Episode #20: #MeToo

Image credits (CW): Shannon Downey (@badasscrossstitch) // Tara O Brien (@taraobrienillustration) // The Women’s March, Washington D.C. by Ana Vasquez // Tarana Burke // logo by 3Dperson // #metoo

Consent, power relationships and career-ending moments: Charlotte and Emma discuss the #MeToo movement, testifying as punishment, and how to keep the anger alive.

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FOOTNOTES

• We recorded this episode the day before Dr Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony at Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing, but it clearly shows just how detailed and explicit women need to be when discussing sexual assaults perpetrated against them;

• Charlotte wrote about Ford’s testimony for Prospect: ‘Christine Blasey Ford is a superhero on the stand - but she shouldn’t have to be’ was published on 27 September 2018;

• We discussed workplace sexual harassment in episode #3 – listen to that here;

• Lindy West has deleted her Twitter account, but this is what she said:

• Tarana Burke: ‘The Woman Who Created #MeToo Long Before Hashtags’ New York Times, 20 October 2017. Follow Tarana on Twitter @taranaburke and read more about her ‘me too’ movement – founded in 2006 – at metoomvmt.org;

• Dayna Tortorici’s article ‘Reckoning with a culture of male resentment’ – in which she discusses ‘the long 2016’ – was published by The Guardian 19 December 2017;

• Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey’s article about Harvey Weinstein – ‘Harvey Weinstein Paid Off Sexual Harassment Accusers for Decades’ – was published on 5 October 2017. Follow Jodi on Twitter @jodikantor and Megan @mega2e;

• Ronan Farrow’s article about Weinstein – ‘From Aggressive Overtures to Sexual Assault: Harvey Weinstein’s Accusers Tell Their Stories’ – was published on 10 October 2017. Follow Ronan on Twitter @RonanFarrow;

• ‘Louis C.K. Is Accused by 5 Women of Sexual Misconduct’ The New York Times, 9 November 2017;

• ‘This Is Why Uma Thurman Is Angry: The actress is finally ready to talk about Harvey Weinstein’ The New York Times, 3 February 2018;

• Mira Sorvino wrote ‘Why I Spoke Out Against Harvey Weinstein’ for TIME on 11 October 2017;

• ‘Yes, This Is a Witch Hunt. I’m a Witch and I’m Hunting You’ by Lindy West was published by New York Times on 17 October 2017;

• A couple of examples of an older generation of women’s take on #MeToo: on 12 September 2018, Maureen Lipman told Radio Times that “‘We’ve got to stop judging everybody now on the mores of then. In the Sixties it was very plausible for a young girl to be brought to Jack Nicholson’s house and left with Roman Polanski. It wasn’t an unusual thing. (…) We mustn’t wipe out men. I know men have brutalised women over centuries, but I don’t think the message we’re giving out with #MeToo is right.’ (…) She thinks some women celebrities don’t help the cause by sending out what she sees as mixed messages, not least in the clothes they choose to wear on catwalks and red carpets, ‘all this bondage clothing – dressed a bit like a prostitute would have dressed.’” Read the whole interview here. And here is The Guardian’s report on the letter signed by Catherine Deneuve and 99 other French women; the original letter – “Nous défendons une liberté d’importuner, indispensable à la liberté sexuelle” was published by Le Monde on 9 January 2018;

• ‘Tig Notaro Doesn’t Want to Hear About Disgraced Men Coming Back’ New York Times, 5 May 2018;

• ‘What can we learn from other countries when it comes to rape convictions?’ The Daily Telegraph, 22 December 2017;

• ‘How I Learned to Look Believable: Sometimes all you can control is what’s on the outside’ by Eva Hagberg Fisher was published by New York Times on 3 January 2018. Follow Eva on Twitter @evahagberg;

• Nosheen Iqbal’s story about Louis C.K. and Aziz Ansari – ‘A mockery of #MeToo: the rush to rehabilitate Louis CK is indecent’ – was published by The Observer on 2 September 2018. Follow Nosheen on Twitter @NosheenIqbal;

• ‘Although He Has Made Zero Effort to Make Amends, It Is Time to Bring Steve the Masturbator Back to Our Office’ by Bob Vulfov, McSweeney’s, 29 August 2018. Follow Bob on Twitter @bobvulfov;

• ‘Saying You’re Sorry Isn’t Enough Anymore’ by Scaachi Koul was published by BuzzFeed on 19 December 2017;

• ‘‘Arrested Development’: We Sat Down With the Cast. It Got Raw’ was published by New York Times on 23 May 2018 – read the article here. Jill Soloway – the creator of ‘Transparent’ – discussed Jeffrey Tambor’s dismissal from their show in an interview with The Observer on 7 October 2018;

• Madison Marriage’s investigation into the Presidents Club’s men-only fundraising dinner in London - ‘Men Only: Inside the charity fundraiser where hostesses are put on show’ - was published by The Financial Times on 23 January 2018. Follow Madison on Twitter @miss_marriage;

• ‘‘How Could Harvey Weinstein Get Away With This?’ Asks Man Currently Ignoring Sexual Misconduct Of 17 Separate Coworkers, Friends, Acquaintances’ The Onion, 6 October 2017;

• Lucy Prebble wrote about harassment in the film and theatre industry for London Review of Books on 13 October 2017: “When the Weinstein story broke an older male writer said to me: ‘Jesus, if they’re going to go back through every casting couch encounter, we’ll be here for ever.’ Well, I say, as a younger woman: we’ve got time.” Read the whole story here and follow Lucy on Twitter @lucyprebblish;

• Charlotte quoted from Alexandra Petri’s ‘Men of the world: You are not the weather’, published by the Washington Post on 18 October 2017:

“Smoke is not weather. Let me tell you why I have said this. Weather is something you can do very little to prevent; you can only prepare for it and warn people about it and buy protective gear. Smoke happens when someone decides to light a fire.

I am sick of having to treat smoke as though it is weather.

I am sick of having to bear witness about sexual harassment.

I am sick of being warned, or not warned, about interacting with certain people, as casually (Molly Ringwald’s words, not mine) as talking about the weather.”

Read the whole story here, and follow Alexandra on Twitter @petridishes.  

OUR RECOMMENDATIONS

• Charlotte recommends Pocket, which allows you to save articles from your browser or social media so that you can read them later;

• Emma recommends Duolingo, which will help you broaden your horizons by learning new languages. (She’s finding Portuguese a lot easier than Swahili at the moment.)

THE NEXT EPISODE…

…Will be our top-secret Christmas special, as Emma will be on parental leave from mid-October. Can’t wait till then? Catch up with all 20 TNK episodes here!

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