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Christine Blasey Ford (left) testified against Supreme Court candidate Brett Kavanaugh last week; Ashley Judd (right) is one of the first women to speak out against Harvey Weinstein at the first edition in New York. Time history, a year ago friday.
Photo: Getty Images
October 5, 2017, New York Time – soon to be followed by the New Yorker – published the first article describing Harvey Weinstein as a serial aggressor of women. This story helped to revive #MeToo, the initiative initiated by Tarana Burke to raise public awareness of sexual abuse, and then to transform, post-Weinstein, into a full-fledged movement into the male status quo. Suddenly, women were made helpless – and some men, too – felt encouraged to identify well-known personalities who had committed serious, uncontrolled misconduct for years.
This Friday marks the first anniversary of the publication of this first Weinstein story. The Senate is expected to rule on this date on Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation to the Supreme Court. This vote will come as a result of a contentious process involving numerous accusations that he also allegedly assaulted or harassed women during his high school and college years, allegations that he continues to deny. Given the timing of the decision and the strong feelings it has aroused as to when and how women should name their abusers, what will happen will look like a referendum on #MeToo. This moment is an undeniable and significant sign for what started 12 months ago.
With a few notable exceptions – Senator Al Franken's resignation being very important – the impact of the movement has so far been felt in media and entertainment circles. Perhaps that's why the sound of divided opinions #MeToo, certainly moving in recent months, has not reached a deafening roar among a larger number of Americans until the Kavanaugh controversy. For many people, the worlds of journalism and film production seem to be unfolding in a distant land that has nothing to do with theirs. It is therefore easier to observe the upheavals that took place there.
But when #MeToo targets political actors more directly, especially in this climate, and you talk about a Supreme Court judge whose decisions could affect all Americans, the stricken nerves are much more sensitive and the much more polarized perspectives. It is at this point that the arguments "it goes too far" are repeated, as evidenced by President Trump, who said this week that "this is a very frightening time for young men in America", while than women! "- then spoke at a rally by mocking Ms. Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who had delivered credible testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee that Kavanaugh had assaulted her in 1982, then that they were both high school girls. In the run-up to the mid-term, the agony surrounding Mr. Kavanaugh's appointment sparked sensible memories of the pain felt at Trump's observation – himself a known stalker, who suffered no consequences – was elected in 2016 by encouraging the misogynist dismantling of his opponent. .
Trump may have fallen much lower than most others when it comes to evaluating Dr. Ford and the # MeToo movement. Drinking much lower than most is a little jam, after all. But he is not the first person to sound the alarm about the risks of publicly accusing men of bad behavior. This noise has virtually increased since the beginning of #MeToo.
Two months after the Time published this first Weinstein story, the newspaper published an editorial with the title: "When #MeToo goes too far". The author was a man who, by chance, was called Bret – more precisely, Time The writer of opinion Bret Stephens wrote that #MeToo could potentially weaken by becoming too extreme and refusing to recognize that harassing behavior is like a spectrum. To explain this, Stephens quoted a well-known actor who recently spoke on this subject: Matt Damon, who would then play the role of a spitting defender, defender Brett Kavanaugh, in Saturday Night Live. The circle of politics is funny, is not it?
Other articles of this kind have followed. Daphne Merkin, writing again for the Time, said in a widely circulated article that many long-time feminists "have had it with the reflexive and baseless sense of indignation that has accompanied this cause since its inception, turning a real moment of moral responsibility into a series of unproven accusations. "Another article in this magazine, written by columnist Andrew Sullivan, says" It's time to resist the excesses of #MeToo ". New YorkerJia Tolentino, who regularly wrote about the Weinstein case, has been reminded to have consulted a specialist because of his high blood pressure and to have heard him say – while he was checking his blood pressure Arterial, nothing less – "Weinstein is a real idiot. But until where is it going? A crusade that started with a Twitter hash tag suddenly ended with an asterisk, suggesting that #MeToo should come with warnings.
In the Kavanaugh case, these worries escalated into a veritable panic attack, which manifested in last week's confirmation hearing when Kavanaugh, Senator Lindsey Graham and other Republicans expressed outrage before the way Kavanaugh's life was ruined. This kind of witch-hunting arguments is not new. (And, by the way, have you ever thought how wild it was for so many men to use a term that actually refers to a historical event in which a Women's group, predominantly female, was unfairly persecuted? Because I do it.) appeared historically whenever a high profile case of attempted rape or aggression proved difficult to corroborate by evidence cut off. They are magnified now because #MeToo's snowball effect has shaken the Establishment who is convinced that anything they do or say can be interpreted as a harassment detrimental to the reputation by a vindictive woman . Essentially, they imagine a world where every man is a brother of the fraternity of UVA accused wrongly and where every woman will accuse them falsely Rolling stone.
The data tells us that this is not the case. Statistics from the National Sexual Violence Resource Center indicate that rape is the least reported crime and that "the rate of misrepresentation is low, between 2% and 10%". The idea that many women run by throwing false accusations just does not allow it. match the reality. This seems real to some men because their anxiety is so palpable. But it's not because a claustrophobic person feels the walls closing on him that the walls are moving.
What the #MeToo movement has really taught us so far is not that our society has reached the point where we fully believe and support women who claim to be victims of aggression or harassment. Rather, it has taught us – and I count some women in the sense that we are willing to believe it – in the most extreme and obvious cases: when a man commits a definitive rape or attempted rape; when several women have been victimized by the same author, ideally in numbers approaching Cosby's levels, so we can be sure that it's a "situation" he said / a multitude said Rather than a simple "he said / she said"; and when there is enough physical evidence or witnesses to corroborate the story, it becomes impossible to deny it. It's actually a progress; Not so long ago, we did not even listen to women, even though many of these factors were good for them. But it is a lamentably slow and backward progress.
Basically, we prefer that our harassment cases be as black and resolute as the police crimes of our broadcasting network. But even when we know the truth about a crazy situation, there are some who will use the this bad "defense". You know this conversation because you already had it before: "Louis C.K admitted to being masturbated in series in front of female colleagues. He said it himself. But, as it is not as serious as Weinstein, he should be able to get up again after a few months of self-inflicted punishment. #MeToo helped us talk about these things and begin to understand why we are ready. give a pass to certain behaviors or people. But we have not solved more of these issues than racism at the end of Barack Obama's two terms as president.
Even if Kavanaugh is confirmed, realistically, not all #MeToo's progress will stop completely. The Time's Up initiative, which aims to combat aggression and other issues that allow women to be better equalized in society and the workplace, has just appointed its first president and CEO, the former WNBA President Lisa Borders. A confirmation for Kavanaugh would likely encourage women and other supporters of #MeToo to be even more active and active in promoting the movement.
But we can not deny that something that Tolentino wrote earlier this year in this New Yorker The text still seems very specific: "When women repress sexual misconduct, the viability of the whole movement seems to depend on every act." When Christine Blasey Ford closed her eyes and raised her right hand to swear on her truth and nothing but her truth at the beginning of last week 's hearing, you could feel how true it was and if and when the Senate vote "Yes" at the end of this week, a year to the day from when women began to feel more liberated to speak out against Hollywood's most misogynistic mischief, it will be heartbreaking evidence that Ford Maybe she was "jumping in front of a train that was heading where she was heading anyway" was correct, women will have to sit down a bit with this sorrow before they can go from there. before.
But then women and their allies will do what they always do: brush their teeth, get up and do their best to make sure that the trains they drive continue to run.
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