Critical Analysis of Me Too Movement

Why are women choosing now to speak out about being sexually harassed or assaulted instead of reporting the incident immediately? The me too movement is a “dog whistle” in some aspects such as women fabricating sexual harassment claims with no evidence to back their claim other than he said, she said and also taking into consideration that not all men who are accused of these accusations get due process. The me too movement is not providing a voice for women due to the fact that every women has the right to report a sexual harassment claim whenever said incident happens, there is no need to wait for a movement speaking out against sexual harassment towards women to speak out and report an incident. I firmly believe that there is equality for both women and men in the work place, the me too movement is not providing any more equality in the work place for women than before the movement started because women are able to report a sexual harassment claim in the work place and actions will be taken to investigate the situation.

In light of the Les Moonves sexual harassment allegations, CBS was justified in making Moonves resign. From a business standpoint CBS does not want the CEO of their company to be someone who has multiple sexual harassment allegations against them. Nobody is perfect but when the CEO of a major television broadcasting company has had multiple sexual harassment allegations against him, something has to be done. It would look immoral for the company to keep Moonves as the CEO. However, CBS was not justified in making Moonves donate 20 million dollars to the me too movement, there are far more important organizations that could use a donation of 20 million dollars such as the Breast Cancer Research Institute, Children’s Health Fund or the Seva Foundation, my point is that these charities and many other like these could use the money far more than the me too movement. The money donated from Moonves to the me too movement will be deducted from any severance benefits Moonves may be owed and also to organizations that support the me too movement. Moonves should be able to donate his money how he sees fit, not by being coerced by CBS to donate his money to the me too movement.

Another key point that is critical to arguing against the me too movement is the women who are completely fabricating sexual harassment or assault claims to extort money from the men they are making said claims against. This raises the question, which women’s claims are true and which are false? The men who these claims are made against should always get due process. Every person has the right to a fair trial, we should not just assume someone did wrong because multiple people are speaking out against said person. The facts and evidence are what matters in sexual harassment or sexual assault cases because without evidence in these cases all you have is one person’s word over another and most likely when it’s a woman making a sexual harassment or assault allegation the court and the people will side with the women even if there is little evidence to prove the women is right. For some of these women it’s all about the money, some women are willing to sacrifice their integrity to extort money out of these men with false sexual harassment allegations. Let’s talk about the difference between sexual harassment and sexual assault.

It is important to clarify the difference between these two terms because although they are both immoral and shouldn’t be ignored, the severity of sexual assault is far more compared to the severity of sexual harassment. By definition according to Merriam-Webster sexual harassment is “uninvited and unwelcome verbal or physical behavior of a sexual nature especially by a person in authority toward a subordinate (such as an employee or student). Sexual assault, by definition according to Merriam-Webster is “illegal sexual contact that usually involves force upon a person without consent or is inflicted upon a person who is incapable of giving consent (as because of age or physical or mental incapacity) or who places the assailant (such as a doctor) in a position of trust or authority”. An example of sexual harassment could be a man making an inappropriate comment towards a woman or a man brushing up against a woman and “accidently”, making her feel uncomfortable. Sexual assault on the other hand could be rape or forcible sodomy. These two terms should not be used interchangeably because sexual assault is a more pressing matter than sexual harassment and if these two terms are used interchangeably is could potentially put someone’s reputation/livelihood at risk.

In conclusion, the me too movement does not provide a voice for women, and there is equality for men and women in the workplace. If a woman is sexually harassed or assaulted they always have the opportunity to report it and speak out against it. A lot of the women who bandwagon the me too movement are only getting behind it because they see a chance to get a settlement out of it, of course there are women are telling the truth with their allegations but my point is that every case should be looked into and investigated seriously before any settlements are given and before these women sabotage these men’s careers over a fabricated claim. Furthermore, with all the women making sexual harassment claims against Les Moonves, CBS had to do something about it. Moonves is a very rich and powerful man and women know this, so I feel as if a lot of women are fabricating these claims to try and get some sort of selfish gain out of it such as money or attention. In addition, the 20 million dollars that CBS made Moonves donate to the me too movement was not a justifiable action by CBS because they forced him to donate the money which I think is unethical.