Clapping your pal on the back is not the same as sniffing someone’s hair (someone you barely know) from behind in a business setting and you know it — and no, he doesn’t sniff men or kiss them or hold their faces in his hands. Touching someone on the shoulder is not the same as those things. The looks on the women’s faces clearly convey that they are uncomfortable. Often they are clearly trying to get away from him, and yet he never really apologizes or stops. In case you need to be reminded what those look like, here’s a whole website full of them.
There’s such a thing as decency and respect — this whole “that’s how I connect” is a complete red herring to allow him to continue to behave in the inappropriate way that he wants to because he feels entitled to do so. Touching people you don’t know well who have not invited you to touch them is wrong and he’s been made aware of that but keeps doing it. That’s the problem. He’s not unaware — he just doesn’t care, because he’s entitled.
And I’ve never said that he is a sex maniac. Entitlement is largely about power and rich, white, men in the public eye like to exert theirs. It’s largely subconscious, but that’s because it’s so innate to them and they can largely do as they please. Did you also defend George Bush for groping women from his wheelchair because that’s what men of his generation did with impunity for so long that he didn’t know it was wrong? 🙄
I’m not calling you anything, except an apologist for unseemly behavior and someone who does not seem to think that body autonomy for women is important.
“Both Biden and Trump have very public propensities to view women as ornaments, on earth for their enjoyment and pleasure and both are prone to making casually racist remarks without even understanding that they are offensive. The America that they represent is one where those at the top of the dominance hierarchy can get away with that kind of thing. In fact, it’s expected of them because it demonstrates that they have enough power to do so.
These beliefs are also subconscious, for the candidates and for the people who resonate with them. No-one is having the conscious notion that they are getting away with something. It’s simply the way things are, or at least the way they should be because that’s how they once were. It’s as natural as breathing all around.”
