Empire State of Patriarchy: Why Are So Many Women Rallying to Cuomo’s Defense?

A staggering number of people defending the disgraced three-term governor of New York are middle-aged liberal women convinced the whole thing is a Republican or even leftist psy-op. They don’t realize they’re upholding what they say they’re against.

Irony of ironies, this photo was taken at a 2015 panel on tackling college campus sexual assault. Sigh. I’m so tired.

You know, I’ve written quite a bit lately about questioning dating norms and enjoying single life in my mid-thirties, utterly refusing to settle— and that stance has been cemented in the past few weeks.

Because I am not locking it down with a guy unless he will stand with me the way I see scads of middle-aged HR managers and insurance salesmen who don’t even live in my state cape for the corrupt sex pest that is Governor Cuomo.

I’ve seen victim-blaming. As an alternative woman and a child abuse survivor, I’ve received more than my fair share of it. I’ve seen accounts of sexual harassment get glossed over, dismissed, downplayed, and the victims told to just “toughen up”, or “he didn’t mean it”. I’ve seen plenty of women, particularly older white women, in real life and online engage in apologia for sexual harassment and rapists, yet slut-shame women for…