It’s also the exact rationale that acquaintance rapists use to rape:  “I didn’t know I was raping her!”  It’s bullshit.  We are expected to believe that certain men, are smart articulate talented communicators but somehow don’t know a sloppy wet kiss is a sloppy we kiss or that groping someone’s ass is not groping…

I listened to Hysteria (a Crooked podcast), which is ostensibly feminist, and they were trying similar shit - basically saying his ousting happened too fast, and that because it was ~only mild harassment~ it would have been better for him to stay in the Senate....ugh.

And Ted Kennedy helped pass anti drunk driving laws. We see time and time again politicians take principle stands in passing bills and then turn around and do those same shitty things in their personal lives. This is not new. There is no disconnect between Franken being against sexual harassment and still being a…

True, and some people are overly flirty or familiar without getting really gross. But I’ve known plenty of “kissers,” none of whom went about it with an open mouth.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend also had an abortion handled in a great way.

I mean, if Liv Tyler is the benchmark for looking 42, many of my friends in their early-mid 40s have significantly more signs of aging (a fair number don’t, tho!). Where I see the line breakdown is income/occupation/social life, which tend to go fairly hand-in-hand. My friends who have had harder lives, had to work…

She’s in the Hulu show “Harlots” and the period dresses and wigs really do nothing for her. She did not look great in her first season on the show. 

I listened to that too (I actually almost never listen to NPR but my husband listens in the car). I had not read the article when I heard the interview so I was trying TRYING to give her the benefit of the doubt. Part of my brain still really wanted to think Al Franken was one of the good ones. But then she started in…

Y’know, if Franken wanted due process so much, he could have stayed in office and demanded an investigation. It’s almost like he really wanted to duck out of the public eye for a while, then use his media connections to rewrite history to make himself seem more sympathetic!

Anna, first on the topic.

Thanks for your reporting. I used to admire Mayer and am mystified as to why she chose to die on this hackish hill.

All the time. I’m a model (an older, 40 something, one now but still work in the biz). When I was a teen and early 20's I used to get approached in major cities all the time by men who claimed to be model scouts and had seemingly legit business cards. Luckily for me, I had a mom who was very smart and told me very…

I truly wish I could have your optimism. Even if Republican names are exposed, I doubt any of them will be “brought down.”

The deeper one reads into all of this, the more mindblowing it gets. So. Many. People. Involved. I’m really hoping that we get to read the unsealed Guiffre lawsuit soon. Shit is about to get absolutely fucking crazy. 

What Franken did was crass. But was it on par with a Weinstein, Jim Jordan, Brett Kavanaugh, Donald Trump, etc., etc., etc.? No. It wasn’t.

How can some people be SO confident that the people they know aren’t sexual harassers? I have no idea about my dad or my brothers or my husband. I can only say what I know, but that doesn’t prevent someone from sexually harassing another person.

I’m so sick of people invoking “due process” when talking about #metoo. Due process is a legal term. It has a specific meaning. There is no such thing as “due process” for someone who has been accused of sexual misconduct but is not being charged with a crime - they either face consequences or they don’t, largely…

He (and his defenders in that piece) really seem to believe that his intentions matter more here than their effect on the victims. And they just . . . don’t. If you’re a man in the 21st century kissing women at work, it’s not their job to figure out whether that’s because you’re a lech or a socially awkward dork. If…

Hi, Minnesotan here. Al Franken fucking broke my heart, but why the fuck is this coming up again? Eight women came forward. I have a feeling he resigned before an ethics hearing because there would have been more.

Fuck this article and the suggestion that these were mistakes and not abuses. You don’t make the same…

There were 8 different women who came out. Knowing how disincentivized women are from telling their stories, there are bound to be more. It would have been easier to keep him if congress actually has actionable plans for consequences for their offenders. But they have a history of just sweeping things under the rug.…