Hilary Clinton described her husband as a “hard dog to keep on the porch”. The Presidency has an easily abused allure. Like Freud’s Vienna sexual abuse was rife: because there were vulnerable live in female servants with no recourse to justice. The Westminster Village with its bars, late night working and vulnerable interns is similar. Add a certain type of male politician – risk taking Adrenalin seeking and unaccountable. Sexual harassment and abuse is inevitable.

A TV host reprimanded a group of men, about trying to minimise low level harassment. And they still didn’t get it. The sarcastic response made by a male panel member:-  “No, and as you point out with four blokes sitting around you we’re hardly in a position to say, ‘That’s rubbish’.”

Yet there is also a strong group of women who don’t understand what all the fuss is about. The journalist who “innocently” related a knee touching incident, has ended a ministerial career. The “victim” referred to the latest parliamentary abuse investigations as a witch hunt.

Again the micro fails to become macro. The individual incident is minimised and not understood to be about thousands of little incidents built up to become a culture. Is this a defense? Being so afraid of the self and feelings that nothing can be thought about? Relationships with men and women that are not satisfactory. Relationships between parents being one sided and abusive of power? Brothers and sisters given unequal opportunities which is handed down the generations?

Not having awareness or empathy for another. Not to see that what is allowed –  is sanctioned by an invisible infrastructure empowered by inequality, and being able to get away with it.
Hard Dog

Copyright Adrian Scott North London Counsellor Blog 2017
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This article is designed to provoke argument and critique