Democrats Are Falling for the #MeToo Backlash
Male 2020 candidates seem afraid to take a strong stand against sexism
From the moment the #MeToo movement began, the backlash was inevitable. Patriarchy is built on silencing and disregarding the voices of sexual violence survivors in order to protect the reputations, careers/lives, and unchanged predatory habits of the guilty parties. Normally, when a survivor of male violence speaks, her life is ruined, her name is dragged through the mud, while the man’s life is hardly changed, other than the sympathy flooding in from his fellow misogynists. Every time feminists gain ground in this debate, a chorus of angry men pops up shortly afterward out of nowhere, eager to restore the status quo.
The fall of 2017 felt different. Women were being heard, and believed; harassers and abusers were the ones being driven out of the public square. Yet in 2019, the angry men, arrogant sexists, and defenders of the status quo are back on top. What is surprising is that they’re not just Republicans. Several are Democrats, and one of them, Joe Biden, appears likely to become the party’s nominee.
Let’s start with a less serious offender: Boy wonder and human Scrappy Doo Pete Buttigieg, who not-so-subtly shamed rival candidate Kirsten Gillibrand for urging former Senator Al Franken to step…
