But we know it's not happening all at once. Susan Browmiller's book, published in 1975 and titled "Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape," helped us understand that sexual abuse has been pervasive since time began. It's an essential way men have exerted power over women.
Brownmiller wrote: Man's discovery that his genitalia could serve as a weapon to generate fear must rank as one of the most important discoveries of prehistoric times, along with the use of fire and the first crude stone axe.... Sexual coercion...is less a matter of frenzied lust than a deliberate exercise of physical power, a declaration of superiority designed to intimidate and inspire fear.
We know that sex (rape) has been used as a weapon of war from biblical times right up to the present. Some people of both sexes think it's just the way men are wired. "They can't help it." My grandma used to say "Boys will be boys."
But the vast majority of men in our society don't engage in sexual misconduct. And even in cultures where women have no rights many men still treat them with dignity and respect.
When I woke up this morning to hear about the misconduct of Charlie Rose I said out loud "When will it end"? But what I really want is for all of us, men and women, to say "enough." This is not who we are.
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