GRSJ224/feminismmetoo

#MeToo Movement as Modern Feminist Struggle

       Recently, a new social movement has swept the nation when a number of high-profile figures have been publicly accused of sexual assault. The movement, with the hashtag #MeToo, encourages victims to come forward and share their experiences with sexual assault or rape. The movement started with Harvey Weinstein, a well-known film-maker and company owner, being accused of sexual misconduct against more than 80 women, over a period of 40 years (Ward, 2018). The New York Times and the New Yorker broke the story about his conduct and finally Weinstein was forced out of Weinstein & Co. a company which subsequently declared bankruptcy. Almost immediately after the Weinstein scandal, other notorious figures, including Fox News Chairman Rogers Ailes, actor Kevin Spacey and President Donald Trump were publicly accused of sexual harassment (Ward, 2018).

The allegations against Harvey Weinstein, ranging from unwanted touching, groping, demanding sexual favors in exchange for role, and even rape, led to a battle which was taking place in the social plane, not in the legal courts. Weinstein's actions and his victims' courage led to his career and reputation be destroyed practically overnight, and it caused a wave during which other "big shots" from Hollywood were identified publicly as horrible human beings who prey on women (Sherwin & Wagner, 2018).

         Recently, the world has watched Dr. Ford testifying against Kavanaugh, as he was about to be named a Supreme Court Justice. In spite of Dr. Ford's moving testimony, the alleged presence of an eyewitness at the incident, Kavanaugh's explosive temperament, in the aftermath of a really quick FBI investigation, the issue was declared null and Kavanaugh was named a Supreme Court judge anyway. This type of event is not new nor unique. In 1992, Justice Clarence Thomas was accused by Anita Hill, as he was about to become a U.S. Supreme Court judge, that he sexually harassed her while she was his employee at the U.S. Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (Ward, 2018). The fact that these accusations often lead to nothing and they cannot stop powerful, white males, from accessing more and more positions of power, dissuades many women from coming forward, for fear of stigma.

Sexual Assault: Fact Check

Sexual assault is more common than it is reflected in the justice system. Many women have experienced sexual assault or misconduct which has made them feel uncomfortable at school or at their jobs. Yet, most women remain silent, not wanting to go through the public scrutiny, shaming and victim blaming which often goes hand in hand with reporting an assault. When it comes to assaults and inappropriate behavior in the workplace, the victims, in fear of losing their jobs, remain silent or don’t ever lodge a complaint with their human resources department.

Dornat (2018) says: "I worked on Capitol Hill for 35 years. During that time I saw and experiences various forms of sexual harassment and discrimination. Other female staffers I know had similar experiences. Yet none of us went public; we all worked through the issue however best we could in order to survive, advance, and ultimately triumph over out abusers and the system that protected them."

In the aftermath of the Hollywood scandal, the hospitality industry was also revealed as "a hot bed of sexual harassment allegations," which "found that 66% of female and more than half of male restaurant employees reported having been sexually harassed by managers, and 80% of women and 70% of men said they were victimized by coworkers" (Sherwin & Wagner, 2018, p. 175). This serves to clarify some issues and debunk some stereotypes about who gets harassed and to what extent is sexual harassment and abuse a reality in many people's lives.

When it comes to the legal ground, the law is not great at protecting people from sexual harassment. The term "sexual harassment" was coined in 1979 by Professor MacKinnon, which consequently fueled the creation of a cause action and the publishing of a book called "Sexual Harassment of Working Women" (Sherwin & Wagner, 2018, p. 175).

The American Bar Association, in the aftermath of the #MeToo movement, has adopted a resolution “to prohibit, prevent and promptly redress harassment and retaliation based on sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation and the intersectionality of sex with race and/or ethnicity” (as cited in Ward, 2018).

#MeToo as Feminist Struggle

The role of social media has been huge in allowing women who otherwise did not have a platform to come forward, open up, and let their experiences be known, even though their complaints might not lead to any legal consequences. Many feminists have come forward to push for a change in the system, because for too long now women who come forward have been looked at skeptically and they have become "tainted with scandal," accused of weak morality, branded as "easy" or "sleeping around," or accused of wanting to make money off publicity (Dornat, 2018).

Dornat (2018) says that things got better over the years because more and more women ascended to positions of power and women have always been there, supporting other women, pushing for what is right, and building on what women who have come before them have done. This has always been a feminist struggle. However, for a long time women have lived with "the deeply ingrained sexist belief that if we present ourselves a certain way, speak a certain way, behave a certain way, we will insulate ourselves from sexual advanced in the workplace" (Airey, 2018). What the MeToo movement did was debunk myths and make people understand that what was previously accepted and tolerated as "the price of doing business," "the price of work," or "the price of having a career in a field dominated by men," is in fact no acceptable at all (Airey, 2018). The movement caused increased awareness of how other men, in professions such as university professors or renowned scholars, and basically many men in a position of authority, tend to take advantage of that position of authority to dehumanize and abuse their staff or students.

Is #MeToo an example of Hegemonic Feminism?

Feminists were quick to use the momentum established by the #MeToo movement to show how this is just a symptom of a society "devalues and stifles women's voices" (Airey, 2018). However, what we are seeing is that the voices we now hear are coming from predominantly white women, so they are characteristic of mainstream feminism. Feminist movements have worked for many years to combat misconduct in the workplace; however, there doesn't seem to be a consensus among feminists and it is unclear how other variables, such as "race, class, and citizenship status affect the experience of sexual violence, as well as strategies to respond to it" (Pellegrini, 2018, p. 262).

All the world has heard of Harvey Weinstein but few know that the #MeToo as a campaign was actually launched in 200, by African-American activist Tarana Burke, and its purpose was to "support girls and women of color who had experienced sexual violence" (Pellegrini, 2018, p, 262). Twitter was not as popular then as it is now, but the movement was called "MeToo" without the hashtag. The movement remained largely unknown. The reason why the movement gained so much exposure in 2016, had to do with the racial and class privilege of the people who were now promoting it: white women in positions of power (Pellegrini, 2018).

Unlike among white feminists, among Black feminists, the issue of complaining against sexual assault has a lot more complexity, especially given how quick and harsh punishments against Black men seem to be in today's world (Pellegrini, 2018). The state tends to put black people in jail in overwhelming numbers and the history of racism and discrimination play important roles in determining if one is going to sexually assault someone or if someone is likely to be sexually assaulted. Feminists of color therefore understand that punishment for certain crimes is not necessarily justice and it doesn't change the system in which these actions are taking place.

References

Airey, J. L. (2018). MeToo. Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature, 37(1), 7-13.

Dornat, R. (2018). Thank you Harvey Weinstein. Hastings Women's Law Journal, 29(1), 3.

Pellegrini, A. (2018). MeToo: Before and After. Studies in Gender and Sexuality, 19(4), 262-264.

Sherwin, D., & Wagner P. (2018). We can thank Harvey Weinstein for doing what Congress and the Supreme Court failed to do. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 59(2). 174-188.

Ward, S. F. (2018). Time’s Up: As the Me Too movement continues to shed light on sexual harassment and assault, sparking changes in various industries, the legal and judicial systems have been slow to adapt. ABA Journal, 104(6), 46.