Did you READ the article?

> The damage he caused was inseparable from his power. In general, Asimov chose targets who were unlikely to protest directly, such as fans and secretaries, and spared women whom he saw as professionally useful. There were exceptions—he chased the editor Cele Goldsmith around her desk—but he preferred to focus on women who were more vulnerable, which inevitably raises the issue of mentorship.

> Yet many of these encounters were clearly nonconsensual. When the author Frederik Pohl questioned his tendency to touch women “in a fairly fondling way,” Asimov replied, “It’s like the old saying. You get slapped a lot, but you get laid a lot, too.”

He's deliberately finding vulnerable women -- who may be forced to laugh off or allow his unwanted advances in order to keep their jobs (keep in mind the time period also -- women even having some of these jobs was something special in itself), and he's doing it to, ultimately, get sex.

That may not quite be the definition of rape, but it certainly isn't "a[n] unwelcome pinch on the butt."

Sounds to me like Asimov wasn't that far off from Weinstein -- keep in mind for every accusation of rape Weinstein is facing, there were dozens if not hundreds of women who claim lesser degrees of inappropriate actions. It's more likely that the women who would today, in the #metoo era, have reported legal sexual assault or rape, were silenced back then -- I can't imagine we will ever know though; maybe he stopped at just "pinches on the butt," but I doubt it.

The fact that two acts that differ in severity can be considered under the same umbrella does not cheapen the term - everybody recognizes the matter of scale, concrete action and intention that is different in both figures. An unwelcome pinch on the butt isn't rape - but it could be sexual assault. I don't think anybody argued that it is rape.

What about fondling of breasts against their owner’s will?

So, you're saying just a little pinch is not that bad?

Next time you're at a conference, try pinching a woman's butt in the middle of a crowded room. Let me know how that works out for you.