Although I respect your view on male / female issues, and empathize with where you're coming from, I stand by my assertion that your reasoning for your anti-contact position is - at its very root - misandry.

The male / female power play is always in flux, and is not a constant in all areas.

And although I empathize very much with sexual harassment victims (I choose not to imagine the things I might do to someone I caught sexual harassing my girl) . . . I also have a problem with the "naming and shaming" mentality (it's innocent until proven guilty, and news reports usually amount to opinion pieces slandering the accused).

Calling these guys (who sexually harass women) "sexual predators" is a misnomer because it's associating lascivious behavior with the collective thought bubble taking place around pedophilia as a (very valid) quasi-orientation (different from gay vs straight but we don't really have a good, non-offensive word for it yet - ties into the picture I'm drawing here) . . . and thus propagating a very problematic stereotype.

Ideally we wouldn't need a buzz word and we could just refer to them as "the accused" or "men accused of sexually harassing women" as I suspect the crux of this is less about a fear of violence.

My heart goes out to anyone who was sexually harassed or - especially - abused. However, as someone who has suffered their whole life from "innocent until proven guilty"-style environments surrounding a somewhat-related issue, I might have a certain PTSD situation around them.

To me it looks like we (as adults) aren't teaching certain little boys enough about respecting boundaries.

I recently faced a situation where my LG's brother was sexually harassing her.

Identified that problem real quick: because of the sexual suppression directed at children (and associated actual child-abuse that goes on by parents and others with the "authority" to slap whenever frustrated - deep breaths, Rainbow) - Mr. Buddy had not been taught yet by any respected male that violating boundaries is NOT OKAY. Fortunately, since I know a thing or two about how kids' brains worked, I rerouted that wiring in about 20 seconds.

~

"Hey!!"

"What?"

"STOP what you're doing and look at me."

"What?"

"Never again!"

"What?"

"Did she say you could do that?"

"No."

"Then why are you doing that?"

"Because I want to."

"You can't!"

"Why?"

"Because she said so! It belongs to her!"

"It belongs to ___?"

"Yes!! It does! Hey, are you listening?"

"What?"

"It's not okay to touch people without asking!"

"It's not okay to touch people without asking. . . ."

"Never again!"

"Okay. Sorry ___."

~

I thought you might like that story. :)

~ Rainbow