{"id":194307,"date":"2021-03-04T21:31:18","date_gmt":"2021-03-04T18:31:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/andrew-cuomos-insulting-bumbling-man-defense\/"},"modified":"2021-03-04T21:31:18","modified_gmt":"2021-03-04T18:31:18","slug":"andrew-cuomos-insulting-bumbling-man-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/andrew-cuomos-insulting-bumbling-man-defense\/","title":{"rendered":"#Andrew Cuomo’s insulting ‘bumbling man’ defense"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Andrew Cuomo’s insulting ‘bumbling man’ defense<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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After eight days in his hidey-hole, three women having credibly accused him of sexual harassment, Gov. Andrew Cuomo emerged wide-eyed and teary, hand splayed against heart, offering this line of defense:<\/p>\n

I had no idea.<\/em><\/p>\n

How insulting. How specious. Cynical to the point of camp.<\/p>\n

If only there was something like, I don\u2019t know, a widely circulated photo of a grinning Cuomo with his hands on either side of one young accuser\u2019s grimacing face, her expression clearly telegraphing please-stop-let-me-go, that could have communicated such resistance to the governor.<\/p>\n

Script<\/a>ed line from Cuomo\u2019s presser yesterday, repeated for emphasis: \u201cI never knew at the time that I was making anyone feel uncomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whom are you going to believe? Andrew Cuomo or your lying eyes?<\/p>\n

I had no idea<\/em> has become the last refuge of the scoundrel. It\u2019s the go-to response in every crisis manager\u2019s playbook, a one-size-fits-all explanation for every sexual harasser who otherwise cannot defend or deny his behavior.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s doubly diabolical for its sexist subtext: \u201cCalm down, ladies. Let\u2019s not get hysterical.\u201d
Right. Because when women get upset, by default we\u2019re being illogical. Our emotions automatically override cognitive function.<\/p>\n

And so it\u2019s left to these poor men, ever beleaguered by us women with our standards and self-worth, to explain that sexual harassment isn\u2019t so bad. Just let these men learn from their mistakes in peace. Consequences aren\u2019t necessary.<\/p>\n

This is nothing short of gaslighting. It\u2019s blaming women for having the absolute morally and legally correct reaction: Sexual harassment is wrong. Full stop.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what happens when a young female employee like Charlotte Bennett, then 25, is left alone in an office with her much older, extremely powerful boss, Cuomo, who then peppers her with questions such as:<\/p>\n

Do you have sex with older men? What\u2019s going on with your sex life? Are you monogamous in relationships or open to other partners? I\u2019m certainly open, he allegedly said, to relationships with women your age.<\/p>\n

Paraphrasing Cuomo to Bennett here: God, this pandemic is such a drag, I haven\u2019t hugged, really hugged, anyone in forever. How about you?<\/p>\n

So Bennett \u2014 bright, ambitious and clearly talented, working as an executive aide and health policy adviser during the height of the pandemic \u2014 surely goes home and thinks:
Is this guy going to kill my career if I don\u2019t sleep with him? Spread rumors about me? Demote me? Fire me?<\/p>\n

That is the insidiousness and nefariousness of a power imbalance. It\u2019s the reason a harassed subordinate can\u2019t tell her boss \u201cNo\u201d or \u201cDon\u2019t talk to me like that\u201d or \u201cLeave me alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also, here\u2019s something we didn\u2019t hear the press corps ask Cuomo yesterday: \u201cAren\u2019t you a known, lifelong bully? Didn\u2019t you just call a Democratic Queens assemblyman, one who questioned your handling of COVID-infected nursing home patients, and yell down the line, \u2018I will destroy you! You haven\u2019t seen my wrath. I will go out tomorrow and start telling the world how bad of an Assembly member you are, and you will be finished\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n

Such is Cuomo\u2019s reputation, his terroristic behavior an open secret in Albany and among the reporters who cover him, that no one doubts this version of events.<\/p>\n

But sure, in this instance \u2014 three attractive young women who look an awful lot alike, highly credible claims and zero reason to want this kind of attention \u2014 we\u2019re to give this guy the benefit of the doubt?<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve heard Cuomo defenders say that what he did isn\u2019t so bad. It\u2019s not rape. He\u2019s not a monster like Harvey Weinstein.<\/p>\n

To which I say: In what way is what Cuomo did remotely okay?<\/p>\n

Why are women still expected to tolerate this behavior, which has a real deleterious effect for all of us, flushing the best and the brightest out of their chosen fields by men who strain credulity by claiming they don\u2019t know any better?<\/p>\n

As Cuomo accuser Lindsey Boylan tweeted<\/a> immedia<\/a>tely after his pathetic mea culpa: \u201cHow can New Yorkers trust you @NYGovCuomo to lead our state if you \u2018don\u2019t know\u2019 when you\u2019ve been inappropriate with your own staff?\u201d<\/p>\n

Amen.<\/p>\n

\"Demonstrators
Demonstrators hold signs as they gather outside Andrew Cuomo\u2019s office calling for his resignation in Manhattan on March 2, 2021.<\/figcaption>
REUTERS\/Shannon Stapleton<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In our #MeToo era, there is no shortage of constant training \u2014 in corporations, on campuses, and yes, in the halls of government \u2014 on what is and is not acceptable behavior.<\/p>\n

Cuomo himself \u2014 who condescendingly reminded us yesterday that he is a lawyer \u2014 also told us that he completed his most recent annual sexual harassment training course.<\/p>\n

So what can\u2019t Andrew Cuomo, this self-styled brilliant legal and political mind, comprehend here?<\/p>\n

In a great piece for The Week in 2017, Lil Loofbourow wrote about the myth of the male bumbler. Such was the premise for Cuomo\u2019s demeanor and speech yesterday.<\/p>\n

\u201cShould you not recognize the type,\u201d Loofbourow wrote, these men are \u201cwide-eyed and perennially confused\u201d \u2014 Andrew Cuomo, check.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s astonished to discover that he had power over anyone at all, let alone that he was perceived as using it.\u201d \u2014 Check.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bumbler\u2019s perpetual amazement exonerates him. Incompetence is less damaging than malice.\u201d \u2014 Check.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the great irony: If Andrew Cuomo had adopted this mantle when his nursing home scandal broke \u2014 tears, an abject apology, a claim that he didn\u2019t know any better at the time, it was the earliest days of the pandemic, he was doing the best he could and will never forgive himself instead of reverting to form (\u201cWho cares [if they] died in a hospital, in a nursing home? They died.\u201d) \u2014 the press and the public might, just might, have bought it.<\/p>\n

Alas, Andrew Cuomo just used up his last male bumbler chit.\n <\/p><\/div>\n