The #MeToo campaign is bringing down prominent men. The latest is chef Mario Batali, whom four women have accused of sexual harassment.
He has been forced to back away from parts of his huge empire and TV appearances have been canceled. Known as the bad boy of the food world, he actually did some good things, including founding a nonprofit for childhood education.
Batali’s “good works,” Senator Al Franken’s progressive politics and championing of women’s issues, and legendary John Conyers’ decades of long work for justice should not excuse their bad behavior. I am glad they are facing dire consequences for violating women. I am also thrilled that women’s voices are finally being validated and this public exposure will empower many more women. However, unlike some other men who have also been accused of sexual harassment or worse — Harvey Weinstein, Roy Moore, and the man who now sits in the Oval Office are only a few examples — these men are not total monsters.
I am concerned with two issues. One is that sexual harassment can only be understood when put into the context of our culture’s toxic masculinity. Men in patriarchal cultures are privileged and that privilege translates into social and economic power over women, although race and class limit that privilege so all men don’t have power over all women all the time.
Sexual harassment and rape are the logical extensions of this societal and personal power. While men benefit from this power imbalance, it also puts them under pressure, from the time they are little boys, to live up to the unreasonable expectations of being “a real man.” One result of this power is the denigration of women and all things associated with women. More people are now understanding that sexual harassment is not about sex but the exercise of male power over women.
The other thing these cases have raised for me is the problem of how to acknowledge bad behavior while not totally canceling out the good. Living in a culture of binaries as we do, thinking in nuances is becoming more and more difficult.
The case of Conyers is powerful evidence of human beings’ ability for good and bad. Conyers was a righteous and courageous leader. For decades, he was the person we looked to in Congress to uphold a moral position at the same time that he was disrespecting and abusing women who were under his power. I don’t want to define him only as an abuser denying all the good he did, nor do I want to deny the abuse that he perpetrated. He was, like most humans, capable of both. But I am also heartbroken about it.
Closer to home, my cousin Howard was a kind and warm person as well as a virulent racist. A working-class guy who was a shop steward in his union, his monster side came out when the black movement targeted white unions. He attacked blacks in the most vicious terms and I stopped talking to him until family tragedy brought us back together.
Then Barack Obama ran for president and Howard’s emails were full of hate, the same vitriol I fought against decades ago. The last communication I had with him before he died was to publicly defriend him from my Facebook page. I am not sorry about that, but I longed for his other side.
The #MeToo campaign is empowering some women, especially those who have class power. Farmworkers, maids, waitresses and all the other women who need every paycheck cannot call out their bosses. If they do, they would probably lose the jobs they need to support themselves and their families — and if they are undocumented they would risk deportation. And where is their forum? Who can they tell? Who will believe them?
The campaign is also beginning, in small ways, to change the culture. Some men who might have explained away the behavior of abusers are now hearing women and perhaps even denouncing the men who are accused. Others are beginning to question their own behavior.
But I fear the campaign might eventually create a powerful backlash not unlike the racist reaction to the first black president, which I believe made it possible for the victory of the current occupant of the White House and all the hate he represents.
I don’t think anyone knows the result of this campaign, but as the gospel song says, we have to “run on and see what the end’s gonna be.”
Arlene Avakian, of Northampton, was one of the founders of Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and has been a professor emeritus since 2011.