It's been nearly a month since sexual harassment and assault allegations against Harvey Weinstein exploded into national headlines, and it seems like nearly every day since, the country wakes up to another story of a powerful man accused of sexual misconduct. But there is one set of allegations that seemed to confound America more than the rest: those against former president George H.W. Bush.

Five women have accused Bush of groping them. Their accounts are largely similar. They say the former president tells a dirty joke with the punchline "David Cop-a-feel" and touches their butts. "Squeezed ... hard" is how one woman put it. "Patted" is the word Bush's office used in an apology last week.

“At age 93, President Bush has been confined to a wheelchair for roughly five years, so his arm falls on the lower waist of people with whom he takes pictures," the statement said. "To try to put people at ease, the president routinely tells the same joke — and on occasion, he has patted women’s rears in what he intended to be a good-natured manner. Some have seen it as innocent; others clearly view it as inappropriate. To anyone he has offended, President Bush apologizes most sincerely."

While many decried Bush's behavior, others didn't, saying it pales in comparison to the nightmarish allegations against Weinstein. Comments online ranged from "give him a break" to "good for you H.W."

Readers called the allegations "stupid," and suggested that news organizations were "maligning the reputation of a decent man in the last years of his life." Some suggested his vascular Parkinson condition was to blame. Late Show host Stephen Colbert may have summed up the situation best when he joked in his monologue last week, “Oh, come on, not him. He’s the Bush we like!”

There are two larger societal trends reflected in such reactions that are present entirely separate of Bush, sociologists say. One is disagreement over what constitutes sexual assault. The other reflects a deeply rooted myth that "good guys" don't cross the line when it comes to treatment of women.

Labeling sexual assault

The Department of Justice defines sexual assault as "any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient," including a wide spectrum of behaviors from "grabbing or fondling" to "forced sexual intercourse." It's broad definitions such as this that some people take issue with.

"It was really neat and clean to have this idea that sexual assault was what happened when a stranger attacked you, forced you down, and made you have sex against your will," said C.J. Pascoe, a University of Oregon sociology professor. "By widening the scope of what we consider to be assault ... and by placing assault on a continuum with other problematic behaviors, such as sexual harassment and unwanted touching, it becomes clear that many more men might be implicated in these sorts of behaviors."

Former first lady Laura Bush defended her father-in-law Wednesday on CNN.

"That was very, very innocent that he's been accused of," she said. "He would never hurt anybody."

Labeling 'good guys'

Another reason for disbelief is that it can be difficult to distinguish a person from their persona. While Weinstein had a reputation for aggression even before these allegations came to light, Bush is seen "as this gentle, kind, measured, sort of grandfatherly figure," Pascoe said.

People don't want to believe bad things about people who exhibit such wholesome qualities — whether a coach, a minister or a "family man."

"Because these guys inhabit an identity that we think of as a 'good guy' ... it makes it really hard for us, and for them, to reconcile behaviors of sexual assault with that identity," said Pascoe, who in 2015 co-authored the paper "Good Guys Don’t Rape."

Many people have an idea of a sexual offender as a man who is dominant and aggressive, Pascoe said. When the behavior comes from someone who doesn't fit that profile — for instance, a young boy or an old man — excuses come out in the form of cliches: "boys will be boys" or "that old flirt." But there is no typical profile of a sex offender, the non-profit Futures Without Violence wrote in 2013.

"One of our psychological defenses against feeling vulnerable ourselves is to create this idea that it must take some kind of monster to commit sexual assault or any of these other types of sexual offenses," said Sherry Hamby, a University of the South psychology professor and founding editor of the American Psychological Association journal Psychology of Violence. "I think that's one of the reasons why it can be particularly hard when somebody who has been revered and respected gets accused of these types of crimes. We just want to believe that can't possibly be true."

Changing perceptions

Feminists, political commentators and everyday Americans have spent a lot of time in the last few weeks trying to predict what will happen now that Weinstein has opened the floodgates. Each new #MeToo revelation insists the country not look away. Each implores us to believe not only the individual, but also the mounting evidence that shows the impunity of powerful men has heavy costs. Sociologists and psychologists say people must recognize sexual assault can happen to anyone — and be perpetrated by anyone.

"We want to think of it as this rare and extreme form of deviance," Hamby said. "And that's just not an accurate perception of offending at all."