In days past, when male politicians were accused of sexual misconduct, they would only issue denials, and let others take care of the character attacks on accusers. Bill Clinton, for example, never said much about the women who accused him of using his position as governor of Arkansas to have affairs with numerous women, instead allowing James Carville to make remarks on TV about trolling trailer parks with $20 bills.
Clarence Thomas, for his part, cast his ordeal as part of a “high-tech lynching,” and likewise avoided taking Anita Hill on directly, saying:
This is not an opportunity to talk about difficult matters privately or in a closed environment. This is a circus. It’s a national disgrace. And from my standpoint, as a black American, it is a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves, to have different ideas, and it is a message that unless you kowtow to an old order, this is what will happen to you. You will be lynched, destroyed, caricatured by a committee of the U.S. Senate rather than hung from a tree.
Thomas may have had something of a point, but the truth is that politicians can always be targeted with lurid accusations no matter who they are, and a white politician probably would have been equally vulnerable to a similar charge in that political climate, when feminists were just beginning to flex their muscles on the national stage.
However, like Clinton, he avoided confronting his accuser. Even today, men are reluctant to directly challenge a woman when she makes an accusation, and for a compelling reason — people, including judges, will often take such a stance as an indication that the accused man is a bully, and efforts to defend himself may therefore end up appearing incriminating, but this perception is on the wane.
Cain, on the other hand, has decided to nip this “scandal” in the bud by going on the offensive and labeling the sexual harassment case a “false accusation.” It’s probably the wisest course of action, and one that is increasingly acceptable given changing views concerning gender and the dawning public awareness that many accusations are in fact deceptive and made with ulterior motives.
Here’s an excerpt from Cain’s statement:
while at the restaurant association, I was accused of sexual harassment. Falsely accused, I might add. I was falsely accused of sexual harassment, and when the charges were brought, as the leader of the organization, I recused myself and allowed my general counsel and human resource officer to handle it.
I don’t know much about Herman Cain, aside from the fact that he’s a good businessman and a conservative. But I do think it’s a positive sign to see a man standing up for himself in a direct, open manner, and putting the ball back in his accuser’s court rather than avoiding the issue and handing it off to some PR team. Calling the harassment case a “false accusation” may not seem like a big deal at first thought, but it’s actually very significant, as it is a departure from the typical evasion and deference to the accuser.
Hopefully, more men will take this example to heart and, no matter what their status or position, finally realize that actively and openly defending themselves from spurious accusations is both acceptable and effective.
