Cape Times

Year of reckoning for powerful men

- AP

IT BEGAN with a news story, and then a tweet, and suddenly it seemed like everything had changed overnight. The year 2017 will forever be known as the Year of the Reckoning.

Or, more precisely, the year of the beginning of the reckoning. Because at year’s end, the phenomenon of powerful men being knocked off their perches by allegation­s of sexual misconduct – in Hollywood, on morning television, in chic restaurant kitchens, in the US Senate – showed no signs of slowing. Each morning, we awoke to ask: “Who’s next?”

To that question, we should also add, “What next?” Because as the year drew to a close, many were also wondering just how deep and lasting the change would prove, going forward. Was this, indeed, the cultural earthquake many have called it? Or was there a chance it might all eventually slip away?

“We can’t be sure,” says Gloria Steinem. “But what I CAN be sure of is that this is the first time I’ve seen women being believed.”

And that, says the feminist author, “is profoundly different”.

Whatever forces had been stirring under the surface, they all burst into the open with an October scoop in the New York Times, a story alleging shocking misconduct by Harvey Weinstein.

The powerful producer’s misbehavio­ur had long been the subject of whispers, but it was actress Ashley Judd who finally gave a wellknown name to the allegation­s – a crucial launching point for what followed. Her account of a hotelroom encounter in which Weinstein asked her to give him a massage or watch him shower sounded familiar to many others, who were inspired in the ensuing days to come forward with their own allegation­s, from harassment to assault to rape.

To date, about 80 women have come forward; Weinstein still denies all non-consensual sex.

Then came the tweet heard around the world. actress/activist Alyssa Milano tweeted on October 15: “If all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote ‘Me too’ as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem.”

We now have to start putting into place measures at schools and workplaces and the military... about how people should be treated, and we have to enforce them

Then she went to bed. Milano says now: “I couldn’t have been in bed more than eight hours, because I’m a mom.” When she awoke, tens of thousands had taken up the #MeToo hashtag (a phrase introduced 10 years ago by social activist Tarana Burke). Less than 10 days later, Milano tweeted that more than 1.7 million people in 85 countries had used the hashtag.

“The thing that was so surprising was the sheer magnitude and the quickness of how it happened,” Milano says. But she feels conditions had been ripe for a good year.

She says it began with the election of President Donald Trump, who had bragged openly about groping women. On top of that came some aggressive investigat­ive reporting – she cites Ronan Farrow in The New Yorker – and the domino effect of women emboldenin­g each other to come forward.

Public fascinatio­n with anything Hollywood didn’t hurt either. “For this to have taken off the way it did, it had to be a perfect storm and we had to be ready,” she says.

Even before #MeToo happened, and a few days after the Weinstein story broke, Anita Hill was sure something significan­t was happening. “I think we need something to push the needle and I think this has done it,” said Hill, a symbol of the fight against sexual harassment ever since her 1991 Senate testimony against then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. Still, she noted, it was a lot easier for Hollywood stars such as Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie to speak out than for ordinary women experienci­ng harassment from their bosses.

But Hill, who for years has been living a quiet academic life at Brandeis University, stresses that the next step has to be more than just conversati­on. “We now have to start putting into place measures at schools and workplaces and the military… about how people should be treated, and we have to enforce them.”

Hill has just been named to a new commission on sexual harassment in the entertainm­ent industry.

As the weeks went on, the accusers multiplied, and so did the accused, from Hollywood (Kevin Spacey, Louis CK, Brett Ratner, Dustin Hoffman) to the news business (top morning hosts Charlie Rose and Matt Lauer) to the music world (Russell Simmons) to politics (Senator Al Franken, Alabama candidate Roy Moore) to the food world (Mario Batali). The accused lost jobs, TV shows, book deals, a Senate seat – with dizzying speed (Spacey was even erased from a completed movie).

Some simply apologised, others fought back – such as Simmons, with his hashtag #NotMe. Some apologies were more effective than others. Spacey drew flak for deciding to come out as gay as he apologised for unwanted sexual advances; Batali was scorned for appending to his e-mail-blast apology a recipe for Pizza Dough Cinnamon Rolls.

A few voices called for differenti­ating between levels of sexual misconduct. It didn’t always go over well. When Matt Damon said “I just think we have to start delineatin­g between what these behaviours are,” Milano replied tthere are various stages of cancer, “but it’s still cancer”.

Not to be forgotten were the accusers who decided not to come forward with their names, many out of fear of retaliatio­n. Attorney Gloria Allred, who held news conference­s with some Weinstein accusers, said there were many more she’d spoken to who had not yet gone public.

 ?? Picture: AP ?? SPEAKING OUT: Participan­ts march against sexual assault and harassment at the #MeToo March in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles last month.
Picture: AP SPEAKING OUT: Participan­ts march against sexual assault and harassment at the #MeToo March in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles last month.

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