This content was published on August 11, 2021 – 12:27 AM
11.August 2021 – 00:27

(AFP)

Andrew Cuomo, who recently stepped down as governor of New York City over allegations of sexual harassment, linked his behavior – like many other politicians – to changing cultural norms, which critics see as a strategy of evading responsibility.

Cuomo, 63, insisted he always acted within limits, even when several women, including former employees, began testifying against him.

But on Tuesday (10), a week after the state’s Attorney General’s appalling report was published, which spoke of inappropriate touching and intimidation of prosecutors, the politician said that he now understands that the boundaries have changed.

“I got to know people very well. My sense of humor can be insensitive and unpleasant, ”the governor defended in a long speech in which he announced his resignation.

“In my opinion, I did not cross the line with anyone,” the governor said for almost three terms.

“But I didn’t realize how much the borders were redrawn. There are generational and cultural changes that I have not fully processed, ”he stressed.

Cuomo, who has often praised his efforts to end discrimination in employment, is not the only influential person accused of sexual harassment to attribute immoral behavior to ignorance.

– “Captured Power” –

Former Senator Al Franken, who stepped down from Congress in 2017 after a wave of accusations of touching and kissing without consent, said he “learned from recent stories” that he crossed “the line for some women.”

President Joe Biden himself has faced several accusations of inappropriate physical contact, which he and his supporters attribute to his warm style.

“I have invaded your space. I’m really sorry that this happened, ”Biden said when asked to apologize during his 2020 presidential campaign. “I’m not sorry in the sense that I think I did something that was intentionally done in order to do something wrong or inappropriate.”

For Jean Shinzdak, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, this defense is “an insincere and meaningless argument.”

“This behavior has always been unacceptable,” he told AFP. “There is nothing new about being irrelevant.”

“What has happened is that now our society understands that it is inappropriate, that women have been suffering from it for a long time, and it is no longer acceptable for them to suffer.”

Audrey Nelson, a Colorado-based gender communications expert, called Cuomo a “scapegoat” blaming generational disunity.

“Personal space is personal space,” he told AFP. “It’s not generations.”

Intruding into that space, “if you want to reduce it to a simple concept, it’s about power,” Nelson guaranteed.

She recalled the administration of former Democratic President Bill Clinton, who was accused of sexual harassment by several women in the 1990s and who, according to Nelson, “was known for dragging people with him” when he greeted them.

“You held out your hand, and then he grabbed your hand and pulled,” Nelson recalled. “This is a seizure of power.” It’s the same with Cuomo, he added: “It’s about winning.”

– “Good intentions” –

Several Republican politicians, including former President Donald Trump and Supreme Court Justice Brett Cavanaugh, have also been charged with sexual assault.

Shinzdak praised the #MeToo movement for “highlighting the issue of harassment and abuse and giving women a voice and a platform to share their stories.”

“It was tantamount to a cultural earthquake in the political world, and we will feel its echoes for a long time to come,” he said.

For Nelson, part of this quake means that the “intent” that politicians, including Cuomo, have quoted to explain that they never intended to harm the victims, are no longer a valid excuse to justify bad behavior.

“Keep in mind. Pay attention, ”he said. “Hell is full of people with good intentions.”