Not everything is held to legal standards. Your reputation matters. Which is something women have always known, but I guess men think they were above having to keep to standards.
reputation matters a lot less when you are a nobody. not saying it won't hurt you. just not nearly as much and might completely blow over and everyone practically forgets. i've known several people with shitty reputations deserved or not who moved on to fairly decent lives. some of which had in fact been falsely accused of rape or sexual harassment. one though did end up moving to an area where no one knew him and just started over. but that was a personal choice over the fact he didn't want to live near any of those people anymore.
I'm just saying, the idea that just because you're not charged with a crime, that means we have to think you're innocent, is pretty stupid. The legal system is not a perfect decider of what really happened. What constitutes reasonable doubt varies between people, particularly a jury that has to decide whether a person goes to jail for a long time and an everyday individual making the decision not to be involved with a person professionally.
I realize people do get falsely accused of horrible things all the time, and that I may be in danger too. But I'm not too threatened by it because I have a generally good reputation built upon my actions. I have never propositioned someone at the workplace. I've never grabbed a pussy. In short I'm not an idiot.
all it takes is someone to lie. and enough people to believe them. best friend had to battle accusations of being a woman abuser for years despite his gf could never produce a bruise or anything to back up her claims. and the worst part was they didn't even live together so if it was the case why didn't she kick him to the curb. its not like he payed her bills or anything. dumbest thing he did was not dump her immediately when she started that shit. ---
Cid- "looks like that overgrown lobster just got served!" Bartz-"with cheese biscuts AND mashed potatoes!"