‘Reckoning’ on sexual harassment is a term to be reckoned with

America is in the middle of “reckoning” on sexual harassment we have been told for months now.

The issue loomed over this month’s Golden Globe Awards, prompting CNN’s Brian Stelter to write a post under the headline “First a reckoning for harassers, now a reckoning for awards shows.

In addition, Lauren Green, who accused Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Texas, of sexual harassment, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper last month that “what is going on right now, it’s more than a moment, I think it’s a reckoning.”

The phrase has been used in publications from The New York Times and The Washington Post to BuzzFeed and Jezebel.

A Chicago Tribune columnist called 2017 “the year of the reckoning” and Slate even put together “The Best of the Reckoning.” USA TODAY’s editorial board wrote of “The sexual harassment reckoning.”

So what is this reckoning everyone is talking is about?

Merriam-Webster offers three definitions.

❚ The act of counting or estimating an account, a bill, computations or calculating a ship’s position.

❚ A settling of accounts, a day of reckoning.

❚ A summing up.

It is the second definition that best applies here, particularly “a day of reckoning,” which Merriam-Webster defines as a “time when the consequences of a course of mistakes or misdeeds are felt.”

The original meaning of reckoning as a noun was “the action or an act of accounting to God after death for (one’s) conduct in life, and also to the occasion of doing this — i.e., the Last Judgment,” said Katherine Martin, head of U.S. Dictionaries at Oxford University Press.

“But I wonder how many times people use it today and actually think of the Day of Judgment,” said Tim Machan, a professor of English at the University of Notre Dame who specializes in medieval literature. “For the most part, it’s used metaphorically. It’s used to suggest something momentous.”

History is full of moments that were considered reckonings. The term has been applied to everything from the Protestant Reformation to the reconciliation process following the end of South African Apartheid.

The Civil War has been viewed as the United States’ reckoning with slavery, although many would argue we are still in the middle of the country’s reckoning with its legacy of slavery.

The Catholic Church faced its own reckoning in the past decades over its long history of covering up sexual abuse.

Thousands of accusations eventually led to thousands of priests being

“For the most part, (the word reckoning) is used metaphorically. It’s used to suggest something momentous.” Tim Machan English professor, University of Notre Dame

defrocked or sanctioned, more than $1 billion in settlements and forced several dioceses to file for bankruptcy protection.

Much of the rhetoric around the sexual harassment reckoning implies this moment will resolve the issue, as is implicit in the #TimesUp message from the Golden Globes.

“I want all the girls watching here, now, to know that a new day is on the horizon,” Oprah Winfrey said in her rousing Golden Globes speech.

“And when that new day finally dawns, it will be because of a lot of magnificent women, many of whom are right here in this room tonight, and some pretty phenomenal men, fighting hard to make sure that they become the leaders who take us to the time when nobody ever has to say ‘Me too’ again.”