#Himtoo: when women are predators
An aspiring Hollywood star goes to a hotel room to meet an older, more powerful industry figure – only to be plied with alcohol and pressured into sex. It’s a dismally familiar story, said Bari Weiss in The New York Times. But in its latest version, there’s a twist: the alleged abuser is not only a woman, but a leading light in the #Metoo movement. We now know that while Asia Argento, the Italian actress and director, was being lauded for her bravery in speaking out against Harvey Weinstein, she was paying off a former child actor, Jimmy Bennett, who’d accused her of performing a sex act on him when he was 17 (underage in California). The facts are unclear, and these cases can be complex; and so Rose Mcgowan (another Weinstein accuser) was surely right to initially ask that people “be gentle” on Argento. Yet it’s notable that Mcgowan’s reaction was very different when it was men being accused; then she urged the world to “believe survivors”.
It gets worse, said Katie Glass in The Sunday Times. Although Argento insists there was no sexual relationship, texts she apparently sent to a friend tell a different story. She described Bennett as a “horny kid” who jumped her, and casually noted that he wouldn’t have been underage in Italy. Contrast her dismissive attitude towards his victimhood with her description of “the little girl” she was when she was 21 and Weinstein allegedly assaulted her in a hotel room. In that account, she pointed to the complexity of abuse to explain why she went on to have a consensual affair with her alleged attacker. But Bennett is afforded no such consideration: in her eyes, he’s a “failed child actor” attempting a “shakedown”.
Has #Metoo been irreparably damaged by this case? I doubt it, said Jennifer O’connell in The Irish Times. As a spontaneous, global force, it’s bigger than individuals. On the other hand, it does highlight its troubling aspects: the rush to judgement on social media; and the assumption that women are victims, and men predators. If #Metoo is to survive, it must find room for compassion and nuance, and acknowledge that everyone – male and female – has a right to the presumption of innocence and a fair hearing.