The core problem is that he's being accused of sexual assault, a very serious accusation, for what seems to be a perfectly serviceable way to greet his fans, albeit a tad inappropriate considering the ages of some them. Getting close to take a photo and kissing a fan as a greeting or a goodbye seem perfectly fine, in isolation. I don't subscribe to the idea that touching people in non-sexual areas should be completely off-limits or else a lot of people are losing their jobs (or worse) over such a thing. And I also don't subscribe to the idea of judging someone's intent over such actions when that leads to a very slippery slope.Michsi wrote:The core of the problem here is not his age. Whether you're in your twenties or fifties you are still expected to be decent. As you can see in the thread, it's not just young women that have issues with this sort of behavior.
What am I missing? That he was insistent? Yes, that's a bit troubling. It indicates that he feels all too comfortable apparently flirting with underage girls, which should be the bigger issue here, not that he feels comfortable sexually assaulting women, because there was no sexual assault.
Is it sexual harassment? Perhaps. It's debatable. I don't care enough to argue for either side, but I can see how he was perhaps a bit too flirty and insistent to the point that they felt uncomfortable. Is it sexual assault? Now that's where you're losing me. I shouldn't think that unsuccessful and clumsy flirting (there was no groping of any sort, from what was described) is enough to illicit emotional and psychological trauma on someone, but apparently I'm wrong.Kunzait_83 wrote:Just because he didn't actually penetrate any of the girls doesn't in any way mean that this doesn't qualify as sexual assault, and I find it frankly both comically absurd as well as genuinely unsettling that there are seemingly educated, intelligent people like yourself who appear to actually need such elementary, grade school-level basic social norms explained to you.
This seems like an American thing again, so I'll distance myself from the discussion. I can't muster enough energy to care about societal norms on the other side of the Atlantic.
This is wokespeak for "I don't want to debate your position because it makes me feel uncomfortable so I'm just gonna passive-aggressively show how I'm morally superior to you." Stop, be an adult, you're better than this. Either muster up a real response or leave your grandstanding at the door.Marlowe89 wrote:I find your position about unwanted sexual advances for well over a decade being worthy of "a slap on the wrist" to be incredibly ignorant at best and deeply unsettling at worst.