Correction: Harvard’s president is Alan Garber, not Claudine Gay. Thank you to Cassandra Butler for the catch. Also removed a duplicated paragraph, thanks Jerry McIntire.
Let me tell you... at one time or another, nearly every woman has been harassed by some guy in power. It could be a boss, a father, a colleague, a clergy member, a teaching assistant, a professor, a mentor, etc etc etc. My friends and I can recount harassment even in our later years, when you'd think we wouldn't be so attractive anymore.
At some point, however, it's hard to push back because of the job market or worries that you won't get a decent review or that you can't sustain yourself on unemployment. And then there's the worry that you'll be labeled as "the troublemaker" or that your boss would retaliate because you went to HR. (Hint: Eventually you learn that HR isn't there to protect employees. It's there to protect the company.) For all practical purposes, it's a no-win situation for the women. The bottom line is that we simply want to depend on men to act responsibly. (And just for the record, women can harass men, too. It's just less common because we have fewer opportunities to be in the power position.)
X powerful piece. Let’s talk about it. Powerful white men using their power and privilege to satisfy sexual rendezvous with women. Summers comes off as a creep. But Larry Summers wife is a creep for suggesting a book that was similar to Lolita to a pedofile Jeffrey Epstein. That’s like someone saying hey if you like good pizza then you should try this new Olive Garden that opened up. Why are you suggesting that? You’re encouraging it like hey this is a good one. That sounded disgusting to me. And then Sommers just getting dating advice from Jeffrey Epstein. Woody Allen is a known certified piece of shit.
these powerful men,, much like the PayPal Mafia are all preditors, not just of women, but of workers, companies, the stock market, other countries, Imagine if respected respected woman like Anita Hill and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford would have been taken seriously or if the crime itself was really seen as something other that what a woman deserves , and Thomas woild not be on the Suoreme Court and mayve we would have had a court that woud have acted as the guard rail it was supposed to have done - mayve we would not have a kleptocracy instead of a democracy, I hope that we have gone so low , that American wil revolt and demand an new t declares that all people are created equally and provide laws fòr the common good, Never in the history have so few true nly preditory megalomaniac men had so much money and power , but isn’t that the logical outcome come of centuries of mindless following at denigrates l devalues, dismisses over half of the population?
It’s a structure that we must rise above the privilege. Honestly I think after Barack they said we have to take it back to the old white privilege guard. We gotta put them back in their place. We can’t have them feeling too good about theirselves. It changes the narrative. It goes back to a plantation mindset to make sure the people know who’s in charge which is a reflection of what you see today in regards to who’s in power.
PK, thanks for saying that. When your stomach turns before the “big quote,” you know what that is? It’s your body telling you the story is already true.
That’s what shook me too PK. Not just the names, but the familiar move institutions make when the facts are unbearable. They reach for procedure and try to make the witness the problem.
I’m grateful you stayed with it. If any part of this hit close to home for you, I’d love to hear which line did it.
Sounds lazy if I say all of it and tbh I did skim a paragraph or 3 promising myself to read it again tomorrow. Reading this was hard.
Starting with recovery. I understand recovering from our culture and you laid it out better than I could explain it.
It's the overwhelming ness of what you wrote about. It isn't just the institutions, it's individuals, families, groups, CHURCHES, schools, society, and institutions. It's remembering the times I went along, times I tried to fight back and got beat down. It's soul crushing. It's a lonely pain, yet it happens to so many.
And quite honestly - did they actually acknowledge that? After how many decades of sexual abuse and harassment? I dont think the "settlement(s)" were sufficient nor could they ever be.
Are you familiar with the Magdalene laundries, or the hike fòr unwed mothers, these were basically human trafficking selling babies stole form unwed mothers , or their treatment of Indegeous children and families in their boarding schools, and that is just some of there modern offenses they have a very dark history. It is the same powerful men masses fòr momey and power. Yehweh was originally a god of war in a pantheon of gods until the Israelite s of the time need to consolidate it one god fòr comtrol and power, Every religion has some version of the golden rule, that is the carrot that attracts us as humans we inherently finctiin like herd animals and know to take care of each others. then comes the stock believe what I tell yiu or ther is no afterlife reward but worse there is hell, This has kept us divided fòr centuries, Now is the time to question these old myths and why do we still believe them
I am glad thst yiu overcame your “fear of saying it plainly”.
this is a very important and vital pieces..
Thank you, Your daughters are lucky to have you as their father. As a 74 year old woman I have been on the other side of the patriarch paternalistic teaching, It has hurt both little boys and little girls, Too often our families teach what they were taught, without question and they pass on hate. Children are never born thinking boys are superior to girls , but our culture, our a
Abrahamic religions, and our laws all are based on this unequal premise,
You were groomed to be preditor and I was groomed to be prey, You were taught to expect to be head of a household and thst a wife will take care of thst household, Kijg of yiur castle, I was expected to always acquiesce to a man, be a Stepford wofe, never be angry, look the other way, wjen assaulted, as if thst is just how it is, Luckily we both realized that we deserve better, we deserve to value every human fòr their character and believe that every person is equal and deserving of equak opportunity and equal protection,
I would love to sit across a kitchen table and swap stories with you. I too have had to spend many hours examining my unconscious biases , those lessons learned even pre language that feel like truth until brought into the light of day and seen for the lies that they were. If we are lucky, we can all be in recovery and make this a better world,
Thanks Linda for this post, I totally agree. My own father's advice to the 20 something me was that men need to "test out the merchandise" before considering marriage. Fortunately I was smart enough to call a creep a creep.
I so so appreciate Xplisset's deep dives like this piece and the conversations it sparks.
Insiders told the Times that initially Harvard even floated an allegation that the young women’s conduct might constitute “bullying.” Why do I keep saying in my best Karen voice, "Reverse racism!" This is the third time I've thought, "Fuck Harvard." First, when they did this: As of late 2025, President Donald Trump announced a tentative deal for Harvard to pay $500 million (aka complicity); the second: Harvard President Claudine Gay resigned in January 2024 after a short, tumultuous tenure, facing intense scrutiny following a congressional hearing on antisemitism, escalating allegations of plagiarism in her scholarly work, and a broader conservative-led campaign targeting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives she represented as a Black leader, with her departure highlighting tensions over campus speech, academic integrity, and racial politics. (aka racism. P.S. Melania is the plagiarist). And now this! Students should be encouraged to argue, build their evidence and present it without fear of administrative reprisal.
We call this selective enforcement in my old days as a cop. There are so many other infractions you could choose to enforce. Why this one? Is this a rule that is uniformly enforced across all instances and if not why choose it in this case?
Excellent read - AND, listing Claudine Gay as president is a glaring mistake. As Debra states, Gay's departure is another disappointment - largely driven by the billionaire alum Bill Ackman. Current President is Alan Garber
Cassandra, yep you’re 100% right and I appreciate that catch. Harvard’s president is Alan Garber, not Claudine Gay, and I’m correcting that in the post now.
And you’re also pointing at something bigger that I don’t want to hand-wave away. The billionaire alumni pressure piece matters, but I’m going to treat it carefully and only say what I can source without guesswork. Thank you for reading it closely enough to protect the integrity of the whole argument.
I had never heard how the Summers/Epstein relationship (!) was brought into the open. These young women should be praised for that. No question. It takes courage to do something like that.
And I really doubt the Harvard reaction was a surprise - after all, they had been students there for several years - I'm sure they were well aware of the potential for a coverup.
Thorough crime report. A cart load of exhibits, a bus load of scofflaws, and all the receipts. And the board has no answer more sophisticated than attacking the witnesses. Harvard is too big to get a pass.
It’s interesting…someone in the back of your mind, over time, actually does the things that your internal compass tells you is going on. There are many, many stories over thousands of years that appear to be precursors to the activity that Summers is accused of. This is not new, but now the ability of others that are capable of exposing the duplicity are involved.
Check that internal thinking, state the issues, expose the fraud, and walk away from those that denigrate you. Your life is too short to be tied up with others indignity’s.
Couldn't agree more. It's wild how institutions always seem to protect their own, isn't it? Like, what if these students hadn't gone rogue and recorded? We probaby wouldn't even be having this conversation, and nothing would've changed. It's a classic move, trying to debug the error message instead of the faulty code.
@xplisset this is copied from your above, excellent investigation and writing. One paragraph is repeated: Some student activists feel this isn’t enough. The Harvard Feminist Coalition, of which Couture and DeAscentiis are members, launched a petition demanding Harvard “shut out Summers” completely by stripping his tenure[9].
“Summers is unfit and unsafe to teach at Harvard,” the petition argues, citing how his own emails showed him advising a friend on “abusing power as a professor in pursuing sex with a mentee.”[9].
Hundreds signed the petition within days[9].
As one organizer put it, “It confirms what survivors and Harvard community members have said for years… any complicit in sexual violence… should not teach at Harvard.”[9].) Some student activists feel this isn’t enough: The Harvard Feminist Coalition, of which Couture and DeAscentiis are members, launched a petition demanding Harvard “shut out Summers” completely by stripping his tenure[2]. “Summers is unfit and unsafe to teach at Harvard,” the petition argues, citing how his own emails showed him advising a friend on “abusing power as a professor in pursuing sex with a mentee.”[2] Hundreds signed the petition within days[9]. As one organizer put it, “It confirms what survivors and Harvard community members have said for years… any complicit in sexual violence… should not teach at Harvard.”[2].
Jerry, thx for catching that. You’re right, that paragraph was duplicated. I’ve removed the repeat and double-checked the surrounding text/citations so the section reads cleanly now.
Correction: Harvard’s president is Alan Garber, not Claudine Gay. Thank you to Cassandra Butler for the catch. Also removed a duplicated paragraph, thanks Jerry McIntire.
Let me tell you... at one time or another, nearly every woman has been harassed by some guy in power. It could be a boss, a father, a colleague, a clergy member, a teaching assistant, a professor, a mentor, etc etc etc. My friends and I can recount harassment even in our later years, when you'd think we wouldn't be so attractive anymore.
At some point, however, it's hard to push back because of the job market or worries that you won't get a decent review or that you can't sustain yourself on unemployment. And then there's the worry that you'll be labeled as "the troublemaker" or that your boss would retaliate because you went to HR. (Hint: Eventually you learn that HR isn't there to protect employees. It's there to protect the company.) For all practical purposes, it's a no-win situation for the women. The bottom line is that we simply want to depend on men to act responsibly. (And just for the record, women can harass men, too. It's just less common because we have fewer opportunities to be in the power position.)
Bravo! You're talkin' my language! Every. Single. Job.
In 2005, while president of Harvard, Lawrence Summers gave a speech in which he suggested that the low percentages of women in certain scientific fields was due to less instrinsic ability, though the statistics were unclear. There was an uproar at that time. Here are some sources. https://feminist.org/news/harvard-president-finally-releases-transcript-of-controversial-speech/
X powerful piece. Let’s talk about it. Powerful white men using their power and privilege to satisfy sexual rendezvous with women. Summers comes off as a creep. But Larry Summers wife is a creep for suggesting a book that was similar to Lolita to a pedofile Jeffrey Epstein. That’s like someone saying hey if you like good pizza then you should try this new Olive Garden that opened up. Why are you suggesting that? You’re encouraging it like hey this is a good one. That sounded disgusting to me. And then Sommers just getting dating advice from Jeffrey Epstein. Woody Allen is a known certified piece of shit.
these powerful men,, much like the PayPal Mafia are all preditors, not just of women, but of workers, companies, the stock market, other countries, Imagine if respected respected woman like Anita Hill and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford would have been taken seriously or if the crime itself was really seen as something other that what a woman deserves , and Thomas woild not be on the Suoreme Court and mayve we would have had a court that woud have acted as the guard rail it was supposed to have done - mayve we would not have a kleptocracy instead of a democracy, I hope that we have gone so low , that American wil revolt and demand an new t declares that all people are created equally and provide laws fòr the common good, Never in the history have so few true nly preditory megalomaniac men had so much money and power , but isn’t that the logical outcome come of centuries of mindless following at denigrates l devalues, dismisses over half of the population?
It’s a structure that we must rise above the privilege. Honestly I think after Barack they said we have to take it back to the old white privilege guard. We gotta put them back in their place. We can’t have them feeling too good about theirselves. It changes the narrative. It goes back to a plantation mindset to make sure the people know who’s in charge which is a reflection of what you see today in regards to who’s in power.
Thank you for writing this. It took courage to look at and lay it out. My stomach was turning way before I got to that comment.
PK, thanks for saying that. When your stomach turns before the “big quote,” you know what that is? It’s your body telling you the story is already true.
That’s what shook me too PK. Not just the names, but the familiar move institutions make when the facts are unbearable. They reach for procedure and try to make the witness the problem.
I’m grateful you stayed with it. If any part of this hit close to home for you, I’d love to hear which line did it.
Sounds lazy if I say all of it and tbh I did skim a paragraph or 3 promising myself to read it again tomorrow. Reading this was hard.
Starting with recovery. I understand recovering from our culture and you laid it out better than I could explain it.
It's the overwhelming ness of what you wrote about. It isn't just the institutions, it's individuals, families, groups, CHURCHES, schools, society, and institutions. It's remembering the times I went along, times I tried to fight back and got beat down. It's soul crushing. It's a lonely pain, yet it happens to so many.
Not surprising! Look how long it took the Catholic Church to acknowledge that they had a bunch of ordained pedophiles in their ranks.
And quite honestly - did they actually acknowledge that? After how many decades of sexual abuse and harassment? I dont think the "settlement(s)" were sufficient nor could they ever be.
they still protect their own if they can no matter what,
The Catholic Church is a big money maker - which helps.
Are you familiar with the Magdalene laundries, or the hike fòr unwed mothers, these were basically human trafficking selling babies stole form unwed mothers , or their treatment of Indegeous children and families in their boarding schools, and that is just some of there modern offenses they have a very dark history. It is the same powerful men masses fòr momey and power. Yehweh was originally a god of war in a pantheon of gods until the Israelite s of the time need to consolidate it one god fòr comtrol and power, Every religion has some version of the golden rule, that is the carrot that attracts us as humans we inherently finctiin like herd animals and know to take care of each others. then comes the stock believe what I tell yiu or ther is no afterlife reward but worse there is hell, This has kept us divided fòr centuries, Now is the time to question these old myths and why do we still believe them
Yes - the unwed mothers "homes" and the absolute cruelty and abuse towards indigenous - not only children, but entire families!
Then the predatory priests! As I said - a money maker in all ways.
These days? The Israelis & their genocidal attacks on Palestinians AND how many other countries?
I am glad thst yiu overcame your “fear of saying it plainly”.
this is a very important and vital pieces..
Thank you, Your daughters are lucky to have you as their father. As a 74 year old woman I have been on the other side of the patriarch paternalistic teaching, It has hurt both little boys and little girls, Too often our families teach what they were taught, without question and they pass on hate. Children are never born thinking boys are superior to girls , but our culture, our a
Abrahamic religions, and our laws all are based on this unequal premise,
You were groomed to be preditor and I was groomed to be prey, You were taught to expect to be head of a household and thst a wife will take care of thst household, Kijg of yiur castle, I was expected to always acquiesce to a man, be a Stepford wofe, never be angry, look the other way, wjen assaulted, as if thst is just how it is, Luckily we both realized that we deserve better, we deserve to value every human fòr their character and believe that every person is equal and deserving of equak opportunity and equal protection,
I would love to sit across a kitchen table and swap stories with you. I too have had to spend many hours examining my unconscious biases , those lessons learned even pre language that feel like truth until brought into the light of day and seen for the lies that they were. If we are lucky, we can all be in recovery and make this a better world,
Thanks Linda for this post, I totally agree. My own father's advice to the 20 something me was that men need to "test out the merchandise" before considering marriage. Fortunately I was smart enough to call a creep a creep.
I so so appreciate Xplisset's deep dives like this piece and the conversations it sparks.
thanks for yiur good heart
Insiders told the Times that initially Harvard even floated an allegation that the young women’s conduct might constitute “bullying.” Why do I keep saying in my best Karen voice, "Reverse racism!" This is the third time I've thought, "Fuck Harvard." First, when they did this: As of late 2025, President Donald Trump announced a tentative deal for Harvard to pay $500 million (aka complicity); the second: Harvard President Claudine Gay resigned in January 2024 after a short, tumultuous tenure, facing intense scrutiny following a congressional hearing on antisemitism, escalating allegations of plagiarism in her scholarly work, and a broader conservative-led campaign targeting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives she represented as a Black leader, with her departure highlighting tensions over campus speech, academic integrity, and racial politics. (aka racism. P.S. Melania is the plagiarist). And now this! Students should be encouraged to argue, build their evidence and present it without fear of administrative reprisal.
We call this selective enforcement in my old days as a cop. There are so many other infractions you could choose to enforce. Why this one? Is this a rule that is uniformly enforced across all instances and if not why choose it in this case?
Maybe . . . when in doubt, blame the woman? They've gotten away with it forever.
Excellent read - AND, listing Claudine Gay as president is a glaring mistake. As Debra states, Gay's departure is another disappointment - largely driven by the billionaire alum Bill Ackman. Current President is Alan Garber
Cassandra, yep you’re 100% right and I appreciate that catch. Harvard’s president is Alan Garber, not Claudine Gay, and I’m correcting that in the post now.
And you’re also pointing at something bigger that I don’t want to hand-wave away. The billionaire alumni pressure piece matters, but I’m going to treat it carefully and only say what I can source without guesswork. Thank you for reading it closely enough to protect the integrity of the whole argument.
I had never heard how the Summers/Epstein relationship (!) was brought into the open. These young women should be praised for that. No question. It takes courage to do something like that.
And I really doubt the Harvard reaction was a surprise - after all, they had been students there for several years - I'm sure they were well aware of the potential for a coverup.
Thorough crime report. A cart load of exhibits, a bus load of scofflaws, and all the receipts. And the board has no answer more sophisticated than attacking the witnesses. Harvard is too big to get a pass.
It’s interesting…someone in the back of your mind, over time, actually does the things that your internal compass tells you is going on. There are many, many stories over thousands of years that appear to be precursors to the activity that Summers is accused of. This is not new, but now the ability of others that are capable of exposing the duplicity are involved.
Check that internal thinking, state the issues, expose the fraud, and walk away from those that denigrate you. Your life is too short to be tied up with others indignity’s.
Thank you for sticking with it and writing such a comprehensive article. This will have taken a huge amount of work and is really well-reported.
Couldn't agree more. It's wild how institutions always seem to protect their own, isn't it? Like, what if these students hadn't gone rogue and recorded? We probaby wouldn't even be having this conversation, and nothing would've changed. It's a classic move, trying to debug the error message instead of the faulty code.
@xplisset this is copied from your above, excellent investigation and writing. One paragraph is repeated: Some student activists feel this isn’t enough. The Harvard Feminist Coalition, of which Couture and DeAscentiis are members, launched a petition demanding Harvard “shut out Summers” completely by stripping his tenure[9].
“Summers is unfit and unsafe to teach at Harvard,” the petition argues, citing how his own emails showed him advising a friend on “abusing power as a professor in pursuing sex with a mentee.”[9].
Hundreds signed the petition within days[9].
As one organizer put it, “It confirms what survivors and Harvard community members have said for years… any complicit in sexual violence… should not teach at Harvard.”[9].) Some student activists feel this isn’t enough: The Harvard Feminist Coalition, of which Couture and DeAscentiis are members, launched a petition demanding Harvard “shut out Summers” completely by stripping his tenure[2]. “Summers is unfit and unsafe to teach at Harvard,” the petition argues, citing how his own emails showed him advising a friend on “abusing power as a professor in pursuing sex with a mentee.”[2] Hundreds signed the petition within days[9]. As one organizer put it, “It confirms what survivors and Harvard community members have said for years… any complicit in sexual violence… should not teach at Harvard.”[2].
Jerry, thx for catching that. You’re right, that paragraph was duplicated. I’ve removed the repeat and double-checked the surrounding text/citations so the section reads cleanly now.