It is certainly the case that not all accusations of sexual misconduct are well-founded, and appropriate levels of skepticism should be applied. But let’s not kid ourselves — the MeToo movement is necessary, because if you are a woman who has been sexually harassed, especially by a powerful man, it takes extraordinary courage to speak up.
Why? Because you will be called a liar. Even if you have evidence. Even if there are seven other women claiming, with their own evidence, that he engaged in the same sort of behavior as you are. It doesn’t matter, because powerful people are powerful for a reason: people like them.
And there will be people who find the motivation to defend him by smearing you (note that all quotes are directly taken from the comments of the linked post):
“There was, without a doubt, a motivation for at least some women to be dishonest in an attempt to bring [accused sexual harasser] down”
“Eight women tried to smear his reputation with false allegations.”
“I called #2,4,6 False (or dubious), because it's impossible to prove what really happened”
If you’re lucky, people — especially powerful women — will stand up for you, but then they themselves become the subject of sexist criticism:
“I think of [the female politician] as the shrill voice leading the charge to railroad [accused sexual harasser]”
“[The female politician], as he described her, knew no details about any topic, but had a great smile.”
People will go utterly nuts with hyperbole, comparing you to some of history’s worst villains:
“Instead, [the female politician] rushed to the front of the lynch mob.”
“not every woman is truthful. Sadly, some women have been known to make false accusations — which does so much damage to us all.
remember Emmett Till?”
“The most infamous case of “false witness” that I can think of would be Emmett Till.”
“There were many accusers at the Salem witch trials too.”
And even some people who believe you, more or less, will make excuses for “their guy”:
“I have had the experience of “offending” some one (not physically) which was not the result of me being offensive but rather their desire to feel offended.”
“[Accused sexual harasser] was/is a physical guy who clearly approached some women in ways that made them legitimately feel uncomfortable… but he was no sexual predator!”
Every one of these comments belongs in a Republican defense of Roy Moore, not in a diary on Daily Kos. Yet there they are.
There are principled and reasonable ways to disagree with the outcome based on the facts of the case at hand. If you want to argue that Franken’s misconduct wasn’t serious enough to resign? Go ahead. It’s water under the bridge but it’s a fine enough argument. That there are worse politicians? Obviously, starting in the Oval Office (what Franken did is so unlike what Trump did that they’re not even on the same planet). If it had just been the first accuser, with a slightly iffy story and a history of right-wing political advocacy? Sure, more skepticism would be warranted.
But for goodness’ sake, there are eight separate accusers, many with a history of Democratic activism and/or contemporaneous corroboration of the accusations. That’s strong evidence — much stronger than the evidence against Kavanaugh, which all of us believed. They’re not all lying. The comments above, as well as the desperate, Glenn-Beck-with-a-chalkboard-style attempts to discredit each of the accusers in turn (which even taken at face value do not change the preponderance of the evidence), are awful. This community’s behavior, as a whole, today, has made it harder for women to speak up about sexual harassment, and more likely for powerful men to be able to control women’s bodies and voices with impunity.
That is not OK.
