Getting Away with It.

• Author: Farsad, Negin
• Position: HEMMING AND HAWING - President Donald Trump - Column

After nearly two years of Donald Trump's presidency--the SCOTUS nominations, the ethics infractions, the #MeToo movement, and dickishly abandoned umbrellas--one thing has become increasingly clear: There is a huge difference between men and women when it comes to what they think they can get away with.

Men, it seems, try to get away with sexual assault or environmental abuse or financial crimes. But, by and large, the scenario in which women try to get away with something involves ... a breakfast buffet.

"Can I really get away with a third plate?" you'll hear Ruth Bader Ginsburg say. While Trump wonders whether he could defraud the government of $418 million of taxable income, Kirsten Gillibrand is probably asking her BFF if she might "get away with wearing this skirt without Spanx?"

Ladies, we need to up our game on what we can get away with. We are being ridiculously outdone.

Some of the things that men try to get away with make absolutely no sense. Take former EPA head Scott Pruitt for example. He used private planes and military jets instead of flying commercial. That's BOLD! But the question is: why? Commercial flights would have gotten him to the same place without raising any red flags. I think it's because... he thought he could get away with it. Bold and self-serving behavior by a dude with a history of bold and self-serving behavior.

Pruitt even had his security detail drive him around to find a lotion he liked from the Ritz-Carlton and he had other staffers track down used mattresses from the Trump International Hotel. While I appreciate a man who has a skin care regimen and is serious about lumbar support, getting away with these strangely prosaic items seems patently dumb.

Pruitt had such a long career of being a sketchy dude--he got away with so much--that, at a certain point, he decided to get away with even small-bore violations, even if they made no sense. He did it because he could and because every time he applied his Ritz-Carlton lotion, he envied his own power. That's something women have never learned to do.

While Pruitt was getting away with the mundane and, let's not forget, effectively taking a huge dump on the environment, Elizabeth Warren got dinged for merely and neverthelessly "persisting." Persisting was considered a bit much for what a woman could get away with. Her persisting was so surprising, it ended up on statement tees!

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