Assignment 13 Danielle Dutton

     Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, Kevin Spacey, Al Franken. Why should we let these great men lose their fame and prestige over something as simple as sexual harassment accusations? Women teach their children to forgive and forget, shouldn’t they follow their own advice? Just because these men made one or two … or several inappropriate and illegal advances on women who were just trying to do their jobs to the best of their ability to get the highest salary their inferior gender allows them, that doesn’t mean they’re bad people. On the contrary, it means they’re true humans. Miley Cyrus, a woman known for speaking out in support of feminism, states that “everybody makes mistakes, everybody has those days” and that that’s okay because “nobody’s perfect,” showing that even feminists believe in second and third … and umpteenth chances for these successful men.

     Some may argue that second chances don’t apply in cases where laws are broken. But if that’s true, how come many states allow for atrocious traffic infractions to be expunged from the records of dangerous lawbreakers in return for attending a driver’s course? Even jailed thieves can receive a second chance in the form of probation. They can restart respectable lives, so why can’t Weinstein, Cosby, Spacey, Franken, and all the other famous men who have been accused of sexual misconduct? The women involved should’ve been thrilled and grateful to receive attention from such prestigious men anyway – men so far above them they could only dream of seeing them through a glass ceiling above their heads.

     We must take action against the injustice being dealt these poor men as their careers and honor are stripped from them. To do so, join me in binge-watching pirated episodes of The Cosby Show and House of Cards and tweeting about it with the hashtag #HonorTheAccused. After all, those great men among us didn’t make it to the top for nothing.