‘Me Too’ should be revolutionary

Revolutions take many forms, and what’s called the “Me Too” uprising (hashtag: #metoo) is clearly a revolution. Like other social upheavals, it is fueled by a newfound sense of empowerment.

A revolution conjures archival images from the civil rights marches, with the women’s rights and gay rights movements that followed. What comes up are wounds suffered long ago, when the victim may have felt unable to fight back.

Something similar has happened in the area of sexual harassment and abuse: The offenders are now beginning to feel the repercussions of their actions, which their positions allowed them to perpetrate.

This is not a mere offshoot of the feminist movement. Principally it’s women who are declaring, “Me, too,” including Hawaii’s U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono, who has been an outspoken advocate for change. But there are male plaintiffs as well.

More than gender, it’s power that’s the key — and men traditionally have held the reins of power.

The names in the headlines are prominent ones, in entertainment, media and politics.

In the case against movie producer Harvey Weinstein, many of the accusers were women of prominence, and they were accorded credibility. Perhaps that’s emboldened others to step forward, so the current reckoning could begin.

Sexual harassment — sometimes defined as unwelcome conduct or advances of a sexual nature that create a hostile work environment — touches employees in low-profile jobs just as harshly, if not more so. Solutions must address their complaints as well.

For the victims, being heard is recompense for having suppressed their grievances all those years. But because so much has been suppressed for so long, opening the floodgates has resulted in, well, a flood — a seemingly unending stream of accusations.

Those watching from the sidelines yearn for the day when these churning waters will calm down and more forward motion, with fewer backward glances, becomes possible. Clear protocols for grievances would be followed, with the focus on making such incidents rare, and reconcilable in the near term.

That turnaround should begin soon. There’s a growing realization that the aggressor in these cases may well pay the price in their own careers, with the subordinate no longer compelled to put up, shut up or clear out.

It’s complicated, of course; there are varying cultural and generational standards for acceptable behavior. Ask any newcomer to Hawaii. Local culture is fairly demonstrative when it comes to hugs and kisses, and while that’s largely a matter for social gatherings, it can overlap into the office zone as well. Those unaccustomed can feel uncomfortable with it, however well-intended the gesture.

And then there are cultural distinctions in managing authority and status. The late U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye famously weathered his own storm of harassment accusations. Hawaii voters rationalized that Inouye was too important to the state, and re-elected him.

It’s anyone’s guess whether today he’d suffer the same fate as Democratic U.S. Sen. Al Franken, who last week announced his imminent resignation under a hail of criticism from his party cohort. Franken supporters who contend he was deprived of due process do have a point. Ideally the case should have gone before an ethics panel.

But in the current climate, Franken lost the support of his colleagues. Continuing to work with that kind of handicap is unfair to his Minnesota constituents. To his credit, Franken said as much.

This is plainly a bipartisan scourge. GOP Congressman Trent Franks said on Friday he would also resign after House officials found out he had approached two female staffers about bearing his child as a surrogate. Congress should adjudicate these cases fairly; protecting an elected official must not be the aim.

Sexual harassment and assault fall on a spectrum, from bad to worse. The worst is sexual assault, especially attacking the young and vulnerable. Alabama voters this week will determine whether enough people have discounted allegations of past child molestation lodged against Republican Roy Moore to give him a path to the U.S. Senate.

However, many of those adding their voices to the “Me Too” chorus have pointed out that the full range of behavior stems from the same misbegotten notion about what’s acceptable. People engaging socially follow different rules than those governing the workplace, and they are not interchangeable.

In the workplace, a colleague, especially a subordinate, is a professional who merits respect. Making sexual demands of employees along with threats to their jobs constitutes a kind of career theft.

Anyone who wonders about the correct approach to another human in the workplace should start with that realization. They are human. Those wondering how to treat women in the workplace could ask their sister, daughter or mother. They would know.