MEN BEHAVING BADLY

An MSNBC spokesman has confirmed a report saying a news channel staffer had been paid and left the job after complaining she was sexually harassed by ‘Hardball’ host Chris Matthews nearly two decades ago.

The spokesman said Sunday the woman approached CNBC executives in 1999 to report Matthews made inappropriate comments about her in front of others. CNBC is a sister company of MSNBC.

The company declined to identify the comments, other than to say they were inappropriate and never meant as propositions. The spokesman said Matthews was formally reprimanded at the time.

time.com

I have written a couple of post over the past few weeks concerning the vulnerability of most men to an accusation of sexual harassment from some time in their past.  The posts were not to justify inappropriate behavior by men, but to warn against a ‘lets clean the house’ mentality – a social inquisition aimed at all men by women.  

I had in mind to write a third post on the possible consequences of a perceived war against men; but decided that it would come off as sexist to the female readers that might visit my blog – and I would regret that.  

But today on Morning Joe, Mika Brzezinski voiced the comments I would have written.   

I believe this world would be more peaceful and saner with women in charge.  For women to attain positions of authority, especially in corporate America, they must compete for positions with men. 

It goes without saying that the work place should be safe and unthreatening for women; it also goes without saying that a man who makes a female uncomfortable in the work place should be censured and that men who are sexual predators should lose their jobs. 

But, there must be a flexible standard.   A purge mentality against all men for past indiscretions will backfire. 

Any business man looking to hire a permanent staff person, with two equally qualified young applicants – one female and one male - must decide which applicant can smoothly transition into the position as the best fit to the existing staff.   

However, the young female, from the very beginning, is at a disadvantage.   It is a given that some time in the future a temp will have to be hired and trained to replace the young woman while she is on paid maternity leave.   

Now add to this the specter of having your whole business disrupted by a sexual harassment charge leveled at some male member of your staff.   As an executive you must now think twice before taking a business trip with a female employee, you must think twice before having a private business lunch with a female employee, and even a private business meeting or evaluation meeting alone with a female employee would be uncomfortable.   This is the new business atmosphere concerning female employment. 

The obvious choice: hire the man.

 I don’t have an answer to this; and it is not right; but in the business world that exist today, this is a reality. 

It is also a reality that a man’s career, his employability, his finances, his family, and his life can be destroyed by one accusation of sexual harassment from his past. 

In the military we use to say: One ah-shit can nullify ten attaboys.  

the Ol'Buzzard 

INHERIT THE WIND

Light the torches

Get out the pitch forks

There is a man in sight!

Matt Lauer fired from MBC.   If we are going to get rid of every man that made a pass at a woman, soon there will only be women on TV, women in the movies and women in government.   Actually, that last might be a good thing.  

We are starting through a new era, like integrating the south in the 1960’s, where previously accepted norms will be no longer accepted.  

Throughout history, and definitely all of my life, men have been in charge, men have had the power, men have made the rules.   It has been a Man’s World.

Now there are women in combat, women CEO’s, women in government, women in charge.   They are not going to take it anymore; and a lot of men will fall by the way side for what was once considered acceptable behavior in the Man’s World.     

the Ol'Buzzard

SEXUAL MISCONDUCT OF MEN

About three and a half million years ago a hominoid climbed down from a tree, walked across the savanna, spied another hominoid, killed him with a rock and raped his woman.

About two hundred thousand years ago a Homo sapiens walked across a quarry in France, spied a Neanderthal, killed him with a spear and raped his woman.

This has been the hallmark of our species from the very beginning.

We are a violent society by nature, and men are all predators at some level.   The males of our species are driven by self-aggrandizement and sex.

Women have always been the victims of our patriarchal nature, and were often painted as a defiler and emotionally unstable.

Prior to the last four decades, women were simply considered by men as an available piece of ass; wife mother and homemaker; or bitch/slut.    Man’s rules.

Throughout the last forty years we have been moving toward a genderless society; a society where women will no longer be the habitual victims of men.     

It has taken women moving into positions of power previously monopolized by men to affect this change: a woman twice running for President has, more than anything other incident, moved to shatter the glass ceiling.

 

Men’s accomplishments are outweighed by the outcome.  In only a few thousand years men have moved this world to the brink of environmental disaster and nuclear annihilation. 

I am old, and no longer have a stake in the outcome; but it is my observation that the only hope for humankind to avoid extinction is to replace men in power with women in power.    There are more women then men and they could affect and change the outcome.

However, I am not optimistic, for over 50% of the white women in this country voted for Donald Trump.   If women are not united, then gender equality will be the least of humanities’ problems.

Shiva - the destroyer of worlds.

the Ol’Buzzard