So, next on the pervert docket we have legendary serious news journalist Charlie Rose...

Wait, what?

So, let's take the list of people called out for being predatory assholes so far: Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, John Besh (supposedly famous chef), Louis C.K., Hadrian Belove and Shadie Einashai (rich assholes with movie theaters), Richard Dreyfuss, Gary Goddard, Andy Henry, Dustin Hoffman, Robert Knepper, Andrew Kreisberg, Jeremy Piven, Brett Ratner, Steven Segal, Tom Sizemore, Jeffrey Tambor, James Toback, Senator Al Franken, and now Charlie Rose. But wait, there's more! Yeah. I mean there's a longer list, but I'm not going to type out any more names. If you want to see the mostly complete list, look here. 

So, I let this sit for a day, and what do we have now? John Lasseter. Yes, the John Lasseter that was key in evolving Pixar into the animated feature film studio it became. The John Lasseter that took over Disney Animation in 2006 and paved the way to enormous hits like Frozen, Wreck It Ralph, Inside Out, and the upcoming Coco. The John Lasseter who was instrumental in working with Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki to bring English-language releases of their beloved animated films to the West, movies like Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, My Neighbor Totoro, and Ponyo. The John Lasseter who apparently has a maneuver named after him where women angle to keep him from touching their legs. 

Most men on these lists are pigs. It's easy to see. Weinstein is obnoxious. Spacey is outspoken and overconfident. Louis CK is brash and loud. Jeremy Piven seems to play himself in Entourage. Tom Sizemore has a history of violence against women. Steven Segal is a self-important asshole. But then there are the people whom we've come to trust. Al Franken. Charlie Rose. Now John Lasseter. 

So, what's going on? 

The simplest answer is that we are finally seeing the intersection of women's rights, sexual repression advocacy, and destructive male empowerment ideologies, though that's far from a simple answer. Women are human and, therefore, have human rights. Women must be afforded the same respect and dignity that men demand. Women are not animals or property. To treat women (and I also mean girls, in case you're looking for a loophole) as livestock or store products is wrong. So, stop it. 

Sexual repression has been going on for ages, ever since the first person was embarrassed to see people having sex right in front of them and they weren't getting any. Various forms of religion have long advocated control through abstinence. Religion works best as a method of human cattle management because it focuses on the core aspects of being human (i.e., sex, behavior, food, etc) and engages emotional touchstones (i.e., fear, joy, desire to belong, love). 

Then, last but far from least, we have what most people would call Rape Culture, but is deeply rooted in male empowerment, masculinity development, and patriarchy. Men are the top. Men are bosses. Men can do stuff that weak women can't do. Women are good for making lunch and babies and looking pretty and shutting up and that's it. Men are smarter, faster, stronger, large and in charge. Men aren't crybabies, need their mommies, or have doubts or fears, and if you have any of those needs, you're a sissy and need to man up or go die in a dark alley somewhere. 

How could that kind of hyperbolic assholery ever go wrong!

Well, here's an example:

So, "rape" used to mean something, yes? Now it just means women dissatisfied with the sex they had with potent and skilled men? Invite some girls to your frat party, get them so drunk they can hardly stand, take them upstairs, and give them what should be the time of their life, and you're shocked when they get mad? Hell, they consented to getting drunk, right? They have women bodies that I can see with my man eyeballs, right? How is that rape? 

With women running around like they own the place, religious policies that have quashed the normal human sex drive creating people who have a pathological understanding of what sex actually is, combined with men who have been taught that they must take what they want and all things are subservient to them, is a combination that is just primed for a tipping point, and it seems that we might have reached it. Like gay marriage or unlike gun control.

What we need is a healthy understanding of what human sexuality really is and that has to be taught in school, to all kids. Repression and extreme control methods need to be canned. Kids who are free and encouraged to experiment will come to understand it better, earlier, and develop a core sense of responsibility regarding sex. Our current ideals regarding sex, drugs and alcohol, work, and responsibiliity are skewed badly in ways that do not favor the development of kids who understand what life is really like, and that's one of the things that is holding us back, causing all manner of problems, and won't get better unless we really work for change. 

Humans have evolved over millions of years and sex becomes viable with the onset of puberty. To deny this simple, biological fact, as we have for all of recorded history, is to try to push back against the impossible weight of millions of years of evolution. 

That kind of strategy just can't win. Period.