Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Privileged White Male Abuses Vulnerable Woman

It’s an outright outrage.

A privileged white man of the patriarchal persuasion believes that his position allows him to violate a woman’s personal space. And that he can do it in public, in front of cameras, the better to show other men how it’s done.

It’s an outrage that a privileged white man can do it when a woman is defenseless, unable, for one reason or another to tell said man, abusing hisr power and their privilege, to keep his hands to himself.

It is worse still when said privileged white man performs his vulgar action in full view of said woman’s husband, asserting, for the world, his ownership of said woman’s body.

In a time when the nation is up in arms about predatory males taking sexual advantage of vulnerable women, one does well  to ask where men learn such appalling behaviors.

Where do men get the idea that it’s alright to put their hands on a woman who clearly does not want to be touched by a stranger? Where do they get the idea that it’s acceptable to whisper in the ear of someone else’s wife when she is severely uncomfortable, but cannot say No?

Whatever happened to: Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife….

Cue, the Vice President of the United States, Joseph Biden:


View image on Twitter


The Daily Beast described the scene:

For on Tuesday, at the swearing in of Ashton Carter, the new defense secretary, the vice president apparently couldn’t keep himself from pawing at Carter’s wife, Stephanie. It was extremely odd, and creepy.

This tactile cuckolding—Carter talks solemnly about being sworn is as the 25th defense secretary as his wife has her shoulders rubbed by Biden right behind him—was caught by the cameras.

It was made all the more exquisitely awful by the look on Stephanie Carter’s face, which was as much “Get your hands off me” as she could manage with the ranks of media watching her.

The Washington Post noted of her expression:  “She certainly does not look happy. More like annoyed.”

And while the incident is being played as another “Oh Joe” moment, Stephanie Carter’s expression is also piercing: Furious but frozen, it is the expression of anyone being touched or groped who really, truly doesn’t want to be.

Biden wasn’t done with just a shoulder rub. Then he whispered something in her ear, or nuzzled it. What did he say? Was he simply asking if she was all right after slipping on the ice earlier in the day?

Those who are up in arms about the way that men sexually abuse and exploit women should denounce this grotesque public display of a patriarchal man behaving very badly toward women.

Will they?

We’ll see.

[Addendum: The Washington Examiner has unearthed some of Joe Biden’s prior statements about sexual harassment.

It has found this:

“There is no circumstance under which a man has a right to touch a woman without her consent other than self-defense," Biden said in October 2000 in relation to the Violence Against Women Act. "We are changing the attitudes of America about what constitutes appropriate behavior on the part of a man with a woman."

A few years earlier, in May 1993, Biden said, "No man has a right to touch a woman without her consent, and that's what we've got to get across."]


9 comments:

Dennis said...

A Bill Clinton wannabe only sans the intelligence.

Dennis said...

Bet the feminists are going to be all up in arms about Biden's actions?

priss rules said...

Somewhat inappropriate but i wouldn't make too much of this.

And it's nothing compared to Bush's shocker on Merkel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTQY1Aw9zcs

Sam L. said...

Don't people know not to let Joe get within six feet of them?

Stuart Schneiderman said...

Thanks Priss for the link to the Bush video-- as I see it, Bush was playing a joke--not a good one-- on Merkel. Biden's actions were more lewd... to my eyes.

Ares Olympus said...

re: Where do men get the idea that it’s alright to put their hands on a woman who clearly does not want to be touched by a stranger? Where do they get the idea that it’s acceptable to whisper in the ear of someone else’s wife when she is severely uncomfortable, but cannot say No?

Yes, apparently some American men are clueless and American women need to get assertive like German Women so American Men know when they're being an idiot.

But the "cannot say No" is troublesome. If you slap the VP in front of a camera, will that affect your husband's career?

Someone needs to be willing to test this.

Stuart Schneiderman said...

Given the circumstances, and the power imbalance she was trapped. Note that her husband put his hand on her shoulder as soon as Biden removed his.

Ares Olympus said...

Yes, looks tough for her if she was uncomfortable. I just watched the video (@1:25-1:50), and don't see any real opportunity for her to react, both her and Biden were focused on her husband's speaking, and Bidens hands were just resting on her shoulders for most of it.

At the end he whispered something into her ear and then she smiled in response, but the whisper, putting his face in her hair makes it look more intimate than he probably intended. You can try to read her, but you can misread either way. She might have been fine, and looked otherwise, or was uncomfortable and completely covered it up.

If she did choose to react, it would be as easy to say she over-reacted.

So to me the only "good" reaction would be to privately (outside of cameras) discuss her discomfort later, and Biden could offer a apology.

Anyway, whatever her real reaction we can't see, the Media's reaction would seem to cause more problems than it solves. And the only "real" answer for dirty old men is to only act badly off camera.

Anonymous said...

Houston, we have a problem.

https://www.facebook.com/269123710083/photos/a.10151865702380084.869853.269123710083/10155230758300084/?type=1