#MeToo movement must adapt to survive

Misogyny, sexual assault, sexual harassment and gender discrimination can feel like death and taxes.

Because they’ve always been with us, it’s easy to imagine they always will be.

The beauty of the #MeToo movement, which emerged in force just over a year ago, was that it became possible to imagine a world in which they don’t have to be.

It started with the fall of a single domino on Oct. 5, 2017, with a story in the New York Times, followed closely by a devastating report in the New Yorker, about Harvey Weinstein. Weinstein, who’s now facing multiple charges of sexual assault, was once an untouchable Hollywood mogul.

What made his fall so mesmerizing was not simply the fact that the media, the business world and the public took women’s experiences seriously instead of greeting them with the usual dismissal and disdain. It was also the rare spectacle of seeing even the most powerful person held accountable for his actions.

For a minute, it seemed like the dominoes were falling all around. The reckoning hit not only Hollywood but also media, politics, restaurants and the corporate world. Women’s stories poured forth from social media, from television and from lawyers’ offices.

Few of these alleged abusers faced criminal charges (and it’s pretty hard to feel sorry for the ones who did, like Larry Nassar), but many of them suffered demotions, bad press or temporary banishment from our cultural spaces and television screens.

Another thing that’s been instructive over the past year has been seeing how many of those accused, and their defenders, seem to believe that there’s no difference between these humiliations and life’s most serious consequences, like death or imprisonment.

“You get accused, you’re obliterated. Charlie Rose ceases to exist,” said the billionaire Barry Diller on behalf of his pal. (For the record, Rose is not only still here, but actively fighting the 27 women who accused him of sexual harassment.)

This hysterical response to women’s voices is the backlash to #MeToo. And it’s growing by the day.

The country got to watch the backlash in full display during the Brett Kavanaugh hearings. The furious, emotional Supreme Court nominee unraveled in public because his promotion was temporarily delayed by a sexual assault accusation — and he was rewarded for doing so.

The Kavanaugh hearings were a sign that #MeToo has entered the next phase. It’s going to be ugly, but it’s also necessary. It seems clear to me now that the only way for #MeToo to survive as a

movement — rather than a moment — will be if it focuses on institutional overhaul, not just individual punishment.

“This is pervasive, so the solutions have to be pervasive as well,” said Surina Khan, CEO of the Women’s Foundation of California. “Shifting behavior means you need to get everyone involved.”

Khan’s foundation, which is based in Oakland, trains community leaders to advance gender, racial and economic justice in their own communities. Most of the leaders her foundation supports are women of color who live in modest circumstances. They’re usually advocating for small, unglamorous forms of equity like preschool options in Salinas or success metrics for black girls in Oakland.

I called Khan because I had noticed how little #MeToo discussion has included these women. Most of the energy, to say nothing of the media coverage, has focused on affluent women (and men) in white-collar situations. But the #MeToo hashtag was created by Tarana Burke, a black female activist who was working with low-income girls to prevent sexual assault.

And my hunch is that this campaign will stall out unless it can address the needs of women who work as hotel cleaners and farmworkers and retail clerks, too. “People who are working two or three jobs don’t have the option of speaking out,” Khan said. “They can’t risk their livelihoods. Women who are in different circumstances need different things before they can make the same choices as women who have the resources to hire a lawyer. If we’re going to bring everyone into the discussion, we have to address everyone’s needs.”

The more Khan talked, the more I realized that the #Me T oo movement will need its own institutional overhaul if it’s going to continue.

For many women, sexual harassment may be the end-all, but for others, it’s just one symptom of a larger problem of economic injustice. Untangling the Gordian knot is going to be treacherous, thorny and time-consuming work. But the sooner we get started, the better off we’ll all be.

The Kavanaugh hearings were a sign that #MeToo has entered the next phase. It’s going to be ugly, but it’s also necessary.