Sean Penn slams #MeToo in his novel
Sean Penn’s novel is getting savaged by critics for overblown prose, bad aping of Thomas Pynchon and Hunter S. Thompson and for only existing because it’s the product of a rich, pompous celebrity.
But readers who are paying particular attention to the book are #MeToo proponents. They have taken note of theway “Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff” devotes considerable time, including in its prose-poem epilogue, to critiquing the #MeToo movement and to bashing women in various ways.
Penn specifically addresses events related to #MeToo efforts to call out powerful men in media and entertainment for allegedly engaging in sexually abusive, predatory behavior. Penn’s critique includes a defense of TV journalist Charlie Rose and of comedian Louis C.K. Both men saw their careers nosedive after being accused by women of sexual misconduct.
To defend these men, Penn’s epilogue contains this kind of interesting lyricism: “Once crucial conversations/Kept us on our toes;/ Was it really in our interest/To trample Charlie Rose?” and “Where did all the laughs go?/Are you out there Louis C.K.?”
Then Penn gets to the core of his complaint against #MeToo, writing: “And what’s with this ‘Me Too’? This infantilizing term of the day … Is this a toddlers’ crusade? Reducing rape, slut-shaming, and suffrage to reckless child’s play? A platform for accusation impunity? Due process has lost its sheen?”
Penn thought he was saying something important, as he tells Marc Maron during an interview for Maron’s “WTF” podcast this week. When Maron asked Penn if there were certain factions of the #MeToomovement that were causing him stress, Penn replied: “Most definitely.” But to explain his #MeToo criticism employs the somewhat ponderous, mangled, overblown wording that critics say afflicted his novel: “And I think more importantly they are causing themselves some harm, in terms of the long-term sustainability of the rational movement, the rational cultural change that has to happen,” Penn told Maron.