The Sexual Harassment Conversation Needs to Move to the Next Level

The Sexual Harassment Conversation Needs to Move to the Next Level

The Sexual Harassment Conversation Needs to Move to the Next Level

What’s needed are real structural and legal changes to support the victims and curb the predators.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Each week we cross-post an excerpt from Katrina vanden Heuvel’s column at the WashingtonPost.com. Read the full text of Katrina’s column here.

Women are forcing a long-overdue reckoning on sexual harassment. The list of ousted executives and politicians keeps growing. The thousands of reports of sexual harassment on #MeToo keep coming. More women are emboldened to talk, and more are being heard. The risks for abusers—particularly public figures—are rising. We know the roots of this extraordinary moment; where the moment leads remains to be seen.

The reckoning is part of the fierce reaction to Donald Trump’s election victory in 2016. Trump won in spite of the ultimate “October surprise,” when the Access Hollywood tape confirmed what more than a dozen women had alleged: Trump is a serial sexual predator, admitting on tape that, “when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything…. Grab them by the p—-y. You can do anything.”

A president is the nation’s great teacher. Women were not about to allow him to teach that lesson.

Read the full text of Katrina’s column here.

We cannot back down

We now confront a second Trump presidency.

There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.

Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.

Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.

The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

I urge you to stand with The Nation and donate today.

Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

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