Bill Cosby has been finally charged with sexual assault. For anyone who has followed the case, one striking aspect is how late an actual indictment has come, and after a huge number of accusations.

One legal problem has been the statute of limitations for rape, an issue by now much discussed. But another obvious aspect is the fact that as a society we have created a class of glamorous and powerful men -- entertainers, athletes -- who are in a most literal sense above the law. They will almost always prevail against all accusations, no matter what they do in the sexual domain, because they are shielded by glamor, public trust, and access to the best legal representation. Cosby is the exception only because his alleged abuses of women were so numerous and so flagrant. So what I think as I read the news is, "For one Cosby, there are hundreds like him who will never be indicted."

I think this way because I have my own Bill Cosby tale to tell. In the winter of 1968, when I was an enterprising twenty-year-old, I had a big crush on a well-known actor who shortly became another of America's beloved TV dads. He was a really good actor, and at that time he was playing a major stage role in New York. He was then around forty. After going out with him a couple of times, I asked him back to my off-campus apartment. I had had some sexual experience, but not much; however, I decided to be daring, since it was the late 60's and I felt that I should join the culture. Unlike the Cosby women, I certainly intended to consent to intercourse. What I did not consent to was the gruesome, violent, and painful assault that he substituted for intercourse. I remember screaming for help, to no avail, and I remember him saying, "It's all part of sex."

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