I recently had coffee with a female friend who, in the midst of our discussing politics, almost casually mentioned that she’d had a #MeToo moment decades earlier. She didn’t go into detail — she said she’s told almost nobody the details — but did allow that it had affected her life in significant ways.
As Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh continues to battle allegations that he sexually assaulted Christine Blasey Ford as a high school student, the president is worried about the safety and well-being of America’s young men.
A reporter asked, “What do you say to young men in America?” Trump responded “Well, I’d say that it’s a very scary time for young men in America when you can be guilty of something you may not be guilty of. This is a very difficult time.”
Nobody says: “Consent is mandatory.”
Instead, when confronted with the testimonies of countless women describing how they’ve been victimized, the response of so many powerful men is … to worry that they’re going to be the real victims. And we’re warned that concern is so powerful that it may become a political riptide that sends untold numbers of angry, scared men to the polls to ensure that our political processes don’t allow that to happen.
What’s happening here is that the legitimate concerns of women and victims are once again being made secondary to how men feel about it. I don’t want to see false accusations either. The statistics suggest it’s barely a problem. Still, for men, that possibility has become society’s prime problem.
In other words: Change isn’t coming nearly as fast as it should.
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