On #MeToo, Everyone’s A Hypocrite
How the Biden/Reade scandal caused people to abandon their principles
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In light of the fallout from Tara Reade’s allegations against Joe Biden, many have been quick to declare the death of the ‘Me Too’ movement — which rose to prominence just three years ago. While it would be wrong-headed to declare ‘Me Too’ a complete failure, it certainly didn’t achieve the transformational change it’s proponents had hoped for. For those who came of age politically in the 2010s, the ‘Me Too’ movement will only further contribute to political disenfranchisement, as it joins the ranks of ‘Extinction Rebellion’, ‘Black Lives Matters’ and ‘March for Our Lives’ as a movement which raised awareness of systemic problems, but failed to achieve its desired societal change.
On reflection, it’s clear that ‘Me Too’ was always going to struggle greatly in achieving its goals — going up against decades of ingrained, sexist societal attitudes. Yet, there have also been a number of modern day factors — politics and class division to name two — that made ‘Me Too’s’ mission even harder to achieve. The movement’s loss of legitimacy was ultimately a result of how America’s entrenched political divides made ‘Me Too’s’ principles expendable in exchange for achieving wider political objectives.
What is surprising, however, is that the movement’s hardest test didn’t come from Donald Trump or Brett Kavanaugh or Al Franken, but from Joe Biden. What set the Biden/Reade scandal apart from that of Kavanaugh and Franken, is that it exposed all sides of the political aisle as hypocrites. From the movement’s outset, there had been a scepticism towards it from the right, which — while damaging for the movement — was ultimately surmountable. Even as the right sounded the alarm over a supposed lack of due process and declared their support of Brett Kavanaugh in the face of sexual assault allegations, the movement was initially able to power through with predominantly liberal support.
Much of the ‘Me Too’ movement has been left in ruins. That might be okay to those who saw the movement as little more than a means to a political ends, but it’s a seismic failure to the millions of survivors across America
After all, the media landscape had a clear liberal tilt and the unpopularity of Trump made it seem as though Democrats could be on the brink of regaining power in 2020. While bipartisan support for the movement would have made it more easily successful, it had seemed as though it could exist as a largely partisan entity. For a while, this did look as though it could work; both sides were applying their standards consistently — conservatives consistently aired on the side of scepticism, while liberals gave accusers the benefit of the doubt and took a hard-line approach towards the accused; even if that meant going after people on their own side, like Al Franken.
Yet, even at this time, cracks were beginning to show. Some liberals, especially Democratic donors, were expressing unhappiness with the ousting of Al Franken from the Senate, while partisan arguments were beginning to prop up even over non-political allegations. While the public were content to see Harvey Weinstein face justice ( few people outside of elite circles had any particular warmth towards him and the allegations against were almost undeniably true) the court of public opinion was substantially more divided on other cases. Many of the accused, all the way from Aziz Ansari to Louis C.K., were receiving substantial public support after allegations against them emerged. This was hardly a surprise; the many, many accused public figures had been on our TV, movie and computer screens for years — sometimes decades — before they were accused. In this time, they had built up carefully crafted public images of themselves and in doing so, had often amassed thousands, if not millions, of loyal fans. In contrast, the accusers were often unknown to the public, and even when they weren’t, they were still often significantly less powerful than the accused. The result of this unequal power dynamic was that many casual observers found themselves much more able to sympathise with — and believe — the accused, rather than the accuser.
Even among the more committed ‘Me Too’ supporters, there was disagreement over exactly what the world should look like after the movement — what standard should accusations have to meet to be believed? How far is too far? Is it ‘believe women’ or ‘believe all women’? Is one person’s word enough to warrant action against the accused? What role do male victims have in a movement whose slogan had become ‘believe [all] women’?
Tara Reade’s brushes with poverty were weaponized against her
Even as the ‘Me Too’ movement seemed to be moving forward and overcoming it’s loud critics, cracks were beginning to grow larger and larger, and soon it became a question of when — not if — it’s foundation would fall out from below it.
That question of ‘when’ turned out to have quite a specific answer — Spring 2020; when allegations of sexual assault against Joe Biden from Tara Reade hit the front pages of newspapers and magazines across the world. The scandal made hypocrites of nearly everyone. ‘Me Too’ proponents began to use the same harmful arguments against Tara Reade that the right had used against Christine Blasey Ford, while the previously sceptical right bought into Reade’s allegations from day one — even before further evidence in her favor emerged.
The scandal also exposed the extent to which the ‘Me Too’ movement had failed working class women . While the privately educated Dr. Christine Blasey Ford was rightly believed by most liberals, many of these same people were more than happy to promote a Politico piece where Reade’s former landlord described her as becoming “really difficult” when she was unable to afford rent. In effect, her brushes with poverty were being weaponized against her.
As a result of the Biden/Reade saga, much of the ‘Me Too’ movement — and the hope attached to it — have been left in ruins. That might be okay to those who saw the movement as little more than a means to a political ends, but it’s a seismic failure to the millions of survivors across America — and across the world — who need advocates who will stand up for them no matter what their party affiliation is.
