Running head: #METOO MOVEMENT OR ARGUMENT?

#MeToo Movement or Argument?

Nicholas DePasquale

James Madison University

#METOO MOVEMENT OR ARGUMENT? 2

Abstract

Has the #Me Too movement gone too far? When there is a topic of discussion as serious as the

Me Too movement there is always a heated battle between both sides of the argument. I chose

this hot button issue because of the impact it will have in the future and the impact that it has

now. I was also always taught at a young age to always respect and treat women fairly so this

topic just seemed the most interesting. It is also one of the largest discussions going on in our

country today. Even Oprah Winfrey talked about the movement during the Golden Globes.

Millions of people watched her speak about the movement getting even more people involved in

the debate. This is an important issue for everyone because this affects both genders, male and

female. This can change the way men interact with women in the work place and even in

everyday life.
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#MeToo Movement or Argument?

The year 2018 is a big year for this movement. The Me Too movement is at a tipping point.

Women as well as men are beginning to see that this has gone too far. This movement early on

was just meant to help women feel powerful and speak their mind when a man does something

morally wrong to them. Now the movement is turning into a witch hunt. Men who have done

nothing legally wrong are being punished and losing their jobs because of these accusations. The

situations when men are being morally wrong should be stopped, but not by police but other

men. Also teaching kids how to respect a lady should be more important than ever before. I say

this because we have come to the point in our society where some women out there truly believe

that men and women shouldn’t work together because of these immoral acts by some men.

Tarana Burke is the woman who coined the phrase “Me Too” in 2006. She went through

sexual assault and wanted to do something to help other women who feel like they can’t speak

up. What she didn’t realize was how big the movement was actually going to get. It became

really popular when actress Ashley Judd accused media mogul Harvey Weinstein. This was the

first major accusation associated with the #MeToo movement. Ever since then women

everywhere have been using the #MeToo on all social media; many women have come out and

accused men of their wrong doings (Johnson, 2018).

In Alyssa Rosenberg’s article, “The #MeToo Movement is at a Dangerous Tipping

Point”, she speaks about how the only way to fix this is if men and women speak clearly about

what they want and need. She writes this article to convince the readers of this. I’ve chosen this

source because she is a fair and balanced writer and doesn’t take sides. The article is also a great

source because of the balanced approach she writes with. The article showed me that even

women believe that the Me Too movement has gone too far.
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The next source I found was an article by Daniel Victor called “The #MeToo Moment:

I’m a Straight Man. Now What?” The focus of this article is that men are just as important to the

movement as women. He believes that men need to teach other men how to treat women and to

not condone any of the immoral acts committed by these few men. That is the purpose of this

article. He tries to convince men that it is their job to stop the other men who are doing immoral

things before it’s too late. In this article there is a focus group that they used to ask men a few

questions about the movement. During the focus group the men even admitted that they could be

great allies because they can call things out when they see it.

I chose this source because it was the only source that I saw that gave this point of view

towards the movement. Due to this different view point I learned that some men believe if this

movement becomes more serious they could be wrongly accused. They are scared because of

some of the false accusations that are tied to this movement. This source also shows that men

can actually help the movement before the movement turns into a witch hunt for men who

harmlessly flirt with women in the wrong way. In this article one of the focal group members

said, “‘we’re all kind of guilty to an extent,’” (Victor, 2018), this man said this because he

believes that every man has hurt a woman emotionally in their lives before but that doesn’t mean

they should be put in jail for it. Both these sources agree that the interactions men have with

women can change to make it more enjoyable for both sides. Other members of the focus group

said, “They saw a lot of themselves in Aziz Ansari.” (Victor, 2018). They say this because Aziz

got into trouble recently because a woman he went on a date with said he pressured her to have

sex when she was clearly showing signals that she was not interested. Some of these men in the

focus group talked about how they may have acted the same way Aziz acted with this girl. They
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began to think back about the things they’ve done to see if they missed cues from the women

they flirt with.

The third and final source I have found is by Jessica Bennet called “The #MeToo

Moment: What’s Next?” She writes this article to show people that if the movement continues in

the direction of witch hunts then the relationship between men and woman might be pushed in

the wrong direction. From this article I’ve learned that there is still a chance to change the

movement to where men learn how to be more respectful to woman but also where women learn

how to voice their opinion in situations where they feel uncomfortable. In this article she says,

“What can someone accused of sexual misconduct reasonably expect, what is fair, and what

range of punishments should be considered beyond the abrupt torching of someone’s career?”

(Bennett, 2018). As said many times in the Rosenberg article, there is no punishment for

someone like Aziz because legally he did nothing wrong. Both the Rosenberg and Bennet

articles want to set clearer rules to know what punishment is given beyond the sudden ending of

the man’s career. Both the Bennett and Victor article worry about what would happen to work

social events or male-female mentor relationships if this movement actually begins to change

everyday life. These writers worry about the relationship between working females and working

males. In the Bennett article she says, “I hope we begin to see men and women step up as

bystanders” (Bennett, 2018). This is a powerful statement used in all three of the sources I

examined in this paper. They also said that men are important allies because men will call out

something when he sees it.

Through this inquiry I’ve learned that even women want the movement to change, they

see how extreme it’s become. I believe the movement is an overreach and that it needs to change

before another man is accused and fired from his career for doing something immoral, not
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illegal. After researching this topic I haven’t changed my mind about the movement but instead

shifted my thinking. After reading these articles I’ve learned that men are important allies if we

want to stop this movement and stop these men from committing immoral acts against women.

Men are good at speaking their mind when they see something wrong and they also can teach

other men to not do these immoral things to women and teach them to respect women more.

This is a fair compromise for such a big issue. For supporters of this movement, if you look at

what this movement has become then you would see that you’re actually hurting yourself. Men

will begin to fear having a female intern or mentoring a woman because of what the movement

has done. The men would fear work with women because just an accusation of sexual assault

can get you fired. Hopefully in time the movement will settle back down to what it was when

Tarana Burke coined the phrase in 2006.

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References

Johnson, C. A. (2018, March 19). #MeToo: A timeline of events. Retrieved March 24, 2018, from

http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/ct-me-too-timeline-20171208-htmlstory.html

Me too. (n.d.). Retrieved March 19, 2018, from https://metoomvmt.org/

Rosenberg, A. (2018, January 17). Opinion | The #MeToo movement is at a dangerous tipping

point. Retrieved March 24, 2018, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-

four/wp/2018/01/17/the-metoo-movement-is-at-a-dangerous-tipping-

point/?utm_term=.d1bdafdc4bc5

The #MeToo Moment: What's Next? (2018, January 05). Retrieved March 24, 2018, from

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/05/us/the-metoo-moment-whats-

next.html?rref=collection/seriescollection/metoo-

moment&action=click&contentCollection=us®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=lates

t&contentPlacement=8&pgtype=collection

Victor, D. (2018, January 31). The #MeToo Moment: I'm a Straight Man. Now What? Retrieved

March 24, 2018, from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/31/us/the-metoo-moment-im-a-

straight-man-now-what.html?rref=collection/seriescollection/metoo-

moment&action=click&contentCollection=us®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=lates

t&contentPlacement=3&pgtype=collection
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