Actress Jordana Grolnick Accuses George H.W. Bush of Being Grabby
Really, we're doing this again (see Actress Accuses George H.W. Bush of Sexual Assault)? Apparently we're doing this again. Another actress has accused former President George H.W. Bush of "sexual assault." This allegedly happened in Maine.
Jordana Grolnick now says that other actors had told her before the photo that Bush had a reputation for fondling during photo ops, but she didn’t take it seriously.“I guess I was thinking,” she says, “‘He’s in a wheelchair, what harm could he do?’”
Then her question got answered.
“We all circled around him and Barbara for a photo, and I was right next to him,” she says. “He reached his right hand around to my behind, and as we smiled for the photo he asked the group, ‘Do you want to know who my favorite magician is?’ As I felt his hand dig into my flesh, he said, ‘David Cop-a-Feel!’”
Oh dear.
Grolnick says others in the room “laughed politely and out of discomfort.” Former first lady Barbara Bush was among those nearby. “[She] said something along the lines of, ‘He’s going to get himself put into jail!’ to which we laughed harder,” Grolnick says.
Ok. So while we all agree that it was absolutely inappropriate, we're chalking it up to him being a dirty old man. And not something remotely tied to Harvey Weinstein and #MeToo--
“Now that the #metoo movement has brought this all to light, I think I should have been a little more alarmed to be touched so inappropriately by a man who was once the leader of the free world. He knows the power he has, and the reverence he deserves, even while sitting perhaps somewhat senile in a wheelchair."
Talk about defining deviancy down.
Again, if you are this concerned with people who are sharing their #MeToo stories (see Conservative Woman Pens Powerful Essay on Sexual Assault #MeToo), claiming this is sexual assault completely cheapens the experiences of the women who are tweeting #MeToo.
While we agree a man, wheelchair bound or not, shouldn't grab a woman's ass, ass-grabbing is not the same as rape. Tush touching isn't the same as being cornered in a hotel room while a powerful man fertilizes a potted plant with his man juice.
So yeah, Bush was acting inappropriately. But not sure it warrants the level of OMG it's being given.
