As you've probably heard, the popular program House of Cards was recently cancelled when one Anthony Rapp accused Kevin Spacey of sexually harassing him when he was just 14 years old. Good! There should be consequences! But I want to point out something funny about that real quick today: Let's imagine for a moment if Anthony Rapp had been female. Would the same consequences have resulted?
Many very powerful men have been brought down by accusations of sexual harassment, assault, and rape lately. But there is a gendered difference here. Typically, it takes dozens of women coming forward before the accusations begin to be taken seriously. Woody Allen and Roman Polanski still have careers after facing far more serious allegations than those leveled against Kevin Spacey. The latter, in fact, was not only accused, but actually convicted of child rape, and yet still has a career! Or take the case of Bill Cosby, for instance. It took 35 women coming forward before the media began to realize that the allegations being leveled against Mr. Cosby were credible. Doing the math on that indicates that each woman's word was valued at 2.8% that of Bill Cosby's. But Anthony Rapp's word was valued at 100% that of the man who apparently preyed on him. You see the difference? ONE accusation from ONE man and House of Cards is done, kaput, game over, no continues!
I'm just using these as examples. The principle applies far more broadly. This is my answer to those who respond to every single allegation of sexual harassment, assault, or rape case that they hear of wherein a woman was on the receiving end with "but what about men?! Men face this stuff too!" Yes, boys and men do face these things as well. Far more rarely than girls and women. You know why? Because they are a lot more likely to be believed than we are. Maybe if people trusted us as much as they do our male counterparts, these things would not be so pervasive in general. Maybe movements like #MeToo wouldn't be so necessary. Just thoughts!