This feature is a response to the following NPR article: https://goo.gl/b6vbGr.
Earlier this month, French actress and activist Catherine Deneuve and 99 French businesswomen, academics, and performers published an open letter denouncing the #metoo movement, arguing that the hashtag has gone “too far,” and that the movement promotes the “hatred of men and sexuality” by disallowing men to “flirt” with and pursue women.
I believe that all individuals have the universal right to organize and express their viewpoints or respond peacefully to social movements and debates. While Catherine Deneuve and her colleagues make many valid points about the existence of double standards and logical fallacies in the #metoo movement, I found that the letter they published was wrought with misconceptions about the true goals of this anti-assault social media campaign.
A few highlighted points made in the letter concerned the recent wave of many prominent figures losing their standing in their respective industries (including Deneuve’s own close friend and accused pedophile and rapist, Roman Polanski). The letter argues that “Men have been punished summarily, forced out of their jobs when all they did was touch someone’s knee or try to steal a kiss… Not only that, but the movement has spawned a wave of hatred toward the accused,” they said, “who are mentioned in the same breath as sexual aggressors without being given the chance to defend themselves.”
A group of 30 activists, led by Caroline De Haas (a prominent feminist activist) denounced the signatories of deliberately mixing “seduction, based on respect and pleasure, with violence.” As Caroline De Haas points out, the problem with Deneuve’s argument is that it trivializes sexual violence and assault by grouping perpetrators of violent and inappropriate harassment with those who receive clear consent from the individuals they are pursuing. Additionally, there is no reason that any sort of sexual conduct should occur between a boss and an employee in a professional environment, including as a film set. Why does a boss need to point out his or her employee’s attractiveness, or overstep personal boundaries by touching their leg, especially if these acts will likely hinder that employee’s productivity? In an industry as competitive as Hollywood, hopeful actors and actresses are often sexually harassed by those who have positions of power over them, which shows the problem with sexualization and harassment in the workplace and other professional settings. These unnecessary and inappropriate cases of harassment are what Catherine Deneuve and her colleagues fail to account for.
This letter and the media attention that it has received is an example of how the #metoo movement may be hindering the very progress that it is attempting to make, highlighting the essential problem with using social media as a platform for activism and social justice efforts. As the country grows increasingly polarized, individuals are taking to platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to spread extreme and potentially fabricated political messages. These platforms also facilitate rapid mob mentality, as Deneuve’s letter points out. Without ample evidence, a prominent figure can quickly be removed from a position that they have worked hard for. Some may argue that these innocently accused individuals are just collateral on the path towards social reform in regards to long-ignored issues of sexual assault. Therefore, the widespread accessibility of social media and the internet dually facilitates education as well as ignorance, making it a sort of double-edged sword.
I can’t deny that the #metoo movement is definitely facilitating long-overdue change, because previously silenced stories of sexual assault are now being widely shared, resulting in victims getting the justice they deserve. The movement has been applauded for prompting a paradigm shift in attitudes about the way our social and political systems view and handle sexual assault.
In the end, Deneuve and her colleagues don’t seem to understand that the movement’s ultimate goal is to end the violence and trauma of sexual assault and provide justice for victims who have been silenced in the past. It is not simply targeting the entire male population, like their letter suggests, but it is instead singling out sexual predators and child molesters. Their response is partially a result of the fact that #metoo is a social media based movement, leaving it susceptible to having its messages warped and misunderstood by opposition groups.