Opinion on the #Metoo movement

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theStudentAD2018

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I’ve been noticing the #Metoo movement. I’ve been wondering what’s the general opinion of Catholics on the issue.
I am aware that the #Metoo and #Time’sup movements are about sexual assault and sexual harassment of women as well as rape that ought and should be stopped at all costs.

I am aware that there are such things as false rape accusations. Please don’t start a flame war. I don’t want to get banned over this. I’m just curious on what the opinion of it is.
 
Sexual assault and rape are evil acts of violence, grave sins contrary to the will of God. This movement aims at stopping them. I don’t see how it can be bad in any significant way.
 
Catholic sexual morality only permits sexual activity between a man and a woman married to each other.
Rape and sexual harassment are violations of this sexual ethic.
They are also against the law of the land, i.e. Crimes.
We are allowed to report crimes.
 
At the very least the following are going down now:
Harvey Weinstein
Bill Cosby (Or at least I think he’s still in trial. I could be wrong)
Jess Cliffe (Co-creator of Counter Strike)
Nick Carter
Seal
and others. Who else is going down this year?
 
It is good to call out any form of sexual or other abuse. The time has come when this can no longer be tolerated.
That said, Hollywood to me is a hypocritical swamp; the stars who are suddenly “outraged” (gosh I wish one could ban this word!) have known about the casting couch for eons and perpetuated the sordid culture.
 
Quite frankly, I’m shocked about Nick Carter as I used to listen to Backstreet boys when I was a kid. Now? Probably not so much after what I’m hearing.

You know they still haven’t tossed Roman Polanski in Jail yet because he moved to Switzerland?! Guy’s 84, did a number of immoral things with an underage girl, and he’s still alive and free in Switzerland.

Tell you what, though, when that swamp gets drained, there will be a big huge vacuum or possibly, Hollywood could even cease to exist!
 
My opinion on the movement is that its popularity makes it a great time to read and spread the message of Saint Pope John Paul ll’s Mulieris Dignitatem so that our discussions with others may be an opportunity to help them see the dignity of human beings through the lens of our beautiful church and how this view is the antidote for so many crimes against human dignity. I’ve never felt so empowered as a woman as by reading that letter.

However, when all the hashtags were flying around my facebook feed months ago I was uncomfortable. I was uncomfortable because the reality of how widespread this is means many of my friends over the years have confided in me terrible things that have happened to them. They were noticeably silent and I worried it was all quite triggering for them. Some people’s trauma is bigger than a hashtag. They don’t owe anyone their story. Harassment and abuse have a common theme of ignoring our dignity but they are WAY different.
 
It is overdue, but I hope it doesn’t end up being abused like the Rolling Stone hit job on the men of UVA.

Up to today, it has worked well.
 
I hate having to be negative about something like this that has accomplished a lot of good, because I do think it is a good thing to denounce sexual harassment. However, I think it very unfortunate that the campaign lumps something so shockingly horrible as rape along with it all.

There seems to be a trend in our culture to trivialize rape by changing it’s definition, and I don’t think #meetoo is helping in that regard. It also scares me when thinking of the story of Sodom, where sexual liberation had gone so far as to allow for raping others.
 
I think it’s an important movement but at the same time,I think “Hollywood” can be hypocritical at times and give mixed messages.
Ie:they support a Metoo movement but at the same time have a long history of producing and releasing movies like Dirty Grandpa or other sleazy movies.

I dislike the way Hollywood puts people on pedestals too.
Eg:I remember a few years ago “Hollywood” and entertainment articles putting Morgan Freeman on a pedestal and almost acting like he was cool and a hero how he would hit on young women during interviews etc but now because of Metoo he is being held accountable.

There is also a concern about the danger of someone misinterpreting something to be sexual abuse due to that persons lenses being distorted because they received sexual abuse in the past but the “new” event might not be abuse however the accused might be dealt with “guilty until proven innocent” due to the current social climate.
 
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I think it’s important, but I think there are joyless scolds who interpret a harmless compliment as equivalent to rape. There are those who think that saying something as innocuous as “that’s an attractive dress you are wearing” is the same thing as catcalling on the street.
 
I’m glad this movement is bringing to light certain abusive practices that now seem to have been an open secret. I’m just worried that it is going to go overboard and go from rape and gross sexual harassment over to vilifying simple interactions. I fear that it will go overboard lead to men avoiding interactions with women so much so that they wonder if guys dislike them.

Keep in mind that we spend over half our weekdays going work related activities.
 
DisorientingSneeze said:
Some people’s trauma is bigger than a hashtag. They don’t owe anyone their story.
Click to expand...
Generally speaking, I think #metoo and #timesup are long overdue and justified movements.

Having said that, the above quote is very apt. No one owes anyone their story. A hashtag does not even begin to express the trauma some have gone through. No one should be forced to relive that trauma simply because sharing stories are common right now.
 
I think the “metoo” movement is one of the great things about Trump getting elected.

Guys like Weinstein and Freeman and Spacey and Franken and Conyers and Hoffman and Brokaw and Lauer would all still be running free if this issue hadn’t come to the forefront.
 
the Hollywood film industry has been around now for almost a century so i am sure this behavior has existed in the film industry since the beginning so i agree it is long overdue.
i think there has been sexual harrassment in the work place since women began entering the work force.
i was appalled the other day to hear Germaine Greer say rape is actually nothing more than bad sex and supposedly she was raped at 19.
i don’t know if she has taken that back, but i thought there would have been a backlash in the media over that comment.
the women’s movement confuses me because i remember the protest where one speaker bragged about being a nasty woman. the women’s movement does not
represent me and these so called feminists have really been responsible for helping to destroy the nuclear family and
celebrate the right to abort your baby.

i do think there should be a statue of limitations on accusations of sexual harrassment and rape.
 
Augustinian said:
I think the “metoo” movement is one of the great things about Trump getting elected.

Guys like Weinstein and Freeman and Spacey and Franken and Conyers and Hoffman and Brokaw and Lauer would all still be running free if this issue hadn’t come to the forefront.
Click to expand...
what does it have to do with President Trump’s election?
 
I hope that #metoo ends up changing Hollywood culture. Maybe actors and actresses have finally had enough of Casting Couch culture.
 
I think the flip side of this is that there’s often a tendency to treat things that aren’t as bad as though they therefore aren’t bad at all.

A lot of supporters would argue that there is a relationship between harassment and rape. Not that one is as bad as the other, but that it encourages a certain sort of entitlement. Sort of a version of the broken windows theory.
 
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