How #MeToo campaign has made men wary
In the past few days, the #MeToo movement in the US has once again been dominating headlines. On May 25, Harvey Weinstein was arrested on rape charges, the first time handcuffs have been put on the Hollywood mogul whose disgraceful behavior toward women initially triggered the avalanche of allegations against many prominent men that has defined the movement. While this can be considered a victory for the women he violated and a milestone in the war to protect women’s rights, other events around the same time showed that this largely noble cause has some weaknesses.
On the same day that Weinstein was arrested, the New York Observer published a 10,000-word investigation by Shane Snow into the sexual assault allegation by model Scott Brunton against veteran actor George Takei at the end of last year. It poked holes into Brunton’s narrative, including his own admission that some of the details he revealed to the press never happened.
Obtaining fame in the 1960s through his role as Hikaru Sulu, helmsman of the USS Enterprise in the TV series Star Trek, Takei is known in Hollywood as a decent man who, after growing up in an internment camp for Japanese in the US during World War II, has a soft spot in his heart for justice and equality. Nevertheless, he suffered severely because of the accusation – his reputation has been tarred and some professional partners have cut ties.
Two days before Weinstein’s arrest, Morses Farrow, an adopted son of film director Woody Allen and his former partner actress Mia Farrow, published a 5,000-word blog piece defending Allen against the long-time allegation by Mia and Dylan Farrow, an adopted daughter of the estranged couple, that Allen sexually assaulted Dylan when she was seven.
Outsiders don’t know what really happened in the family’s country home on a summer day 26 years ago. The long-running public feud that has followed the accounts of the people who were there that day tells a story that’s more ambiguous than Akira Kurosawa’s movie Rashomon. Previous investigations have cleared Allen. But his name has become synonymous with the image of a creepy and dirty old man through the years. And that picture has been projected as much as any of his movies with the arrival of the #MeToo movement, leading to further public admonition. It’s not my intention to judge what Takei and Allen have or not done to their accusers. And I don’t care much about the sufferings of rich powerful men. But unlike other #MeToo casualties such as Weinstein and Kevin Spacey who appear to have multiple victims, these two were dragged through the mud by only one accuser in a “he said, she said” situation. My biggest concern is that if rich and well-connected men can find themselves in such a spot, how badly will someone more ordinary fare. I’ve already heard many male friends talk of their fear and confusion about the #MeToo movement. They don’t know how to interact with female friends and colleagues any more. Jokes can be risky. Touching can be poisonous. Flirting is off limits. The safest way seems to be to strictly follow workplace protocols and cut off all unscreened human attachment with anyone else.
The side effects of #MeToo can’t be blamed for all this, and the workplace is not the only mined zone. When universities were criticized in recent years for inadequate measures to curb campus rapes, some states in the US passed the “yes means yes” law, requiring an affirmative agreement of both parties to have sex.
But it’s not only the intimate moments that are now regulated. Amid the scorching battle between freedom of speech advocates and political correctness zealots, some universities have started to regulate what professors can and cannot say in class. For example, a friend told me the university she works for now prohibits professors from cracking jokes in front of international students. Because international students are present in almost all classes, the professors tend to only stick to teaching from the curriculum, and “the classes are so dull,” she said.
Correcting bad behavior is important. But when the movement for correction is creating a sterile environment, dullness is the result. Human interaction, which earlier took place in a natural and spontaneous way, is now being dictated as if it were from an equipment manual. The fact that this is happening at a time we are trying to equip artificial intelligence with human intelligence and emotions gives me a cold sweat. Is this how humans are going to hand over the reins of the world to machines?