Power Is the Problem
Content warning: sexual assault
I am a middle-aged, 6’2” white man whose laugh tends to fill entire rooms. I am not the image of a typical sexual-assault survivor. While survivors may not have every trait in common, the one trait that does link us all is the power imbalance between ourselves and those who assaulted us. We all work through our trauma in our own way and we’re all at different places in our journey with it. My experience is like tinnitus: the ever-present ringing is low enough that I can usually just ignore and accept it, but when there’s background noise, the ringing can be deafening. Having all those feelings of anger, helplessness and shame kick up every time I saw OHSU in the news has made the last few months exhausting. I know I’m not alone in that. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, you’re not alone either. If you need help, please contact the Employee Assistance Program by calling (800) 433-2320 or requesting an appointment online. Additional resources are available through RAINN, Oregon SATF, NSVRC and many other organizations.
Sexual violence is more about power than it is about sex. Understanding that simple truth is essential to creating any plan that has a chance of combating sexual violence. We’ve all heard some form of the saying that power corrupts, and there is research to prove that the saying is true. There are some inherent power differences that can’t be eliminated, but any system that creates strict hierarchies isn’t just creating a fertile hunting ground for predators — it’s creating the predators. Sexual harassment and violence are workplace-safety issues that are too often ignored or minimized due to the power dynamics between the typical targets and the typical perpetrators. Power is the problem.
This is why any approach that focuses on going after individual bad actors is doomed to fail. With many of the problems we face, we are preached to about personal accountability when systemic change is the real solution. While holding ourselves accountable and demanding action against perpetrators when we see them are incredibly important acts, we can’t tackle climate change or systemic oppression or sexual violence by plucking the people committing individual offenses out of the system.
The health-care industry is especially vulnerable to hierarchical thinking and structures, as this fantastic article states:
“Many factors make an organization prone to sexual harassment: a hierarchical structure, a male-dominated environment, and a climate that tolerates transgressions — particularly when they are committed by those with power. Medicine has all three of these elements. And academic medicine, compared to other scientific fields, has the highest incidence of gender and sexual harassment. Thirty to seventy percent of female physicians and as many as half of female medical students report being sexually harassed.”
I read this article when it came out in 2018 and was so proud to see two names I recognized from OHSU in the byline. Since then, these same individuals have been accused of allowing sexual misconduct to occur at OHSU without properly reporting it or working to stop it. I hope we can all see this as definitive proof that individual actors cannot sway the system one way or the other — when a system is built to amass power in the hands of a few, there is no individual who can turn the tide.
Every time a whistleblower comes forward, a pattern of failure and abuse is revealed. People who engage in sexual misconduct demonstrate patterns of behavior built upon a lack of respect for another’s autonomy. That isn’t something that someone decides to discard in the heat of the moment — it’s something that someone fundamentally and consistently believes doesn’t matter.
When we see someone like Harvey Weinstein finally get taken down, we also have to see all the people who let him get away with it, and consider why they looked the other way. We have to hold individuals to account while also making sure that no one can amass that kind of power again. This is a bipartisan problem. The same dynamics were at play when Republicans ignored the multitude of complaints against Roy Moore or Donald Trump as were at play when Democrats ignored accusations against John Conyers or when Ted Wheeler brought Sam Adams back into Portland politics. Power is the problem.
On April 27, Dr. Jacobs announced that OHSU had reached a settlement with the plaintiff of the sexual-assault lawsuit involving former OHSU resident, Dr. Jason Campbell. OHSU’s $585,000 settlement, apology and accompanying promises to take a hard look at its policies and procedures are all positive steps. Promises that aren’t accompanied by action are hollow, though, so I hope that this really is the turning point we’ve been told it is. I want to believe that Dr. Jacobs and OHSU’s team of investigators will ultimately dismantle the systems and power structures that have allowed abuse to go unreported and have allowed abusers to face little in the way of consequences.
In the meantime, I’ve felt the most hope seeing how Local 328 members and OHSU employees from every mission have come together to support each other and demand change. Employee resource groups, labor unions and other concerned organizations have all stood together and made both joint and individual statements, demands and lists of questions. Our collective power is so much more than any of us wields on our own. When we stand together, we can effect real, lasting change. Until then, the powerful will continue to make excuses for themselves and exploit us.