What boy hasn't done this? Did he...he SERIOUSLY asked that?!
I don't know a SINGLE man or boy who has done, or thought of doing this. I know more than one woman, however, who has had what Professor Ford had done to her - and worse - done to them.
I only know of two types of men, two VERY SPECIFIC TYPES of men who do this sort of thing or think it is at ALL acceptable: religious social conservatives and sociopaths.
Neither respects women as ACTUAL human beings.
Both types of men tend to view women as broodmares, slaves, sexual objects, or display pieces to be collected and owned. Or they are seen as villains, 'bitches', 'Jezebels', 'whores' to be defiled or destroyed.
Both types of men often see women as naturally subservient or otherwise less than men. Religious conservatives have their holy books backing up THEIR beliefs on the matter, and sociopaths just...don't care.
Both, clearly, are drawn to politics.
For proof, look at anything from the
Quiverfull movement,
Father-daughter 'purity balls',
militant Islam (the actual, real kind, like the guys that took over Iran in the 70's, or who organized 9/11, for example. Not the made up boogeyman version that the Right seems convinced is ALL Muslims...), the 'Christian' warlords like Kony (
remember him?), or pretty much ANY ultra-conservative member of an Abrahamic faith with a book or TV show. Compare the words of conservative rabbis, priests, pastors and imams about women to those of serial killers and rapists, and then try to sleep well again.
Now, I'm not saying that all conservative religious men are sociopaths, of course. I'm quite sure 'some are good people', if I may ape a well known quote by a...stable genius...who is absolutely NOT a sociopath or someone who bragged about committing sexual assault...*clears throat* Nor am I saying that religion causes men to legitimize or commit rape. Either claim would be ridiculous. Most of the men I know - the ones who would never dream of this sort of thing, much less commit the act - hold to one variety or another of the Abrahamic faiths, so of course, I know that the vast majority of religious men are perfectly good, decent people. I also am quite clear on the reality that many very bad men claim 'God told me to' as an excuse for their actions. However, I am also aware that when someone who has claimed piety gets caught in some horrible sex scandal, religious outlets are SILENT about it, at best, and actively work to keep it quiet, at worst. The silence of many of those good, decent religious men in the face of the absolute atrocities being committed, or excused, justified and/or covered up by prominent members of their faiths is disgusting and damning in and of itself, but it doesn't make the silent ones as bad as the monsters.
Correlation is not causation, I am well aware, but...I am ABSOLUTELY saying that there is a VERY troubling amount of overlap on this issue. Overlap that we absolutely HAVE to discuss, if anything is going to change.