This piece was first written in 2017, and first appeared on my website on April 29, 2026. This essay is one in a series examining sexual harassment and assault. Sexual harassment and assault occur appallingly often. We have an absurdly long way to go as a society to correct this problem. To make progress on persistent problems, as this one clearly is, it’s often helpful to try to deeply understand the forces that drive and maintain the problem. As a small step in that direction, I ran...