How American women's growing power finally turned #metoo into a cultural moment
I am so hoping this movement has life!!
How American women's growing power finally turned #metoo into a cultural moment
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/04/how-american-womens-growing-power-finally-turned-metoo-a-cultural-moment
Women are speaking about sexual assault in unparalleled numbers, and while anger at men’s behavior has erupted before, this may be the dawn of a new era
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Many point to the election of Donald Trump, a man accused of sexual assault, harassment and misogyny, as a time of political awakening. Photograph: Elvis Gonzalez/EPA
Monday 4 December 2017 05.04 EST
First published on Monday 4 December 2017 05.00 EST
The Harvey Weinstein scandal has prompted a flood of accusations and admissions – but, unlike previous sexual harassment flash points, it has also sparked a moment of national reckoning.
Women once silenced by fear are speaking out, and the names of perpetrators keep coming: in recent days, TV hosts Matt Lauer and Charlie Rose were fired, New York Times reporter Glenn Thrush was suspended, and the head of Pixar, John Lasseter, said he would take a six-month sabbatical.
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The huge number of stories, covering lewd texts to predatory advances to rape, is unparalleled. The power structures that used to protect the harassers are crumbling. Companies are acting more swiftly and punitively than ever before.
Anger at men’s behaviour has erupted in the US several times in the past: from the “smash the masher” movement of the early 1900s, where women fought back against street harassers with hatpins and umbrellas, to the feminist “speak-out” sessions of the 1970s to the support for Anita Hill in the 1990s.
But what led to today’s tipping point? While the #metoo campaign played a crucial role, other elements also helped create a tinderbox waiting for a Weinstein-like spark.
Estelle Freedman, a history professor at Stanford University, said: “It’s not technology alone, it’s also about the other contexts. It’s a gradual, accumulative process and then a tipping point.”
Among these factors are the election of a president who once bragged about “grabbing women by the pussy;” the increasing economic and political power of women in recent years; and corporate awareness of the national mood and worries about brand reputation. It is also suggested that because many of the women involved in the Weinstein revelations are famous, powerful and named, their testimonies are more credible and have encouraged others to feel they would also be believed.
Freedman says the story of disbelieving women is long and deep. “This works through culture, in Anglo-American law and in popular culture..........................................
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