Nine smart women tell us what they think of his “tactile” style, and whether it disqualifies him for a 2020 run.
Everyone’s talking about Joe Biden. In the past week, several women have said that the former vice president and senator, who is mulling a 2020 run, made them uncomfortable with his overly familiar style of touching—his “tactile” style, as he has called it. Others have come to his defense, saying Biden’s warm approach has made them feel more comfortable in awkward situations. In response, Bidenpromising to do better. “I’ve always tried to make a human connection,” he said.
It’s a sly feint, that false inferring. It’s how you glide from Biden’s old-school-pol’s touchy-feeliness to his unsuitability for office, without anyone quite noticing.’s Rebecca Traister made the move first. “The gross physical familiarity and disrespect” for the female politician he touched “is classically, casually—even while non-cataclysmically—symptomatic” of everything that’s wrong with him: Anita Hill, waffling on abortion, even his work on the Violence Against Women Act.
Since the old-timers don’t seem to get it, here’s my gift to #MeToo perps yet to be unmasked before 2020. Repeat after me: “Boy, how I wish we’d known back then what we know now! It keeps me up at night that I made so many people feel uncomfortable, and I apologize. It won’t happen again, and I’ll work to rectify any of my past behavior that I possibly can. I hope you can forgive me.” That’s it. Problem solved. And no one of Biden’s generation will be going there anytime soon.
My fear is that powerful male bosses may become wary of promoting outspoken women for fear of being tarred for touching that was standard not so long ago. Even worse—men who resent new rules on gender equity may find this a convenient argument against those hard-won gains. Pence rules?Danielle Pletka is senior vice president for foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute.
This weird gray area of inappropriate touching is problematic for Biden because it speaks to a certain inability to adapt to the current climate. Maybe in 1989 he could kiss a women he didn’t know on the back of the head, but in 2019 it’s creepy and overly familiar. Maybe the Lucy Flores touching wasn’t about sex, maybe it was more about power, or about a lack of boundaries, or about a lack of respect. Or maybe it doesn’t matter; social mores have changed and Joe has not.
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