Killer blow for #MeToo and the women it helped
THE overturning of Harvey Weinstein’s first rape conviction on the grounds that he didn’t get an fair trial may be bitterly disappointing but it’s scarcely unexpected. Indeed, while the movie mogul was on trial in New York in 2020, his acquittal looked at times almost certain, despite the fervour of public opinion about Hollywood’s biggest monster.
More than 100 women, led by Ashley Judd and Sopranos star Annabella Sciorra, came forward to tell of being harassed by power-brokers in the entertainment game, most of them by the hideous Weinstein whose predatory behaviour was an open secret but continued uninterrupted thanks to his power to make or break careers.
The revelations gave birth to #MeToo, forcing a tectonic shift in workplace culture as a slew of women followed with similar testimonies of abuse and coercion by powerful men in their own industries. It was as if a match had been lit on a tinderbox of rage and suffering so that Weinstein became the symbol of abuse women endured across the centuries, and the wizened face of #MeToo.
YET for all that, Weinstein was convicted only on criminal sexual act in the first degree and thirddegree rape. He was cleared of a more serious first-degree rape charge, and both counts of predatory sexual assault.
His conviction had enormous symbolic significance, however. It appeared that #MeToo’s emotional and political influence was being acknowledged and that, for once, the suffering of women was being privileged over legal conventions giving castiron rights to a predator.
This new ruling strips that small victory away, delivers a devastating blow to #MeToo and reminds us how the legal system still fails victims of sexual assault: how the odds are stacked against getting convictions in rape and sexual assault cases when the evidence boils down to one person’s word against another; how the presumption of innocence and the burden of proof unite to discourage women from reporting assault and to despair of ever seeing justice.
Granted, Weinstein remains in prison for a separate rape conviction in California, and there is the chance of his facing a retrial over the New York allegations. But, like it or not, this ruling – won because of the judge’s decision to allow three women who were not part of the criminal case to give personal testimony – joins acquittals for two other men whose careers were ended or stalled by #MeToo: Bill Cosby, whose conviction for sexual assault was overturned on a technicality, and Kevin Spacey, who was acquitted on charges of multiple sex assaults.
#MeToo had high-profile critics like Margaret Atwood and Catherine Deneuve, who argued that while sex abuse and harassment are wrong, the threat of vigilante justice was dangerous. Yet #MeToo was an extraordinary social movement that raised awareness about intimidation and rape in the entertainment business, even if only one person went to prison. Now even he has had one set of convictions overturned.
It might be too soon to write #MeToo off completely. But it’s not too early to say that after failing to deal it a killer blow a few years ago and get the verdict overturned, Weinstein’s legal team have finally delivered exactly what he paid them for.