Since sexual assault and harassment charges have come out against film mogul Harvey Weinstein, there’s been an outpouring of other, similar charges against male entertainment figures, journalists and politicians. Most recently, comedian Louis CK has admitted to masturbating in front on non-consenting women and Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore has been accused of sexual improprieties with a 14 year old girl back in the 1980s.
And at least since the outing of Bill Cosby as an alleged serial predator, the dismissal of Fox News chief Roger Ailes, and the Donald Trump tape where he brags about grabbing women by the genitals, sexual harassment has been a major topic of conversation.
Is what’s happening the purging of the last vestiges of the old patriarchy? Or is it a long-delayed equalizing of the sexes that has barely gotten started? And is there a risk that a new puritanism will arise that essentially criminalizes workplace banter and romance?
To discuss all this and more, Nick Gillespie talks with Cathy Young, a contributing editor to Reason and a columnist for Newsday. She’s been writing about gender since the 1990s and is the author of the essential book, Cease Fire: Why Women and Men Must Join Forces to Achieve True Equality. Young’s Twitter feed is here and make sure to read her recent Los Angeles Times’ op-ed, “Is ‘Weinsteining’ getting out of hand?,” which argues there’s a categorical difference between the criminal acts of Harvey Weinstein and what one female journalist called “the low-level lechery” of former New Republic book review editor Leon Wieseltier.
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