Took me two hours to read the whole Schneiderman story because I kept feeling sick and having to put it down.
It is, simply, everything awful: power abuse, violence, misogyny, disdain, racism, fear, threats, gaslighting, prosecution of the very crimes he's committing, dependence of progressives--of feminists--on him as powerful feminist ally. And sensation it was all part of a sick game.
That dependence. Ugh. This, like Franken/Clinton, other progressive "good guys"--so symptomatic of what happens when these guys have such outsize power: women forced to rely on them as representatives & allies, which leaves them impeded in how or if they can challenge them.
Used to think of dependency as being mostly about econ/personal relationships where it's ALSO bad: hard to challenge the men on whom we are dependent--husbands, bosses, mentors. But it exists in big scale ways too: our politicians, our communicators, men who make the art we love.
For those telling me Franken doesn't belong in this analysis: Yes he sure does. It's not about equivalent allegations. It's about dynamics of dependence on white male power & costs of challenging that power...costs exemplified by the vilification of the women who challenged his.
