The Single Voice of Reason wrote:
Thanks for your response, KMB. I'm not sure we'd ever agree wholly on some aspects of this situation.
I'm not sure that we disagree on anything, really. You're emphasizing the fact that no matter what, Kevin stepped far out of bounds and nothing mitigated that fact. I agree (as does Kevin) but I'm not spending as much time with it because to me it seems obvious on its face, and none of what I've written here is an attempt to dilute it. Maybe some people here really are trying to stress aspects of the personalities and actions of others involved in this in an effort to go down the "well, she sort of asked for it" road (although I haven't seen much of that). As you say, even if that were true, it's a different issue.
What I do question is the whole "sexual harassment" thing (which Robert helpfully put in the subject line of this thread and is not why Kevin resigned at all; even the U. T. administration found no reason to pursue that angle) and of course all of the stuff that goes along with that in a slippery-slope kind of way -- "pedophile," "predator," "pervert," "sociopath" and so on. I understand that people are pissed off and indignant and perhaps going overboard as a result, but I also know that they have been misled by the contents of the Deadspin article and the Sid Hudgens clone who wrote it. If what Kevin told me about the particulars of the interaction between himself and "Andrea" are true, which I have no reason to doubt -- the text-message details and the rest of what I already mentioned -- then applying those labels, at least in this instance, are badly off base. It's as wrongheaded and potentially injurious as calling any collegiate woman runner who's become sexually involved with her coach or even moved in that direction a Lolita or a slut or a conniving psycho bitch.
I understand that even saying these things will result in a few people shouting that I'm defending Kevin in the sense that he was unfairly coerced into quitting and all of that tired, simplistic dreck. I also trust that the more thoughtful people will understand that it is possible to simulataneously agree with those who stress that Kevin's resignation was not only proper but overdue (the EtOH adventures alone cement this) while also being contemptuous of the dishonesty that other people have promulgated throughout this mess.