On Oct. 28, 1973, Henry Kissinger was quoted in The New York Times as saying power is “the ultimate aphrodisiac.” Kissinger’s observation about sex and power was well known and accepted in his day. Americans understood that some men use their financial power to get what they want, and some women use their sexual power to get what they want. Much of the dance men and women do, in other words, is a give and take. Certainly the relationship can be abused, but it’s typically the exception rather than the rule.

Such thinking is hard to imagine in the age of #MeToo, a movement that blames men and masculinity as inherenly toxic — as if God (or nature, if you prefer) made a colossal mistake in creating man. This is a canard, of course. At the root of sexual harassment isn’t flawed biology but power run amok.