Just out of curiosity, is it ever possible for two people at different levels in the same workplace's hierarchy to engage in sexual relations without it being sexual abuse?
I'm not using the phrase "sexual abuse" in a flippant way here. Workplace power dynamics can make sexual relationships improper, but rarely rise to the level of abuse. But this story is classic sexual abuse. It's about using your power to humiliate someone. It's the kind of thing that a pimp would do to a prostitute. It reminded me of a recent Israeli art film about a woman whose boyfriend abuses her in this way. I can't for the life of me remember what it's called...
Yes, of course. But only they would ever know that. It's impossible is for that to happen in a way such that outside observers can be sure it's not sexual abuse.
Kennedy didn't just have a thing for Social Register girls; he had a thing for humiliating Social Register girls. He also had a thing for humiliating his fellow Irishman, Dave Powers.
Alford and Powers may have felt humiliated, but it's a jump to say that since a) they felt humiliated, therefore b) Kennedy had a thing for humiliating them.
Rather, he had a thing for power--power over others. A measure of his power would be, can I make this person humiliate herself? He could. Power was exercised, apologies were professed, and on he went.
This is much more damning than to say, he was a monster, he enjoyed humiliating others. It incriminates not just Kennedy, but a huge swathe of society, were such power differentials are common.
By characterizing the behavior as he did, Noah calls it out (good man!), but then quarantines it (phew!). You can see it when he contrasts Kennedy to Nixon and Clinton--even they were not so monstrous! We're still mostly decent people in a mostly decent world. Well, that's nice to believe.
http://www.newrepublic.com/blog/timothy-noah/100566/jfk-mons...