Patriarchal Whispers of Pleonexia

Overheard last evening at a dinner party;

"Who are these women accusing him? He cannot possibly want or need them."

"If he wants, he can bed the most beautiful women in the world in a jiffy."

"He has no dearth of beautiful women drooling over him."

Whenever a powerful man is accused of sexual harassment or molestation charges, this buzz goes around informally in male circles worldwide.

And with this reasoning, he is honorably discharged quickly and easily in the court of male public opinion.

This is where I wonder if they are equating a man with an animal who only kills if it is hungry and not otherwise.

But humans are not animals. Humans eat with gluttony, hoard wealth immeasurably, long for things even if they have plenty, and lust after what is not theirs, especially if they are powerful enough to think they can quickly get away with it.

Their 'greed' outlasts their 'need' many times over.

Pleonexia, originating from the Greek πλεονεξία, is a philosophical concept that roughly corresponds to greed, covetousness, or avarice and is strictly defined as "the insatiable desire to have what rightfully belongs to others."

Aristotle insisted in his book 'Nicomachean Ethics' that all specifically unjust actions are motivated by pleonexia.

Richard Kraut states that inherent in pleonexia is the appeal of acting unjustly at the expense of others. 

William Barclay describes pleonexia as an "accursed love of having," which "will pursue its interests with complete disregard for the rights of others, and even for the considerations of common humanity." 

Therefore, assuming that their reasoning of a man having a bevy of beauties at his beck and call is correct (and that is a nasty assumption highly disrespectful to women in general), their assertion is evidently flawed.

I do not know why this conversation still flows and is accepted in most male circles. It reeks of a superiority complex that only patriarchal societies are capable of.