Did the patriarchy lose a battle? The #MeToo movement.
On October 5th of 2017, the New York Times published a report accusing Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment. Four days later, the Hollywood giant was fired from his own company. Two days after that, The New Yorker went to print with a story detailing Weinstein’s long history of alleged sexual harassment and assaults. Within three weeks of the New York Times’ breaking article, the 76 accounts of Weinstein’s behavior ranging from unwanted sexual advances to rape, alongside four new accusations, triggered the Hollywood magnate’s steep downfall as well as more widespread scrutiny regarding accounts of sexual harassment and assault throughout the entertainment industry and beyond.
Then something powerful happened. Going viral after Alyssa Milano’s now famous tweet calling women to share their experiences with sexual harassment and violence committed by men, the #MeToo movement took social media, news sources and public discourse by storm. Within a matter of days, the story shifted from that of one powerful man committing disgusting crimes to another, where hundreds of thousands of men are doing exactly the same thing. The countless personal stories of everyday sexual harassment and assault showed that the Weinstein accusations were just the tip of the iceberg. Under the surface lied a far more widespread and systematic societal crisis.
The #MeToo movement quickly went global, translating into every language because the problem it addresses is universal. The Spanish speaking community use the hashtag #YoTambien. The French use #BalanceTonPorc. Men harass women everywhere. In the words of activist Caroline Criado-Perez — “it’s happened to pretty much every woman you know … it happens in every country every day to all women, and it’s done by friends, colleagues, ‘good guys’ who care about the environment and children and even feminism”.
Did the patriarchy lose the #MeToo battle?
The online movement is impressive. The numbers are staggering. The question is, will all these personal accounts of harassment, assault and rape make a dent in the oppressive patriarchal society we live in? What kind of transformative power does a movement like this carry? For some, the fact that #MeToo takes place online renders it devoid of any capability to instill change. Jessica Megarry argues that the mixed-sex space that is the online world is unsafe for women. It cannot create “the same emancipatory effect as consciousness raising” which is built on repeated face-to-face conversations with other women “to talk about their experiences, find connections between issues, and understand the scope of men’s control over their personal lives”.
Others, like Collier Meyerson, writing for The Nation, shine light on another problem with mainstream movements like #MeToo. Because they are mainstream, they tend to leave behind those most marginalized. Poor women, women of colour, transgender women, illegal immigrant women are all extremely vulnerable to sexual harassment and assaults but mostly shut out of the conversation started by #MeToo.
One example of past movement that embodies these challenges is that of the #YesAllWomen movement. The hashtag was started by an anonymous Muslim women in May 2014 following the misogynic comments that emerged online after the Eliot Rodger massacre. It quickly went viral, and its creator was bombarded with online hate and criticism. What she thought to be a safe space turned against her. This effect was compounded by her religion. In her own words: “I am particularly bitter, and disappointed, that it did not live up to its name and its promise. As a marginalized woman, even I could not provide a safe space for more than a few hours for others like me. … I regret the death threats. I regret the media attention. I regret the pain and the tears, and the hatred I held for myself for so many months afterward. But I do not regret giving women a place to speak and be heard and acknowledged on a worldwide scale. … We are here. We are speaking. I am here. This is my mouth. This is my voice. You cannot silence me.”
At least two fights were won through #MeToo. First, the patriarchy lost control of the conversation. Second, it lost control of its victims. Men were powerless in keeping the conversation within a narrative that would be harmless to the overall patriarchal system. Women for their part, escaped the traditional stereotype of the powerless victim. They are claiming agency, speaking up not only to denounce and shame these men into admitting that their actions are utterly wrong, but also to support other victims of sexual assault. In an op-ed for Time magazine, Laurie Penny describes #MeToo as a rebellion because “it takes fantastic courage to name your abuser. Naming your abuser is an act of defiance. It means overcoming every lesson you’ve ever internalized about what happens to women who make trouble. To speak honestly about sexual violence, to call rape and assault by their proper names, is to defy the authority of men by denying them ignorance of the damage they do”. Women are telling men: enough is enough.
The Weinstein story was about a powerful man subjecting women, because as the 45th President of the United States explained, “when you are a star, they let you do it”. Instead, the story is about women harnessing the power to fight for a change that should have come long ago: mutual respect between people regardless of one’s gender. The #MeToo movement is about more than making right a wrong. It is fighting to eliminate misogynistic norms that have no place in the twenty-first century. This war however, is far from won.
Edited by Maryam Elahi
