WALDEN’S WORLD

#Metoo has become a club, take it from me

Yesterday, Rose Mcgowan denied calling #Metoo “a lie” – claiming that she was misquoted and actually “talking about Hollywood and Time’s Up, not #Metoo”.

The 45-year-old actress certainly didn’t hold back when she told me just a few weeks ago that “hypocritical” Hollywood’s reaction to the Harvey Weinstein revelations she instigated this time last year made her feel physically sick “and like people were dancing on my rape grave – like they were feeding off what had happened”. Then again, as someone who “was never invited to any of the survivors’ brunches”, Mcgowan wasn’t “part of the club”, she said.

And maybe that’s the biggest worry with #Metoo one year on – that it’s become a club. One with a selfappointed leader (or leaders) and an unspoken hierarchy (I’ve seen this dynamic first-hand at brunches and campaign lunches).

One with all the cliqueyness and infighting of the clubs I remember not wanting to belong to during my time at girls’ school. Which doesn’t mean it can’t end up being a force for good in the long term, but right now plays into just the kind of “hysterical female” stereotype that male detractors will be all too keen to hold up with a triumphant: “Told you it would never work.”