The question of whether allegations of unwanted touching against former Vice President Joe Biden would hurt his standing with voters should he mount a 2020 presidential campaign got its first answer this week.

And it appears, for now, to be no.

Biden said in response to the complaints that he will be more mindful and respectful of physical space in the future. But he stirred controversy late last week when he joked about his fresh understanding of personal space invasions, assuring an audience at a union conference that he had permission to hug a male labor leader or, later, wrap his arm around a kid that the potential 2020 contender had invited on stage.

Some female voters recoiled, questioning whether Biden was making light of the discomfort experienced by women on the receiving end of his close-talk, shoulder grabs, nose rubs and occasional kisses on the top of the head. Others wondered whether he'd lost his political antennae, given the sensitivities of the current debate.

But many other female Democrats -- including here in California, where the early #MeToo movement took hold -- view the controversy over Biden's history as a "tactile politician" as completely overblown.

"I'm a big supporter of the #MeToo movement, but I feel like we're shifting the goal post, and no one asked us if we were going to shift the goal post to just what makes us uncomfortable," said Seta Ghazarian, a 41-year old teacher of Victorville, who is leaning toward Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, but keeping South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro and California Sen. Kamala Harris in her top tier of choices.

Ghazarian and her friend Holly Purser, a fellow high school teacher from Apple Valley, described the uncomfortable touching accusations against Biden thus far as "pretty trivial." As they waited for Castro, another 2020 contender, to speak at a Saturday rally in East Los Angeles, they pointed out that the #MeToo movement was meant to call out serious infractions like assault and sexual harassment.

"It's a kiss on the head, or the cheek, or a shoulder -- that daddy, kind-of-grandpa move. It's not like you're 'grabbing pussy,'" said Purser, referencing President Donald Trump's infamous boast that he could grab women wherever he wanted while speaking with television host Billy Bush; the exchange was captured on a 2005 Access Hollywood tape that surfaced just before the 2016 election.

For many female voters here, the pressure on Biden to keep apologizing for his personal space invasions, or to even stand down in the 2020 presidential race, are instances in which the #MeToo pendulum has swung too far. (Former congressional aide Amy Lappos, an accuser who said Biden grabbed her by the head and rubbed noses with her at a 2009 fundraiser, said the former vice president should "step aside and support one of the many talented and qualified women running.")

Brenda Valle-Balderrama, a 34-year-old attorney and unaffiliated voter from Los Angeles, said she was "bothered" earlier this month when Lucy Flores, a former Nevada assemblywoman, wrote an essay saying she felt "uneasy, gross and confused" when Biden came up behind her and kissed her on the top of the head during a 2014 campaign event while she was running for lieutenant governor of Nevada.

But Valle-Balderrama said she felt that Biden took "ownership of his actions" in his video message about the allegations stating that he "heard what these women are saying" and that he would be more mindful of respecting personal space.

While she is most interested in Castro and former Texas congressman Beto O'Rourke at the moment, she described Biden as a very likeable person who is experienced and has done good work for the country.

"I think the goal here is for men to understand that things are changing," Valle-Balderrama said.

"Before, we weren't having this conversation, and so that's why it was, quote, unquote, 'OK,' to do these things," she said, referring to Biden's hugs and tactile behavior. "But now people are taking it seriously."

She added that Biden's jokes, made after the allegations surfaced, were "maybe in poor taste given the warm water that he's in right now."

"I don't particularly take offense to it; I don't think it's a big deal," she said. "But it's kind of like, 'Come on, you're just getting yourself out of this situation? Just let things cool.'"

Biden says he expects more women may come forward to say his touches have made them uncomfortable. But many female voters here say they believe him when he says he's never been "disrespectful, intentionally" -- and feel far greater outrage when they think about the hypocrisy of Trump trying to frame Biden as "creepy," given the far more serious allegations of unwanted kissing or touching against the President from an array of women. (Trump has denied all the allegations against him).

"I just don't see Biden being a creep like that," said Azucena Carrillo, 34-year-old realtor from Boyle Heights who describes herself as a strong supporter of Biden. "If anything, he's probably very affectionate. He's sort of (a) fatherly type. But women right now, we're super sensitive to everything, so I get it. I would be more wary if I was Biden. But I would never think that he would be a creep like Trump."

"He comes from the same foundation that (Barack) Obama did, he has the same beliefs," Carrillo said, explaining why she would support his candidacy if he announces that he's running, as he is expected to do after Easter. "He has a humble demeanor, and I think he's here for the people and would run a 'for the people' campaign versus Trump."

In these conversations with women voters about Biden, some women who remember Biden's oversight of the 1991 Anita Hill hearings cite his role as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee as the bigger hurdle for him to clear as he runs for president in a party where the agenda is increasingly being driven by empowered women.

Hill accused then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment, and then was interrogated by a panel of all-male senators. Hill, now a professor at Brandeis, told The Boston Globe that Biden owed the country an apology.

At event in New York in late March, Biden noted that he'd publicly apologized to Hill and wished he'd done more to give Hill, the "hearing she deserved."

Though Biden voted against confirming Thomas to the Supreme Court, Nanette Carey, a 53-year-old paralegal who favors Warren, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and Castro, said the fact that Thomas is on the Supreme Court is a permanent stain on Biden's record.

"A lot of people in my age group remember coming home from work and watching the Anita Hill hearings," Carey said. "Yes, it's old, but we still have Clarence Thomas to look at every day. What (Biden) did was long term. He was on that all-male panel -- I mean, I remember it -- I found my steno pad where I had notes. I was really into it. So I think a lot of that past is going to come up."

Carey, however, said she believed Biden could overcome the most recent accusations of inappropriate touching against him.

"Not to minimize Lucy Flores and the other ladies' reaction to what happened, but there are levels," Carey said. "Since it happened to (Flores) in 2014, that was recent enough for her to speak up. But like in the '80s, '70s, women were told, 'Oh, men will be men' -- we were told that B.S. And now women are like, 'No, we're not putting up with it anymore.'"

"I'm not a touchy person, so I probably would have shrugged and said, 'What are you doing?'" Carey said, referring to the Biden-Flores incident. "He seems like the type who would say, 'Oh my God, I'm so sorry. I didn't realize.' ... I think all of it (the touching) shouldn't be done. Men should learn to keep their hands to themselves. It needs to stop.... But that would not be disqualifying from me voting for him."