Before Ohio moves on from the Marc Dann scandal, we should all reflect on one lesson it taught us: While Dann is certainly a creep, the woman he had an adulterous affair with is just as certainly not a victim.
Of course, that isn't how the usual cast of feminists and sexual-harassment racketeers see it. Shortly after the scandal broke, Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist Connie Schultz weighed in with a column titled There's No Equal Footing in Sex with the Boss. As she wrote, Jessica Utovich is virtually half Dann's age
has a smidgen of his higher education earned about a third of his income and was employed at his mercy. This was supposed to explain why Utovich was incapable of rejecting Dann's sexual advances.
No one has disputed that Utovich's affair with Dann was consensual. Nor is she a child who was being exploited by an older man. She is a 28-year-old adult who had a job in the Ohio Attorney General's office. And yet, because of a lack of parity with Dann (as Schultz put it), she is now being portrayed as his victim.
This is the catch-22 that feminists ' at least the ones who complain endlessly about sexual harassment ' have created for young, working women. On one hand, they argue that women are just as smart, capable and professional as men, and therefore deserve equal career opportunities. On the other hand, they tell us that women are so easily manipulated by men that they can't be expected to say no to sex with their male bosses.
This excuse is offered even when there is no evidence that the woman was coerced or threatened with the loss of her job if she said no. Does anyone remember the Kelly Flinn debacle? In 1997, Kelly Flinn became the first female B-52 bomber pilot in the U.S. Air Force. At first, she was rightfully celebrated as a role model for other women. But then she blew it by sleeping with a married comrade ' a clear violation of the Air Force's prohibitions on adultery and fraternization (in other words, having sex with another enlisted person).
Naturally, feminist groups and the media treated Flinn like a victim, saying she had been singled out ' even though she was subjected to the same set of rules as her male comrades, including the man she was sleeping with. Pathetically, during an interview on CBS's 60 Minutes, Flinn played upon the stereotype of the weak woman, saying, I was only 25 years old and I was confused.
The sexual harassment industry might accept emotional vulnerability as justification for a woman's dishonorable conduct, but the same defense would never work for a man. In fact, men who are caught having affairs with subordinates are often fired ' including Dann, who was forced by his own party to resign last week.
In her column, Schultz noted that incidents like the Dann scandal will hurt young women in the workplace, saying that the ranks of bright
idealistic young women in that office are bound to thin.
That statement is true, but not in the way she meant it. One year ago, when I was interviewing for an internship at the State Capitol in Texas, a male employee confessed that some offices were reluctant to hire women my age because we don't always trust them to act professionally. I was insulted ' but looking back, I'm not sure I can blame him. He's probably worked with women like Utovich, who voluntarily violate workplace rules, then blame the unequal power structure for their bad behavior and turn to sexual-harassment lawyers to file a lawsuit.
If gender equality on the job is really what we want, we can't excuse the behavior of adult women who willingly engage in sex with their coworkers or married bosses, in clear violation of workplace rules. Men like Marc Dann are held responsible for their actions. Let's hold women like Jessica Utovich responsible for theirs.
Ashley Herzog is a senior journalism major. Send her an e-mail at ah103304@ohiou.edu.
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