As news broke on Friday that yet another famous, powerful and successful man has been revealed to be a serial sexual predator and repeat harasser of women, it’s superstar comedian Louis CK’s turn to make women – and men – shake their heads in astonishment and disgust. So far, five women have come forward to say he masturbated in front of them – claims the 50-year-old admitted to overnight. We know where this goes from here. Many more stories will now be told by women who were too scared, confused, intimidated or embarrassed to speak up against a man with great power.
The repetitive, familiar nature of these allegations should not make them any less shocking. We must remain appalled by this kind of behaviour. We cannot become numb to it by virtue of the fact there seem to be a lot of powerful men who sexually harass women in this way.
Here’s a question: What makes a man think it’s OK to masturbate in front of a woman at work?
Let’s imagine the roles reversed. Let’s imagine a famous woman – Oprah or Hillary Clinton or Barbra Streisand or Meryl Streep – coercing a young man into a room in their workplace and then masturbating in front of them. It’s surreal and preposterous to even consider because it would literally never happen. Because women don’t get off on the idea of being sexual with someone who is at best totally disinterested in them and at worst, utterly repulsed by them. Women don’t get off on using their power to try and sexually dominate people who don’t want to have sex with them.
So why do powerful men seem to revel in this twisted form of harassment? Why do they turn masturbation into a form of sexual abuse?
Top Comments
Well, I guess rock stars like Tom Jones just catch the women’s panties thrown at him on stage, wipes his brow with them and tosses them back. I guess if I guy threw his boxers or briefs at a female performer we’d be reading all about it here full of rage, wouldn’t we? I assume women don’t flash guys randomly because that could get out of her control quite quickly, it would be unwise. I guess men don’t worry about that, maybe they even hope for it.
Point is, men and women actually are wired differently. I don’t think women can conclude what motivates men to expose themselves for two reasons, first there is probably more than one reason and second the 99.9% of men who don’t flash have no idea themselves why the others do such creepy things.
"It’s surreal and preposterous to even consider because it would literally never happen."
Newsflash: It literally HAS happened many times before. Women ARE capable of abusing boys/ men. They ARE capable of feeling superior and dominant by conducting vile sexual acts, including masturbating in front of them, despite the males pleas not to.
I think this article should be edited as you may trigger the MANY boys/men that have been victimized and abused by older and/or more powerful predatory women.
It wouldn’t happen. Powerful women seeing sexual harassment as a perk of their status are rare as hen’s teeth.
Look at the massive gender imbalance in sexual assault/abuse/harassment cases.
Abuse comes in many forms, and it's not a competition about what form is most heinous. Women have blood on their hands too.
I can't believe that anyone can actually state that women are incapable of these things. What rock are you living under? Outnumbered by male predators or not, it still happens. There are still plenty of male victims out there.
These type of articles do no good for anyone. How can a male reading this ever have the courage to speak out about any sexual abuse he may have suffered?
I was abused at work by a female boss when I had just turned 18. Most people laugh more than offer sympathy when I tell them about it. Hence, the story never gets told. Don't be so naive people.