I watch a lot of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.” Many women I know do too. I’ve seen nearly every episode from 19 seasons , most of them several times. I will watch a dozen episodes of the show back to back, no matter how many times I’ve seen them. At times, it troubles me, my ongoing willingness to consume this show and the disturbing story lines about sexual assault and the terrible ways of the world, but there is something so very satisfying about watching it. The victims don’t always find justice, but they are, more often than not, believed by the S.V.U. detectives. Their stories are heard and respected. Justice may be elusive, but on the show, it exists within the realm of possibility.

In the real world, such is not the case. Despite everything we know about the prevalence of sexual assault and harassment, women are still not believed. Their experiences are still minimized. And the male perpetrators of these crimes are given all manner of leniency.

Over the past several weeks, we’ve heard from men who transgressed and fell from grace. In “Exile” by John Hockenberry, which appeared in Harper’s, the writer is mournful for the life he lost after he was accused, by multiple women, of sexual harassment. He is aggressively self-pitying throughout his essay, airing any number of grievances about the injustice of how he has been misunderstood. And then he declares that romance is dead as if sexual harassment in the workplace is some kind of grand romantic overture that modern women who dare to stand up for themselves have forsaken.