Meh. Not exactly.
More like I believe that right now, given the woefully inadequate state of the legal system to handle the problem, I just realize that public outcry is what we have. And it has been working. We’re having these difficult conversations about what constitutes abuse, that it’s not the scary guy you don’t know who grabs you off the street, how much grooming coercion, and manipulation are involved, how we were trained to be vulnerable, how widespread the shame and gaslighting are, etc.
A lot of men are examining their past behavior. A lot of men are realizing the same dynamics have happened to them.
A lot of people are doubling down on the bullying. But we see them for what they are now. They’re a noisy minority. We didn’t know that before, because no one talked about it. Victims felt incredibly ostracized.
It comes down to this. The legal system will not change without an impetus to do so. I agree that it needs an overhaul. The public outcry and social media trials, while painful for the individuals involved in them (because there’s no way mob justice is ever fair), will be and should be the catalyst for changes in the justice system. It all depends on whether or not the public outcry becomes disruptive enough.
It doesn’t mean that I’m happy about it. Again, I just don’t see how there’s anything else as effective, right now. It’s kind of a sad and pathetic state of affairs, if you ask me. But, what else is there?
We should be able to make these changes because people are suffering, some are even dying because of lack of justice. It has to end.
Legalities aside, I’m in favor of #MeToo because of the broader impact of how we see and deal with sexual assault as a society. It will make a profound impact on the lives and recovery of victims to not be further humiliates and assaulted by society after you’ve been sexually assaulted. I really don’t think one could possibly under measure of under value how that will affect survivors.
My concern is that we may be at the end of the road. If #MeToo fails and there continues to be little or no consequence to rape, DV, sexual assault and harassment then what recourse is left to women to check this behavior? We women have been disenfranchised from our normal pushbacks pretty much since industrialization. Do we really want to get to the point where the only recourse that’s left to women is to start responding to violence with violence? Because if women start going on killing sprees, it’s not going to be the haphazard affairs Incels do.
