• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • About Towleroad
  • Towleroad on Social Media
  • Privacy Policy

Towleroad Gay News

Gay Blog Towleroad: More than gay news | gay men

  • Travel
  • Sports
  • Law/Justice
  • Celebrities
  • Film/TV/Stream
  • Republicans
  • Madonna
  • Books
  • Men
  • Trans Rights
  • Tech/Science
  • Royals
  • Monkeypox

Cuomo Excuses: Call it Generational shift or feigned ignorance? #MeToo’s ‘redrawn lines’ Make Clear Ignorance of the Law is No Excuse.

Towleroad August 11, 2021 Leave a Comment

 
Published by
AFP
 
461482 origin 1
Andrew Cuomo is far from the only powerful man accused of sexual misconduct to owe his behavior to not knowing better

New York (AFP) – New York’s soon-to-be ex-governor Andrew Cuomo is the latest politician to blame inappropriate behavior on shifting cultural norms, a defense critics see as a tactic to shirk responsibility in the face of scandal.

Prior to his dramatic downfall and resignation, Cuomo was well-known for ruling with a mix of paternalism and pugnacity. He has insisted he always acted within bounds, even as women including former staffers began speaking out against him.

But on Tuesday, one week after the release of a bombshell report from the state attorney general’s office — allegations included inappropriate touching and intimidating accusers — the now politically ostracized 63-year-old said he now realized the boundaries had shifted.

“I have been too familiar with people. My sense of humor can be insensitive and off-putting,” the governor said in a lengthy address announcing he would step down.

“In my mind, I have never crossed the line with anyone,” said the nearly three-term state leader once tapped as a national political contender.

“But I didn’t realize the extent to which the line has been redrawn. There are generational and cultural shifts that I just didn’t fully appreciate.”

Cuomo — who frequently touted his own efforts to end workplace discrimination, including signing legislation to that effect — is far from the only powerful man accused of sexual misconduct to attribute his behavior to not knowing better.

Former senator Al Franken, who resigned from US Congress in 2017 after snowballing allegations of unwanted touching and kissing, said he “learned from recent stories” that “I crossed a line for some women.”

And President Joe Biden has faced a number of accusations of inappropriate physical contact, which he and his supporters attributed to his touchy-feely style.

“So I invaded your space. I’m sorry this happened,” Biden said, when asked to apologize during the 2020 race. 

“I’m not sorry in the sense that I think I did anything that was intentionally designed to do anything wrong or be inappropriate.”

‘Power grab’

For Jean Sinzdak, an associate director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, such a defense is “a disingenuous argument and missing the point.”

“This behavior has always been inappropriate,” she told AFP. “There’s nothing new about the fact that it’s inappropriate.”

“It’s just now our society’s understanding that it’s inappropriate, that women have been suffering with this for so long, and it’s no longer acceptable that they suffer.”

Audrey Nelson, a Colorado-based expert in gender communication, called Cuomo’s blame on a generational disconnect “a scapegoat.”

“Personal space is personal space,” she told AFP. “It is not generational.”

And invading that space? “If you want to reduce it to one simple concept, it’s about power,” Nelson said.

She recalled the tenure of Bill Clinton — a former US president who multiple women in the 1990s accused of sexual harassment — who Nelson said “was known for pulling people in” when greeting them.

“You’d shake hands, then he’d grab your upper arm and pull you in,” Nelson said. “The power grab.”

The same was true in Cuomo’s case, she added: “It’s about conquering.”

Different political standards?

A number of the US politicians who’ve resigned in recent years in the face of harassment accusations have been Democrats, including Franken, one-time New York State attorney general Eric Schneiderman, and now Cuomo.

Conversely many Republicans, including former president Donald Trump and Supreme Court judge Brett Kavanaugh, have declined to step down despite accusations of sexual assault. Alabama Republican Roy Moore ran twice for Senate office — both times unsuccessfully — despite claims he had sexually assaulted multiple women including several minors.

Sinzdak said the responses to sexual harassment allegations don’t necessarily fall along party lines — “every case is different,” she said — but that Democrats may “have a harder time looking away” given their frequent support of causes like anti-harassment laws. 

“It would be hard for them as a party, with the platform that they have, to look the other way. In that sense, the Democrats are held to a higher standard,” she said.

Sinzdak praised the #MeToo movement for “putting a spotlight on the issues of harassment and abuse, and giving women a voice and a platform to share their stories.”

“It’s been the equivalent of a cultural earthquake in the political world, and we’re going to feel the reverberations for a long time,” she said.

Part of that earthquake for Nelson means “intentions” — which politicians including Cuomo have cited in explaining that they never meant harm — are no longer a valid excuse to justify bad behavior.

“Be aware. Pay attention,” she said. “Hell is full of people with good intentions.”

Ignorance of the law is no excuse on Towleroad

Topics: Aaon, Society, Space, towleroad More Posts About: #MeToo, Andrew Cuomo, Sexual harassment

Related Posts
  • Not All Straight People But … Playboy Mansion Secrets: ‘Drugs And Orgies The Norm’, ‘Not Safe Haven Some Women Thought’; Consent? Not So Much.
  • HRC Fires President Alphonso David Over Alleged Connections to Cuomo Sexual Harassment Scandal; David Promises Legal Action
  • First of R. Kelly Male Victims Testifies; Was 17 When Singer Asked What He ‘Was Willing to do for Music’; Filmed Acts; Told To Call Him ‘Daddy’
  • Christian extremists destroy LGBT monument in east Beirut

    Christian extremists destroy LGBT monument in east Beirut

    Published by Al-Araby Christian extremists have torn down a flower monument depicting the rainbow flag in east Beirut, as Lebanon experiences a wave of homophobic and transphobic incidents. In a video published by “Soldiers of God” …Read More »
  • Ryan Resch Becomes First Openly Gay NBA Basketball Ops Person

    Ryan Resch Becomes First Openly Gay NBA Basketball Ops Person

    Published by Sports Illustrated By Daniel Chavkin The 29-year-old publicly came out on Saturday. View the original article to see embedded media. Suns vice president of strategy and evaluation Ryan Resch publicly came out as gay, …Read More »
  • U.S. tech industry frets about handing data to states prosecuting abortion

    U.S. tech industry frets about handing data to states prosecuting abortion

    Published by Reuters By Jeffrey Dastin PALO ALTO, Calif. (Reuters) – The technology industry is bracing for the uncomfortable possibility of having to hand over pregnancy-related data to law enforcement, in the wake of the U.S. …Read More »
  • ‘Guns have more rights than women’: Kim Kardashian hits out at US abortion law ruling

    ‘Guns have more rights than women’: Kim Kardashian hits out at US abortion law ruling

    Published by BANG Showbiz English Kim Kardashian has condemned the Supreme Court’s decision to terminate the constitutional right to abortion in the US. Lawmakers in the US caused uproar across the globe after the landmark Roe …Read More »
Previous Post: « U.S. Senate to try again to pass voting rights in September, Schumer says
Next Post: World of Batman Now Even More Queer; Longtime Robin Comes Out as Questioning in DC Comics Anthology Series »

Primary Sidebar

News

  • Billie Eilish tells Glastonbury fans to scream away anxieties at history making headline slot

    Billie Eilish tells Glastonbury fans to scream away anxieties at history making headline slot

  • Landmark gun-safety bill heads to U.S. House after Senate passage

    Landmark gun-safety bill heads to U.S. House after Senate passage

  • Prosecutors seek 25-year prison sentence for Chauvin over breach of Floyd’s rights

    Prosecutors seek 25-year prison sentence for Chauvin over breach of Floyd’s rights

RSS Partner Links

  • Sunday Comics
  • Speedo Sunday
  • Chris Diamantopoulos Goes Shirtless for Afternoon Walk with His Dog
  • Rita Moreno Reflects on Botched Abortion Years Before Roe V. Wade
  • Colin Farrell on Tom Cruise’s stunt work: ‘that’s mental illness, that’s not bravery’
  • Prince William didn’t get the People cover, but did get an embiggening profile
  • 'Bachelor in Paradise' Star Cam Ayala Undergoes Leg Amputation Amid Battle with Lymphedema

Most Recent

  • ‘F*ck BET:’ Lil Nas X BET Conflict Gets New Volley With Release Of New Single And Video ‘Late To Da Party’

    ‘F*ck BET:’ Lil Nas X BET Conflict Gets New Volley With Release Of New Single And Video ‘Late To Da Party’

  • Christian extremists destroy LGBT monument in east Beirut

    Christian extremists destroy LGBT monument in east Beirut

  • Ryan Resch Becomes First Openly Gay NBA Basketball Ops Person

    Ryan Resch Becomes First Openly Gay NBA Basketball Ops Person

  • U.S. tech industry frets about handing data to states prosecuting abortion

    U.S. tech industry frets about handing data to states prosecuting abortion

  • ‘Guns have more rights than women’: Kim Kardashian hits out at US abortion law ruling

    ‘Guns have more rights than women’: Kim Kardashian hits out at US abortion law ruling

  • Lizzo donates $500k to Planned Parenthood and Abortion Rights

    Lizzo donates $500k to Planned Parenthood and Abortion Rights

  • Biden administration signals fight over medication abortion

    Biden administration signals fight over medication abortion

  • Horror on Oslo Pride day as gunman goes on deadly rampage at gay bar

    Horror on Oslo Pride day as gunman goes on deadly rampage at gay bar

Most Commented

Social

Twitter @tlrd | Facebook | Instagram @tlrd
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • About Towleroad
  • Towleroad on Social Media
  • Privacy Policy
[towleroadmr] [towleroadtn]

Footer

Copyright © 2022 · Log in