What we can learn about sex and power from the #MeToo backlash

After months of condemning pervasive sexual harassment and assault, we’ve arrived at the #MeToo backlash. 

Back in October, when the allegations against Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey made it relatively easy to find your place on the battlefield, few could’ve predicted that a young woman’s account of a painful sexual encounter with comedian and self-proclaimed feminist Aziz Ansari would eventually create a deep schism in the conversation about #MeToo.  

That divide, which came into full view this week, emphasized something that the movement’s critics have difficulty grasping: Sexual coercion, whether subtle or explicit, is designed to exploit the fact that girls and women are taught from the earliest moments of their lives that other people’s happiness and comfort is paramount to their own.  Read more…

More about Gender, Social Good, Gender Equality, Sexual Assault, and Hollywood