Publicly, We Say #MeToo. Privately, We Have Misgivings.<br />But privately, I suspect, many of us, including many longstanding feminists, will be rolling our eyes, having had it with the reflexive and unnuanced sense of outrage<br />that has accompanied this cause from its inception, turning a bona fide moment of moral accountability into a series of ad hoc and sometimes unproven accusations.<br />“What ever happened to flirting?” and “What about the women who are the predators?” Some women, including<br />random people I talk to in supermarket lines, have gone so far as to call it an outright witch hunt.<br />But the trickle-down effect to cases like those of Garrison Keillor, Jonathan Schwartz, Ryan Lizza<br />and Al Franken, in which the accusations are scattered, anonymous or, as far as the public knows, very vague and unspecific, has been troubling.<br />Consider the fact that the campaign last month against the Met to remove a Balthus painting<br />that shows a young girl in a suggestive light was organized by two young Manhattan feminists.<br />You can be sure that this weekend at the Golden Globes, Hollywood celebrities, not exactly known for their<br />independent thinking, will turn the red carpet into a #MeToo moment replete with designer duds.<br />Publicly, they say the right things, expressing approval and joining in the chorus of voices<br />that applaud the takedown of maleficent characters who prey on vulnerable women in the workplace.
