Peggy Orenstein looks at Trump the pussy-grabber as one bead in the necklace of temporary outrage.
In each case, by the time it’s over, we turn away from the broader implications toward a more comforting narrative: The perpetrators are exceptions, monsters whom we can isolate, eliminate and occasionally even prosecute.
Certainly, such behavior is not representative of men, not by a long shot. Yet neither is it entirely atypical. Sexual coercion, in one form or another, is as American as that baseball metaphor — a metaphor that sees girls’ limits as a challenge boys should overcome.
And this isn’t anything new. Those struggles in the back seats of cars have been a staple of movies and sitcoms since…well maybe since … Read the rest
