Editor's Letter: The tip of an iceberg

last updated 8 January 2015

It can’t be. Not him. Whenever a prominent pillar of the community is accused of some form of sexual misconduct, friends and admirers insist that the charges don’t square with the really fine person they know. That’s what Michael Jackson’s adoring fans said when several of the boys he took to his bed came forward to say that, yes, he’d been molesting them. That’s what former players and colleagues said this week when a former Penn State assistant football coach was charged with sexually abusing eight underprivileged boys he’d been so kindly mentoring (see The U.S. at a glance). That’s what fans of Herman Cain said when the presidential candidate—a likable Baptist minister—was accused of sexually harassing a series of women (see Talking points). An accusation is not proof of guilt, but I am constantly amazed at the willful naïveté of these defenders: How can anyone over the age of 15 think that a “nice” person couldn’t possibly be a sexual predator?

If you’ve lived at all, you should have figured out that a person’s public persona is but the tip of an iceberg. It tells you little or nothing about what’s submerged below the surface. Human sexuality is a complex, mysterious, and sometimes dark force; a pedophile can appear to be kindhearted and benevolent 99 percent of the time, and confine his predations to children he believes won’t tell (see Best columns: The U.S.). A public champion of women’s rights like Bill Clinton can also be a compulsive womanizer and serial sexual harasser. Human beings are not consistent or transparent. We all contain multitudes. People can be successful and admirable in most of what they do, and still succumb to urges that shock even themselves.