| "One man's innocent, casual conversation with a female coworker can these days become that woman's #MeToo moment" Lets look at some notable #MeToo cases in the last year 1. Harvey Weinstein - Dozens of women accused Weinstein of assaulting, harassing, or raping them. https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/from-aggressive-ove... 2. Matt Lauer - Fired for inappropriate sexual relationship with a coworker. Not an isolated incedent, as many women came forward through his career with reports of sexual assault and unwanted sexual advances. http://people.com/tv/matt-lauer-sexual-harassment-assault-al... 3. Mario Batali - Accused of sexual misconduct by multiple female employees. Repeated reports of Batali groping the breasts of women who worked for him. https://ny.eater.com/2017/12/11/16759540/mario-batali-sexual... So where is this "innocent conversation" you mention? |
I was present, as were a handful of other women. None of us were ever followed up with to ask if this was a legitimate accusation. The accuser was given a red carpet to a choice team. The accusee was given additional workload to carry and taken out of a position of authority and placed in a punitive program.
I have seen this happen twice in the last 3 years.
Do not take this as defense of the examples you mention, but as a warning against unintended consequences that simply don't ever show up in the press because they aren't highly visible and won't draw clicks, especially if they go against the status quo. If you need further evidence, look at the speed to which a concrete, evidence backed accusation with respect to google's hiring practices got flagged off the front page, whereas this thread is still much higher ranked after much longer time and fewer votes.