don’t think so. Many women seem to think it’s all about how appealing they find it.

So the upshot of all this is, when Herman Cain says that he didn’t do anything, I believe him. He doesnt' strike me as the kind of man who would do what he's been accused of, and his avid denial is really all I need to hear. I think the woman's claim is the more suspect of the two anyway.

I’ll bet I can find half a dozen women who will accuse pretty much anyone of sexual harassment if the upside is there. And with our legal system and pop culture being what they are, it almost always is. In certain liberal media circles, celebrity victim hood is considered a lofty virtue, so women will line up to accuse someone like Herman Cain even if all it means is a chance to be on the today show.

I may turn out to be wrong, but from what I’ve seen, I don’t think he did anything wrong at all. And until someone shows up with a blue dress, I’ll probably continue to feel that way.