Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

Why the #MeToo Moment Should Be Ready for a Backlash

"After Weinstein: 40 Men Accused of Sexual
Misconduct and Their Fall From Power"

This in no way should be seen as a wobbling on the principle and value of the #MeToo movement, just more a note
that awareness of the danger of an authoritarian Soviet-type of overreach should be in concerned minds too.

As a much-needed reckoning happens in the workplace, look to college campuses for a note of caution.

By EMILY YOFFE

December 10, 2017

In the final five years of his presidency, Barack Obama’s administration undertook a worthy and bold challenge: the elimination of sexual assault on campuses. In fact, Obama’s team had a much more ambitious goal in mind. Vice President Joe Biden, the point person for the campus initiative, said at the end of his term that the administration was seeking “to fundamentally change the culture around sexual assault”—everywhere. New rules of sexual engagement between college students were written at the directive of the administration, but top Obama officials said they wanted these to be applied in the workplace and beyond. “You’re going to change the workplaces you work in,” Tina Tchen, director of the White House Council on Women and Girls, said at a 2016 event honoring campus sexual assault activists. “You’re going to raise your sons and daughters differently.”

They expected this transformation to take years. But with the daily toppling of powerful men who have committed sexual violations in Hollywood, the media, Congress and more, these changes have become seismic. The silenced have been given voice, and their testimony has resulted in the swift professional demise of perpetrators. Shocking descriptions of the behavior of powerful men have shown that it’s not universally understood that it’s unacceptable to display one’s genitals at work or to sexually abuse colleagues.

We now have an opportunity for profound reform, for women and men to join together to treat each other with dignity and respect. But as this unexpected revolution unfolds, we should also keep in mind the dangers of creating new injustices in the service of correcting old ones.

For that, it’s useful to look at how reforms played out on campus, where, unfortunately, many of the Obama administration’s good intentions went awry.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/12/10/yoffe-sexual-harassment-college-franken-216057

Credit to the Obama administration for a a worthy objective, while a reasonable and fair note of caution about the situation today is warranted too.

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The Uncomfortable Truth About Campus Rape Policy

At many schools, the rules intended to protect victims of sexual assault mean students have lost their
right to due process—and an accusation of wrongdoing can derail a person’s entire college education.

Emily Yoffe Sep 6, 2017
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/09/the-uncomfortable-truth-about-campus-rape-policy/538974/