It's 100% OKAY to have complicated feelings about the Franken accusations
Let's be honest, there's a LOT to unpack in the Al Franken accusations, and lots of people are picking sides as though they know exactly what happened, but we've got to be honest with ourselves, we don't know. So, let's do a little bit of unpacking, and see what it is we're really looking at:
1) The photo itself. Set up for a bit or goofy joke while she was asleep, it doesn't really matter. It's a pretty tasteless joke of the type that women have been told to just put up with for a long long time. Al Franken himself admits that the joke and picture were tasteless. We may not want to admit it, but it's part of a pattern in our culture that objectifies women. Whether or not Franken was actually touching her in that photo, he was making grabby hands at her breasts. I've also heard the justification that she's wearing a flak jacket and armor between her breasts and the potential grope, and that justification can just please go away.
2) Initial reactions. There was a knee-jerk reaction among liberals, progressives, and Democrats that came down two ways: One was that "Dammit, Al, you were supposed to be one of the good guys, I'm so disappointed." and the other was "This is 100% fake, this woman is lying to smear a Democrat to distract from the gross tax reform bill and the AL race." That's fine, we had no useful information at the time. But initial reactions should calm down as our blood cools. We're getting more and more information coming out, and things look far more complicated than they did in those first moments.
3) Believing women. So, in the last few months we've seen a lot of women coming forward with allegations of sexual assault that they've been sitting on for years and years. Why? Because we don't believe women. Because when women typically bring forward these sorts of allegations against powerful men who have abused that power, those women are the ones who are put on trial. Their past is examined, their sexual history, their wardrobe, their friends, their drinking habits. Their lives are torn and ripped apart to try and justify the assault on them. Our culture blames the victim in these crimes a LOT. And now there have been some high-profile cases where we've started to actually listen and believe, so women are starting to feel free to come forward with their stories of harassment, assault, abuse, and rape.
4) The timing. In the context of that last one, the timing seems suspect for a couple of reasons. Of course as progressives and liberals we want to believe women, but at the same time we're hesitant to believe accusations against our heroes. Franken has done amazing work for the Democratic party in the Senate, and we want him to stay one of the good guys. I've got news for you, lots of people who we thought were good guys were creeps (I was a big fan of Louis CK and Andy Signore, for instance). But then there's the timing of these allegations against the work Franken's doing in the Senate re: Sessions and Trump's appointments. And the distraction this provides against Moore and the GOP tax bill currently going through Congress and the Senate.
5) Right-wing operative? We are torn between wanting to believe women and wanting to disbelieve right-wing people who are friends with liars Hannity and Stone. So, this muddies the water a lot, obviously. With the timing, the lack of context on the photo, the he-said-she-said, the length of time, and the association with Hannity and Stone, it's easy for us to just say we're not happy to accept her accusations at face value. Here is where I would say it's time for that investigation that Franken called for into himself, and let the facts come to light. We don't have enough data. And if she's an operative trying to smear someone, we'll find that out. If it turns out that Franken acted inappropriately towards her and she happens to be a right winger, then that's a whole other kettle of fish. But we can't presume to know, yet. We don't have all of the information, yet. It's okay to be skeptical and it's okay to be disappointed. It's not okay to attack the accuser or the accused at this point. We don't know enough.
6) Other stuff happening right now. The news media must have raised a great cheer when this went down. I'm certain they've been hoping for a left-wing sex scandal with slightly salacious details that they can report on comfortably for everyone's prurient enjoyment instead of the truly heinous and frankly disgusting coverage of Roy Moore's past. To be clear: I'm not comparing Moore to Franken in any way. The only people who are seriously doing that are right wingers, to my experience. Franken acted inappropriately and creepy and (if guilty) at worst needs to offer an apology and make amends. Roy Moore deserves jail time. There is no moral equivalence between the two.
7) Holding ourselves to the same standards. So, we have to call out our creeps just as we call out the Republican creeps, but we know they won't call out their own creeps. So where does that leave us? Here's that moral high ground again. In some regards, this is win-win for us, because we can now say, "Here is an accusation against one of ours, and we are taking it seriously, it's time to take these things seriously, now about those dozens of accusations against that orange fellow in the oval office?" Franken is being proactive and requesting an investigation into his own behaviour. Great! That gives the left leverage to start investigating Trump's behaviour in relation to all of the many accusations against him (some of which he has admitted to!!!). But on the other side of this, in some ways this is lose-lose for us. If it turns out that this woman is an operative that is bringing forth these accusations now to smear Franken, and that is revealed, it may serve to make it more difficult to believe other (more credible!) accusations against people like Trump and Moore.
So, please, everyone, it's fine to have complicated feelings about all of this. There's a LOT going on, and it's not as simple as it may seem on the face of it. I would also just like to add, the whole sexual harassment thing is not a left/right problem, it's not a Democrat/Republican problem, it's a men problem.
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