Atwood defends her #MeToo op-ed

Margaret Atwood has taken to Twitter to defend herself after writing a controversial op-ed in which she wondered if she was a “bad feminist” for questioning the tactics of the #MeToo movement.

The op-ed drew sharp criticism from some observers.

She wrote in the piece that women are increasingly using online channels to make accusations of sexual misconduct because the legal system is often ineffective. But she expressed misgivings about the movement going too far, writing of the dangers of “vigilante justice,” which she said can turn into “a culturally solidified lynch-mob habit.”

Meanwhile, actress Catherine Deneuve walked back a controversial letter signed by 100 French women that disavowed the #MeToo movement as a “witch hunt.”

In the second letter, published Sunday in Liberation, Deneuve apologized to “all victims of odious acts who may have felt offended.”

But she reiterated her position in the original Jan. 9 letter against people who feel “they have the right to judge, to arbitrate, to condemn,” and maintained that men were being punished “without any other form of trial.”

Actor Liam Neeson also used the term “witch hunt” when discussing the Hollywood sexual harassment scandal, telling Irish broadcaster RTE, “There’s some people, famous people, being suddenly accused of touching some girl’s knee or something and suddenly they’re being dropped from their program.”