Women are People

In the early 1970s it was routine for boys at Astoria Junior and Senior High Schools to snap or grab and pull women's bra straps. When I went to the University of Idaho in the fall of 1975, about half of the runners on the cross country team got in the habit of squeezing young women's bottoms when we ran past. It got to the point that women would back up against trees when they saw the University of Idaho cross country team coming. Then someone complained to someone at the university, and our coach said to knock it off. There was no punishment or lectures.

I didn't participate in the harassment, but neither did I confront anyone who did. My point is, the whole thing was viewed by we young men as routine.

Now the routine is being confronted, head on. Men across the political and cultural spectrum are at last being called out for behavior that leaves women feeling humiliated--or worse. We may be seeing hundreds if not thousands of resignations coming. Men have been getting a pass for this sort of behavior for a long time.

Perhaps the time has come when most men will accept this idea with all of its implications: women are people.