#MeToo

It’s hard to find anything good to say about 2017 — but not impossible. On January 21st, the day after Donald Trump took his oath of office, many of us were incredulous, disheartened and overwhelmed by a sense of impotency, but millions of women turned to action taking to the streets across the land and beyond.

Early this December, political scientists Norm Orenstein and Thomas Mann wrote a Times op-ed entitled, “How the Republicans Broke Congress”. In their 2006 book the authors had blamed both parties equally for congressional dysfunction. No more. “Over the past decade”, they write, “it has become clear that it is the Republican Party — as an institution, as a movement, as a collection of politicians — that has done unique, extensive and possibly irreparable damage to the American political system.” Seven days later, also in an op-ed, Peter Wehner, the religious and political conservative who served three GOP presidents wrote a stinging indictment, “Why I Can No Longer Call Myself an Evangelical Republican”.

Then, on December 12th, Roy Moore was defeated in Alabama. But it wasn’t the toxic state of the Republican Party that did Moore in — Alabama remains a very “red” state — but allegations of sexual misconduct. On a societal as well as political level that may turn out to be the more important long-term story. In fact, we may be witnessing a watershed moment — long delayed. If 1991 were today, the time of #MeToo, Clarence Thomas would likely not be sitting on the Supreme Court. Thinking solely of how Anita Hill’s accusation might play in 2017, we may see this as progress. But it’s been more than a quarter century and still there is no assurance that new corrective rules are at lasting play, that today’s outrage will not fade as the next focus of news coverage takes hold. Our attention span is short and, sadly, unreliable.

It is almost a century since Louis B. Meyer’s notorious “casting couch” and here we have Harvey Weinstein involved in exactly the same bad behavior in the same industry. While Kevin Spacy and James Levine have been accused of abusing young males (think Catholic Church victims), most of these cases involve powerful men imposing themselves on women. Many victims have given witness at this point, but Selma Hayek’s indictment of Weinstein is especially worth a reading. It is just one sordid piece of a much larger and more general ongoing story reflecting a still male dominated society where women remain subservient. Beyond all else, men just don’t want to let go of more than the crumbs from their abundant cake. Perhaps we allow women to drive in this country, but we rarely put them in the driver’s seat that counts. Whether in Hollywood where they are so often objectified, in politics where they seem the eternal minority or in business where they still “compete” on an uneven playing field, women advance only with male permission. Moreover, they are held to standards never demanded of men and are called out, often silenced, when they get “out of line”, don’t keep in “their place”.

Many of the perpetrators are outstanding performers in their fields, something that gives them both power and cover. Too often their behavior was well known and no one wanted to blow the whistle, rock the boat. Cosby made us laugh, Weinstein made successful movies, Spacey’s performances could take our breath away, Matt Lauer was a morning ritual, Mario Batali fed us and Charlie Rose gave us access to the titans of politics, entertainment and technology. That translated into big bucks for them and their enablers. Now they, and a still growing number of others, have been exposed and have become pariahs. Finally.

Just as the civil rights movement taught us separate can never be equal, biology tells us that there is no such a thing as half pregnancy. Sure, there are levels/degrees of abuse but ultimately, they all fall under the unacceptable. Ask any woman who has had to navigate in this male dominated world. A large part of what went on in 2017 and will continue into this year is both honestly coming to terms with the abuses of male power and, more important, correcting them. Hard as it may be, correcting means dealing in absolutes, black and white not greys. A case in point is Al Franken whose political career has been swept up in what some see as an indiscriminate purge. I don’t agree. While being closely aligned with Franken’s politics, I stand firmly with people like Kirsten Gellibrand who thought he should step aside, even be forced to do so. If we are to move forward, we must make the point that ultimately there is no minor abuse. If we know anything, it is that compromising women because they are women is corrosive. Unchecked it will continue to poison the well. It has to stop, full press.

Collectively, we bear some considerable responsibility for averting our eyes not only from what has been going on, but was well known. Celebrity and our slavish adherence to it, has played a huge role in giving the famous a pass because they were just too accomplished to be held account. Decades ago a conductor friend told me about Levine’s predilection for taking advantage of young boys. His make or break power in the musical world, even then, protected him. Given the detailed accounts we’ve heard in recent days, it’s not credible to believe that many in his circle did not know about Charlie Rose’s horrible behavior. Rose has long blurred the lines between interviewer and interviewee. His calculated first name dropping of the rich and famous made sure that we saw him as one of them. Not surprisingly, almost all of those identified as abusers were favorite guests — Mark Halperin was a regular.

Will some people be unjustly swept up (as some feel Al Franken was)? Yes, but we can’t make excuses if we want to clean up this mess. More to the point, haven’t countless women — mothers, sisters and daughters — been swept up unjustly in a system that has purposefully held them back? The task ahead is fundamental change and no exceptions can be made, including of course for the celebrity-in-chief. The Women’s March was in part a reaction to the Access Hollywood tape. The abuse is real, but only one part of the larger problem that needs correcting if we are to move forward. It’s time we stop t keeping women down and “in their place”. If 2017 had been the beginning of that, then it will have been a far better year in retrospect than it seemed in real time. I’ll be the first to welcome that retelling of history. It began with the Women’s March and was given new purpose and direction with #MeToo. That’s what I call effective resistance.