Watching Al Franken resign leaves me sad. I am an ardent feminist and see the abuse, harassment, and inappropriate flirting women have experienced as somewhere between inappropriate and evil. But I fear that this wave of firings and resignations is actually a cover-up for the much bigger issue. So many of the firings seem more like an attempt to brush the issue under the carpet than an actual institutional change. We are focussing too much on the outward manifestation of the power differential rather than the broader impact it has on women in all of life. We are raising anger at a few people instead of talking about the whole culture that condones much of what we now condemn.
Senator Franken was part of an entertainment industry that sells itself through content with a lot of sexual acting out, both overt and covert. He participated fully in that culture, both on screen and sometimes in his personal life. I am sure he received as much positive attention for his sexual gestures as negative. When he moved to the Senate, he changed cultures and also changed his actions. He is resigning because of being part of an entertainment culture that we support with our viewing and money.
In the same way, much of the harassment we are hearing about, from Trump to Weinstein, reflects the broader issue of power differential between men and women. Faced with gross sexual approaches, women did not talk out because of fear of losing their jobs, reputation, or future chances. And, in the same way, we need to look at the broader cultural picture, not just the actions of a few.
Whether it is the failure to let women rise proportionately to the highest positions in entertainment, industry, education, or government or the experience of mansplaining that every woman has had, we have a cultural gap that leaves women vulnerable to sexual exploitation but also to every other type of exploitation and powerlessness.
Being sexually abused or harassed is one of the most demeaning experiences a person can have. I support the people who are speaking out and think we need to respond strongly to their experiences. But, by focusing, exclusively on this, we fail to talk about the bigger picture. We kick a person such as Al Franken out of the Senate even though it is clear that he is one of the more important male champions of women’s rights. We let the women in the tech industry experience a lack of opportunity to advance. We see women attacked in social media relentlessly. Almost every woman has experienced the feeling of being invisible in a meeting where her voice is less important than a man saying the same thing.
I don’t want to live in a world where people fear to touch, where there is no humor, where every move is a defensive one because of the fear of future accusations. With less power differential, it becomes more possible to speak out if something is offensive. With less power differential, it becomes more important to ask permission for closeness. And these two actions, the asking and giving permission, we can keep some of the closeness we all need to be human.
But resolving the power differential is the work of our lifetime — as it has been the work of many others before us. My dream is that we use a form of restorative justice instead of only the public courts and court of public opinion to address some of the current charges against people like Garrison Keillor and Al Franken, who have supported giving power to the powerless. My dream is that such people and their accusers take this opportunity to speak to the bigger issues of power. My dream is of a society radically different than what we have. But it is too late for Al.