I’ve been thinking of Samuel Pepys. Pepys, a 17th-century British Member of Parliament and civil servant, was a successful administrator, an avid diarist, and a serial abuser of women. With all the news about sexual harassment, intimidation, and assault, Samuel Pepys has been in my mind.
When it comes to a powerful man (and sometimes a powerful woman) using his position to harass, assault, and intimidate people under his power, there is nothing new under the Sun. Pepys’ secret diary describes him harassing female servants, who sometimes could fend off his advancements but at other times couldn’t. He was, sparing the details, a violent sexual predator who had the clout to get away with it. The stakes for the women he assaulted were enormous—losing a job may mean starving in 17th-century London. Modern-day Samuel Pepyses use the same tools he used.
Serial Harassment and Power
Although losing a nascent career in Hollywood or being blacklisted from appearing in The O’Reilly Factor won’t lead to death by starvation, those are very desirable positional goods; victims face the loss of their dream. Predators know of this weakness and use it to gratify their desires.
Besides ambition, predators are protected by the shame victims often feel. Being the victim of abuse signals to the mind a loss of status, and victims just want to get on with their lives.
But more than anything else, prominent predators rely on their status to continue abuse from decades. When it comes to a Harvey Weinstein or a Bill O’Reilly, they were like lords of the manor strutting around and molesting the peasant girls. As long as Weinstein could produce successful movies and O’Reilly could bring an audience to Fox News people around them kept covering for them. (The amount Fox News paid in O’Reilly settlements is mind-boggling). As long as they kept their status, they got away with everything.
Most disturbingly, a considerable number of people internalize this selective morality for the powerful. Something deep in the human psyche fuels an impulse to bow before the powerful. As a result, some victims have found themselves under attack for ruining such great men.
What is to be Done
With such servility, what can be done to reduce sexual exploitation by the powerful? The first thing to do is—nothing. Or rather, we should let societal changes play out without panicking. Particularly, we must continue to fight crime and to build a law-abiding society. Sexual harassment, intimidation, and sexual assault are crimes, and they track other types of serious crime—that is, when murder and aggravated assault fall, these crimes fall as well. Better policing and more effective punishment of crime will reduce these crimes as well.
The other thing to do is to end the culture of celebrity and celebration of the powerful. Here I’m pessimistic. The ethical concerns of our society seem to be moving in the opposite direction. We judge the powerful and the famous with a different set of rules. A significant portion of our society only believes in getting away with all they can. And there are those who envy men who get away with such behavior.
Sexual exploitation of the vulnerable springs from the darkness that lurks in the human heart. We will never get rid of it. But we can do better, much better than we are doing now. I’m hopeful we will do better as a society; but of this hope I’m not sure at all.
