"Me, Too" and Henry VIII

On January 24, 1536, Henry VIII, King of England by the Grace of God, Defender of the Faith, and Head of the Church in England, entered the lists at Greenwich to take part in a jousting tournament.  At age 44 he was an elder statesman of tilt yard, but was still recognized as an excellent horseman and fierce athlete.  He was riding an equally fierce Destrier, the enormous war horses first brought to England by William the Conqueror following the Battle of Hastings in 1066. 

            The Destrier (now extinct as a breed) had a dense, rounded body with a broad back, strong loins, powerful hind-quarters and long legs with dense bones.  Exactly the same description could be given to King Henry VIII. 

The King and his opponent met with a crash.  Henry was thrown from his horse and the animal toppled over on top of him.  Surely, there were many in the crowd who thought their monarch was dead.  Henry was unconscious for at least two hours and then came slowly and painfully back to life.  But, to quote historian Allison Weir “He would never, however, be a fit man afterwards.”    

            An old wound on his leg reopened, forming an abscess that would never close, never heal, need constant bandaging and always, always, always cause intense pain.  His former life of riding, hunting, tennis and dancing was gone.  The only pleasure left to him was eating. His weight ballooned.  In addition to this, his temper, always mercurial, was now fed by pain and frustration.  As the years went on his former good looks gave way to age, gravity and obesity.   His impatience turned into brutality and his governance changed to megalomania. Through all of this, Henry VIII continued to see himself as a paragon of masculine virtue and virility. 

            Henry VIII executed his second wife, Anne Boleyn, less than four months after his accident.  He married four more times but fathered only one more child (his only son, Edward).  He executed one other wife (Catherine Howard, who married the 50-year-old King at the tender age of 17) and bullied his way through the rest of his life.  Throughout this disastrous history, Henry never say himself as anything but a misused monarch of benevolent mien. 

            There is more than one Henry VIII still among us.  Certainly not many, but more than you might guess with a casual glance.  One thing always confuses me when I hear about men like Anthony Weiner or Harvey Weinstein (or Clinton or Trump for that matter).    On what flight of fancy do these men look in the mirror and say “Yup, every woman in the world wants a thick slice of THIS!” 

Gentlemen, we do not!

Unfortunately, whether it is a man soaked in power, or just soaked in ego, not a woman in the world has escaped a man who stepped over the bounds just because he was sure that he could.  Sometimes it is the guy who likes to “bump” into women in the break room, or that man who insists upon talking to you at the bar and acts as if you are the “bitch” when you turn him down, or the boss who continually offers a critique of your clothes; they all have Henry VIII syndrome. 

It certainly isn’t all men.  But it is too many and women have had too few options for dealing with them.  We all know what “Me, too” means.  By virtue of biology, anthropology, sociology and economics “Me, too” means “business as usual.” 

Let’s create a new normal, and keep the faith.