It’s been too long in coming.
Here is the translation from the French taken from the New York Times article today (The full letter in French available here from LaMonde)
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“Rape is a crime. But insistent or clumsy flirting is not a crime, nor is gallantry a chauvinist aggression,” “As a result of the Weinstein affair, there has been a legitimate realization of the sexual violence women experience, particularly in the workplace, where some men abuse their power. It was necessary. But now this liberation of speech has been turned on its head.”
“This expedited justice already has its victims, men prevented from practicing their profession as punishment, forced to resign, etc., while the only thing they did wrong was touching a knee, trying to steal a kiss, or speaking about ‘intimate’ things at a work dinner, or sending messages with sexual connotations to a woman whose feelings were not mutual,”
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Here is my comment to the N.Y. Times:
The saddest example of what Catherine Deneuve and her allies declaim is the hate-fest against Al Franken by the entire Democratic Senate. Recall his SNL’s Stuart Smalley character, with the refrain, "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and by golly, people like me." Well, when his colleagues stop liking him, he had no defense, since that was the essence of who he is. It wasn't his weakness, it was his humanity.
He had expended eight years of his life learning how to be a legislator, but never took the course on how to defeat his own party transformed into a rabid mob. #Metoo, is morphing into suspicion verging on hatred of men, as a gender, as a sex, as part of the dyad that evolved to consummate that which perpetuates the species. Sexual differences, and yes, male dominance, isn't a fad to be restructured in years or even decades. It evolved over eons, long before we were even homo sapiens.
The excesses of the Harvey Weinsteins are few in number, but massive in media exposure. There is a vast difference between flirting and rape, and it's really not too much to ask that one not be conflated with the other. The opprobrium against rapists isn't new, as it was commonly a capital offense, yet inappropriate flirting, even going so far as an unwanted touch, rightly has been punished by a slap in the face.
OK, the explosion of anger energized by repressed rage could have been justified, but now is the time to replace such rage with reason. The punishment must fit the crime, as erring in either direction is a travesty.