(Professor charged with sexual harassment)

When he goes to work, he’s treated with deference and respect. At home, it’s just his nagging wife.

Besides, it probably happens now and then that his advances are welcome. Maybe not so much any more at age 79, but academia has it’s own casting couch and a lot of young female graduate students are eager to flirt and more with established male professors in order to get a leg up on the competition. Having someone like this guy make a few calls on your behalf is like gold and could easily mean the difference between a tenure-track position at a respected university and adjuncting in Nowheresville U.

The popular narrative is that there is an epidemic of powerful men abusing their power to prey on unsuspecting young women. Which is partly true, but is only part of the story. There are also legions of young women taking advantage of their sex appeal to get opportunities out of established men. Women have been doing this for so many thousands of years that it’s probably in their DNA at this point.

I say this as a man who is a successful political activist. I regularly get approached by attractive young women looking for “advice” Why is it that young men never do this?

It wouldn’t surprise me at all to learn that the woman in this Columbia lawsuit took a much more active role in her relationship with this professor than is set forth in her legal filing.