Cain plays the ‘you know how women blow everything out of proportion’ card
So, after a day of floundering, Herman Cain has decided to respond to the revelations about sexual harassment complaints in the past with the “hysterical bitches” card. When outright denial isn’t possible and claiming that she consented and regretted is implausible, the “you know women, always overreacting to every little thing, amirite, guys?” card is coming out. It comes with an attempt to downplay what happened, usually speaking. Anyone who reads MRA stuff regularly has seen this in action, though it’s often more of the “it was just a scratch, I don’t know what she was complaining about” variety. (This excuse came into play in the suicide letter of the MRA who set himself on fire at a courthouse. He minimized the fact that he punched his 4-year-old daughter in the face hard enough to bust her lip, and portrayed his ex-wife as a hysteric for taking that incident seriously and divorcing him.)
Great analysis of the Herman Cain situation over at pandagon:
As for the Republican base that everyone is so anxious about, I know that this won’t hurt him. Nona explained the 10-step process for getting people to side with the accused, even if they think he’s guilty (see: DSK, Clarence Thomas, Roman Polanski), and this process works better on Republicans than anyone. Conservatism is about siding with the powerful over the oppressed, and that means that their natural preference is to side with men over women, unless they’re trying to score political points against that man. Since Cain is their guy, there’s no doubt how this is going to go. Plus, his entire image is based on this goofy notion that he’s some sort of rebel against the supposed liberal establishment. Since they believe women and feminists especially control everything, someone who pisses off feminists by sexually harassing colleagues until they have to leave rather than deal with him is poised to be a hero. They won’t say it out loud, but the “boys will be boys” excuse is how that belief will be communicated.
It’s unfolding now in realtime. Worth the read.
Update: Rand Paul, right on cue.
