The demonising of men has to stop. Men are not monsters. They are not all sexual predators. Sex pesting is not a universal phenomenon. Suggesting otherwise is a gross calumny against the male sex.
Hundreds of millions of daily interactions between men and women have no sexual content or dimension. It is bizarre that this needs saying.
OK, at first it seemed it was just another day in the life of Hollywood’s diseased culture. On this side of the pond it all seemed a bit of joke too – not least the hypocrisy of Hollywood’s wealthy (British-born) celebrity feminists either suddenly turning victim, claiming total ignorance or blaming it all on something called extreme masculinity.
But since then the MeToo hashtag campaign has not just gone viral, it has become a contagion. Women, it says, are not all just victims of previously unacknowledged male sexual harassment but have a duty to ‘come out’ about it. A veritable competition in ‘look at me’, ‘telling and outing’ attention-seeking has followed. Forget the Rotherham sex scandal, the abuse of underage girls over years, complicit authorities. No, MeToo is about when my boss made a pass in the taxi.
It is not brave, as sentimental media comment would have us believe, it’s hysterical. And I use the word advisedly. Penny Lancaster is not really doing young models a favour by telling them it is not their fault. She’d have been better to alert them, and their mums, as to the name of the game – the risks for women of commodifying their bodies, something women have done for time immemorial.
And, hilarious though it has been to find that it is American Left/feminist Democrat supporters that have been ‘outed’ in this Weinstein feeding frenzy, and that it is Leftie leaning,feminist hipsters over here who are getting their comeuppance, their right-on feminist credentials no longer protecting them, trial by social media is not brave. It is nasty. It’s no better than a witch-hunt. That’s what MeToo has descended to.
The 17th century Salem witch trials led to summary hangings and one sorry soul pressed to death. The 18th century French Revolution ended in mass summary executions. Now #MeToo campaign ‘outings’ are resulting in summary sackings – of men of course.
So desperate are these reprobates’ corporations and employers to sanitise themselves and prove their right-on feminist credentials that they’re hanging employees out to dry on no more than a public allegation. That’s what happens with mob rule. Formal complaint is no longer required. Whatever you think of the hapless Rupert Myers (not much), Brendan O’ Neill is right: ‘Having a bad night out with a weirdo’, who lacks the social skills to court a woman, or having to say shove off to a married man whose overtures are unwelcome, does not constitute sexual assault. Nor is an apology a sufficient ground for a sacking. Remember Professor Tim Hunt who commented on women crying and the cowardice of his employer, University College London whose apology condemned him?
And what about the collective memory loss? Our law is frighteningly active when it comes to sexual harassment. What’s left for feminism’s new ‘victimhood’ to demand? Legalised sexual consent? Those with genuine cause for complaint have had recourse under the law since the 1997 Protection from Harassment Act was passed. Further legislation has since tightened up the law on sexual harassment in the workplace. Then, in 2010, the not-so-enlightened Equality Act turned sexual harassment into a form of discrimination, meaning that a woman today is lucky if a man dares even pay her a compliment.
Legislation already damns all men for the repulsive behaviour of just some and has created a gulf between men and women. This is what the ready accusers of #MeToo – our 21st century tricoteuses – fail to understand. As the management of male/female relationships becomes the business of the State, successful and happy relationships based on trust are finished. Resentment builds and behaviour just gets worse. Society is finished.
Now what is left of trust, on which women’s as well as men’s happiness depends, the angry ‘MeToo-ers’, in their zeal, are busy destroying.
As a woman I am appalled. The option for men is either acceptance of emasculation – a lifetime devoted to Nick Clegg-style ‘conjones’ honorary feminism – or ‘going their own way’ and turning their back on women or their family responsibilities.
Once women couldn’t wait to prove they were the same as men, sex-wise and work-wise. They became, for want of a better word, available. It’s taken its toll, not just in sexually transmitted diseases, cervical cancer, and a rise and rise in single parenthood, but also in regret and confusion. Women lost their sexual control over men. No wonder today’s young women feel worthless.
The sex revolution let men off the hook (responsibility-wise) and left women without any clear rules of sexual engagement.
Women need to wise up. They need to be honest that university and work are where they seek partners as well as economic independence. If they don’t want to end up with just the latter, if they want to be respected sexually, that is treated as ladies, then they had better start behaving as ladies.
Donna Karan was not wrong to say: ‘I think we have to look at ourselves . . . how do we display ourselves? How do we present ourselves as women? What are we asking? Are we asking for it by presenting all the sensuality and all the sexuality? . . . What are they asking for? . . . Trouble.’
Feminists with any wisdom and concern for the happiness and wellbeing of their sex should have defended her, not pressured her into apologising.
