Siobhan O’Connor attacks #MeToo campaign, it has descended into ‘a prurient cult-like public shaming social media frenzy’
Published in the Irish Mirror, Siobhan O’Connor takes issue with the direction of the #MeToo movement, which has exploded since the Harvey Weinstein sex scandal. In her powerful op-ed, she writes that the “whole campaign has descended into a prurient cult-like public shaming social media frenzy, where the very essence of why it all started is being overshadowed by hysteria.”
“Constantly having to battle our way to the top, avoiding the gropes of men and their sexual advances in the workplace, while we remain virtuous virginal ethereal creatures, forced into submission by these demonic males.
“The reality is women in the Western world are far from weak – we are strong thanks to our mothers and grandmothers who fought hard for equality. This whole campaign has descended into a prurient cult-like public shaming social media frenzy, where the very essence of why it all started is being overshadowed by hysteria.”
Check out the full article here.
Obviously she acknowledges the monsters among us, “who need to be admonished for groping women without invitation,” the deplorable casting couch and calls for sentencing “in a court of law and not on social media.”
“But how can we put rape and grope in the same sentence? They are both wrong but logically we know which is worse. Public figures strong enough to call the campaign into question include writers Lionel Shriver, Feminist Margaret Atwood, actors Matt Damon, Liam Neeson and the 100 French female writers and actors led by Catherine Deneuve who wrote an open letter to Le Monde newspaper.”
Not only are these actors attacked, but they are being shamed into a hollow apology for speaking out.
Brigitte Bardot was disgraced for stating that the film industry complaining of sexual harassment were being, “hypocritical, ridiculous and uninteresting in the vast majority of cases.
“Me, I was never the victim of sexual harassment and I found it quite charming when I was told I was beautiful or I had a nice little backside. This kind of compliment is nice.”
O’Connor asks: “Surely true feminism is about hearing all voices and not shutting down and stifling free speech?”
She quotes Bill Maher: “I have a penis and while I admit that having one does predispose a human to being aggressive and oversexed, I don’t concede that it makes me automatically wrong about everything and I say that as a true supporter of the Me Too Movement.”
O’Connor then took aim at Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s recent comments by quoting and crediting Maher:
“Something is way off when Senator Gillibrand can go unchallenged for saying when we have to start to talk about the differences between sexual harassment, sexual assault and groping, we shouldn’t be having this conversation. Can’t we just be having an additional conversation? Giving up on the idea that even bad things have degrees, that is as dumb as embracing the idea of alternative facts.
“We can’t agree that groping and rape are unacceptable and one is worse.”
“Minnie Driver responded by saying you don’t get to tell women that because some guy only showed them their penis, their pain isn’t as great as a woman who was raped.
“What? This is madness – no woman in the world, if she actually had to pick would choose rape over merely seeing a penis. We are losing the thread to thinking itself.
“But it seems basic building blocks of thought, like there are facts and things have degrees are being tossed aside.”
O’Connor concludes: “The Me Too movement began as a cause to give the vulnerable a voice, but like Twitter itself which started off to give the voiceless a voice, the campaign has turned into a mob-like machine metaphorically stoning the accused without due process.”
Brandon Jones’ analysis of #MeToo ahead of the O’Connor post – listen HERE
