Opinion: Sexual predation isn’t just a Hollywood problem — and men need to do something about it

To the editor: I was 18 years old when the owner of a tutoring service came up behind me, slipped his hands under my arms and fondled my breasts. (“The fallout: How the Harvey Weinstein scandal exposed sexual harassment as Hollywood’s dirty secret,” Oct. 12)

I was 19 and having my first day on the job at a credit card company when my new boss informed me he’d had a vasectomy.

I was 30 when a construction worker asked if I’d have his baby as I walked past on a college campus.

I was 32 and a gym manager when my boss called me in for a one-on-one meeting at night, talked aimlessly and finally told me I’d better leave before he “did something we’d regret.”

The ages between 19 and 32 and the years since have been rife with forms of sexual harassment, including from students in my public school classroom. Now, at the age of 64, every woman I know has been harassed or sexually assaulted.

Decent men need to realize that harassment from males, of all ages and positions, happens to females of all ages and positions.

Christine Roberts, Riverside

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To the editor: I absolutely condemn the alleged actions of Harvey Weinstein and his enablers. I also find it hypocritical of Hollywood to decry a culture that enabled Weinstein but will not condemn Roman Polanski.

This is a guy who, in his 30s, drugged and repeatedly violated a 13-year old girl. It doesn’t get any lower than that, and his actions were not just whispered allegations. Yet, he faced no repercussions from the entertainment industry and garnered decades of plaudits, and numerous actors have expressed their desire to work with him.

If those protectors of and apologists for Polanski really want to end the culture that allows women and girls in the entertainment industry to be abused, they need to take a good long look in the mirror.

Tom Vollbrecht, Plymouth, Minn.

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To the editor: It’s all too common for wealthy men to get caught exploiting their power and sexually abusing women, and then go into sex addiction treatment. That is laughable.

I’ve got news for these predators: There’s no cure for being a creep.

Mark Collen, Sacramento

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