'Liberal' men's responses to Platner allegations range from rationalization to mansplaining
Some of these people were the same people who – with me – argued that Trump shouldn't be elected because he was a rapist. Credible allegations were enough then. They should be now.
By Megan Pickett
Megan is a former NASA scientist and a professor of physics at Lawrence University.
This world would be a lot easier to navigate if all the predators and rapists had Nazi tattoos and weird Reddit posts and an obvious problem with the truth. Of course it is not that easy, and because it is not that easy, because it is so prevalent, women live with a level of fear or unease or caution that most men don't, I think, appreciate.
Too, there's a spectrum of harassment and abuse that ranges from denigration to the worst crimes, and I have yet to hear of an occupation or place or community that is immune from it. If you've never walked to your car with your keys as wolverine claws, please be quiet and just listen.
It's because of the first point that your default position should be "believe the woman." Just don't even start with me on that, junior. Statistics really do back this up. And still – yet again – we got to see, in real time, what happens when either a woman accuses a man in power, or women vocally support the woman who had the courage to say something. Every dude gets a pass; every dude gets a 'hey, she could be lying'; every dude gets a 'he's too important!'
I swear to God, I lost track counting the number of arguments I had with ‘liberal’ men mansplaining to me (oh the doubling of ironies!) how this works. We saw the same thing when the late Lindsey Graham lost his mind at the Kavanaugh hearings, and since I'm here, the Thomas hearings, too. And Clinton. Maybe even especially Clinton, because if Dems had actually stood up and tossed his ass, maybe we could have had a baseline for behavior that wasn't troglodytic.
And some of these people were the same people who – with me – argued that Trump shouldn't be elected because he was a rapist. Credible allegations were enough then. They should be now.
And need I point out, from the first two points, that, once again, the villain of the piece was not a trans woman, but a cis man? That for all the bullshit about protecting women and girls, when you pull off Old Man Jenkins mask, it's Old Man Jenkins under there, always.
