Failed seduction is not always illegal or improper

These sex scandals are conflating sexual behavior which is criminal with sexual behavior that is eyebrow-raising with sexual behavior that is legal, if inept, tin-ear seduction.

• It is illegal to have sex with someone who is under the age of consent in the state in question, and should be.
• It is illegal to force someone of any age to have sex with you when they do not want to.
• It is unethical and maybe illegal for a gatekeeper to convey to a job applicant that they must put out on the casting couch to possibly attain a sought-after position.
• It is unattractive, but not illegal for a man who is over, say, 18, to seek romance with a legal, but high-school-age girl. It is also questionable for the parents of the girl in question to allow such a relationship if they know about it. My understanding is that most of the inner-city single moms were impregnated by much older men when the girls were in their teens.
• It is normal for a single man who is dating an adult single woman to try to seduce her. It is also common for the man to sometimes misread the readiness of the woman to be seduced. Neither trying to seduce nor being unsuccessful at it is a crime or even “inappropriate.” C’est l’amour. C’est la vie.

They probably did not all say no

I suspect that it is likely that Charlies Rose did what recently was reported to both women who welcomed it and women who did not. Some of those who did not, have come forward and complained about it. None of those who welcomed it have said so publicly.

From what I read, Rose is guilty of having a tin ear about what some of the particular women were interested in with him. He reportedly surprised some women by returning to the room naked. I would suggest to him that is not the recommended way to get to second base.

‘No’ sometimes means ‘maybe;’ but sometimes it means ‘no’

He may have persisted with particular women beyond the point where other men would have backed off. It is impossible to adjudicate whether such actions are improper. It also sounds like he engaged in some casting couch “seduction” which is at least unethical and maybe illegal depending upon the details.

Can’t tell a groupie from a fan?

It is possible that celebrities, including media and political celebrities, have groupies, like Trump said in the Access Hollywood tape. And that groupies welcome the behavior that Charlie engaged in and that increases the possibility that the celebrity may have difficulty in telling the difference between a groupie who welcomes such behavior and a fan or job applicant who does not.

Fundamentally, Charlies Rose is a single man. He is entitled to try to seduce a woman with whom he is on a date. We cannot adjudicate whether he has a tin ear for reading the woman in question on any given date. And it would be difficult to adjudicate whether he refuses to take no for an answer beyond the point at which the woman has made it clear that this is not a case where “no” means “maybe.” 

Did he actually violate a contract clause?

I am curious as to the exact wording of the contract clause that is the basis for firing Rose at CBS, PBS, and Bloomberg. It seems to me there probably is not such a clause that was actually violated. It seems that Rose is just a single man who did not have a 1.000 batting average when it came to seduction. That is surprisingly incompetent, especially for a prominent, 75-year-old man. But whether it is “improper” or a firing offense is dubious. Casting couch “seduction” IS a firing offense.

Roy Moore has been accused of statutory rape and physical assault. Those are quite illegal, but probably not prosecutable because the statutes of limitations have expired. I agree with the AL governor, a woman, and Trump, that notwithstanding the accusations against Moore, and his proven misbehavior as an AL Supreme Court Justice, the nation would be better off with him as an AL Senator than his Democrat opponent—the lesser of two evils with emphasis on the word evil. His opponent is a “no point in the term is too late” term for an abortion liberal. 

You like Gorsuch? If Moore loses, there may never be another like Gorsuch during Trump’s presidency. Heck, Moore may even stop another Gorsuch out of spite.

13-year age difference?

A big-picture problem with most of these cases is the conflation of anything sexual with perversion, molestation, rape, statutory rape, assault, harassment, impropriety. It is unseemly for a man in his 30s like Moore once was to date legal-age teenagers, but it is not illegal. There are a lot of men who are 13 or more years older than their wives and a lot of legal teenage brides who marry older men, especially in the South.

For a single man to try to seduce a single adult female and fail is not improper although, depending upon the details, it could be. Today’s sexual lynch mob needs to stop and delineate exactly which behaviors are illegal or improper and acknowledge that failed seductions are common and normal part of male-female romantic relations.

 Groupie experience is no excuse. I would have thought that prominent men like Rose would have worked out a gentlemanly, more gradual way to get a reading on whether a particular date wanted sex than walking into the room naked.

The System that one of my West Point roommates and I devised worked great for getting us a ton of first dates with attractive women (my age or up to three years younger in my case). That experience, as with any activity, made me far more competent at dating over time. But I never achieved a perfect ability to read all women. However, I stopped dating at age 26. Charlie Rose is 75. He’s had decades to try all sorts of lines like maybe suggesting he and his date repair to a more romantic venue and when she asks where, offer her a choice of a romantic Manhattan night spot or his apartment. Even if she chooses the apartment, I STILL would recommend against the “returning to the room naked” routine.

My book Succeeding explains “The System” in detail.

https://www.johntreed.com/products/succeeding