An Objective Perspective of the Me-Too Movement from an Expert.

We live in a really interesting time in society right now. Whether or not if it’s just how politics are today, or people’s state of minds, things are different now than they were before. And I don’t know if it’s because I’m getting older and more aware of the world around me, or if it’s the state things that center change and progress. And nothing embodies or contributes to that change other than the Me-Too movement. The Me-Too movement started out in 2006 by Tarana Burke, and it became famous world wide back in 2017 when Harvey Weinstein was accused of sexual harassment. Which unexpectedly, opened the floodgates to something a lot of people didn’t expect. Accusations after accusations of men in Hollywood, as well as outside of it, mainly in the political space. And it’s great, I think the Me-Too movement is a great movement with great intentions, but it doesn’t seem to fulfill what it’s promising or what it’s hoping to accomplish. It just became another divisive and toxic issue that just has both sides screaming at each other via Twitter. As well as how it’s going through what mosts movements do when they stagnate, it doesn’t distinguish what counts as sexual assault and sexual harassment. And now, when I talk to other people about it, like friends and family(including), they all say something similar, which is that the movement is now becoming something of a witch hunt. Which is a bit concerning, because that’s not how it should be. Now, I’m not majoring in any Women and Gender Studies classes, but I wanted to hear from someone who does know and speak on this type of issue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4lju1ivuTU&feature=youtu.be

Christina Hoff Sommers

Which is how I found the video titled: #MeToo: Movement or witch hunt? The speaker in the video is Christina Hoff Sommers, and it was made by the American Enterprise Institute, or the YouTube channel of the company. And it’s apparently part of a series of videos called, “Factual Feminist.” Which gave me a bit of hope that this video wasn’t going to fall into the category of another loaded and messy rant. And that hope was real, the woman in the video goes over the movement in a way to explain that there’s a better direction for the movement to head towards. She starts off by talking about how the movement was an important and historic moment in our time, but then she brings up that the movement shouldn’t be hijacked by delusions and “gender armageddons.” Which is something surprisingly good to hear, she then transitions into the Bazaar article about Aziz Ansari. Aziz Ansari is a comedian actor, and prominently known for his comedy on shows like “Parks and Recreation” and “Master of None.” He was accused by a writer of sexual harassment, but when the news broke it was quickly noted by a number of people that it wasn’t sexual harassment, but a really bad date. Sommers then dissects the Margaret Atwood quote in the article, then fact checks the statistics that were in the article, which she then uses to make her point that if this movement is going to last, it must be a human undertaking by both men and women. And that the movement shouldn’t be at war with half the population, and that guilt by association is wrong, which can also be applied to innocence. She then continues by talking about Matt Damon, an actor who wasn’t accused of anything by anyone. But instead commented on the Me-Too movement, saying that there’s a difference between groping and rape, and that the Me-Too movement has the possibility to become a witch hunt. Sommers states that he wasn’t in the wrong, because after he said what he said, he is intimidated by the movement because of the online backlash he got for his comments.

Sommers pretty much summed up my views and opinions on the movement as someone who doesn’t get in too neck deep into topics such as this. As well as how all I want, or at least what all of us want the most progress, not problems. Sommers references Bill Maher at the end, another comedian but has late night political talk show on HBO called, “Real Time with Bill Maher.” I’m not his biggest fan or anything but the video showcases a really well said quote, in which he talks about how justice is about weighing things, that’s why Lady Liberty is holding a scale, not a shotgun. Sommers ends the video by saying, “If women and men of good will work together, they can make historical progress in the fight against harassment and abuse. But to succeed, the movement is going to channel its outrage and confront its own excesses. Sommers then ends it by making her final point, which is that in order for the movement to succeed, it has to channel its own outrage and confront its own excesses.”

References

Institute, A. E. (2018, February 9). #MeToo: Movement or witch hunt? | FACTUAL FEMINIST[Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/j4lju1ivuTU