Abuse or simply testing the water

 Abuse or simply testing the water.

 

It's difficult not to become sceptical as the race is on to blame men for inappropriate behaviour. As our papers line up to condemn the rich and famous in terms of abuse towards women there is a feeding frenzy of claim and counter claim with the interesting entry this morning of Donald Trumps comment that "human lives are being destroyed by mere allegations".

Of course abuse of anyone, towards any animal, is wrong and should be challenged but the term abuse has such wide ranging connotation.
Does a spat between husband and wife or between son and daughter fall into the bracket of abuse. Does a flirtatious evening where signals were received and then withdrawn but the change in the sexual weather front not picked up and what is described as inappropriate behaviour, even years later, is now the cause of allegation and lives ruined.

The unique attraction between a man and a woman is the Darwinian process that makes the animal kingdom flourish. Without the attraction which is substantially sexual our species would die out. If as is rapidly happening, the male seeks to protect himself from unfounded accusation, he had better stay at home. Of course it's not in the home where so many of these claims of abuse flow and more and more the office environment is the killing field for misunderstood innuendo. 

The claim is that 'power' which one individual has over another is the tinderbox and that the 'casting couch' in Hollywood has been the focus of ire for many female starlets. 

This public outing of so many famous household names is spreading.   First it was the political arena and now the whole process of male/female interaction is under the spot light.

The world at large is unmoved. Religious distinctions  continue to mark out what is good and what is bad.  The "oldest profession" still thrives across the world and these matters are largely the concern of the Western liberal fringe who feel most affronted. 

Abuse comes in many shapes and sizes. The tongue is one of the sharpest instruments of daily abuse and yet it is not classed in the same league as a hand on the knee. Why is this. Is it because men, who are often at the sharp end of verbal abuse just shrug their shoulders and accept it, much as a lass from a working class environment would know how to deal with an inappropriate hand. If it were just evidence of "correctness" gone mad then one would simple put it down to the times we are living in but as Trump says, "lives are being ruined" and who knows the reasons behind the claims, often made decades later.

Can you envisage returning to a Bronte era where the courtship was conducted in such a way no one could discovered the true character of the person you were marrying until it was too late - and then the real abuse could begin.