More than half a year after news reports first exposed the accusations of rape and assault against Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced mogul was arrested and marched into court on Friday morning. Weinstein cracked a wide smile for the paparazzi assembled outside NYPD’s 1st Precinct as he walked in, flanked by the two officers holding back his arms.
The charges, to which Weinstein plans to plead not guilty, include first-degree rape, third-degree rape, and first-degree criminal sex act. They stem from two cases, one in 2004, the other in 2013. More than 80 women have accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct.
#MeToo’s most notorious predator is finally set to be tried in a court of law, after seven long months of trial in the court of public opinion, which swiftly, and apparently rightly, determined his guilt. But Weinstein was the first of many men to be swept aside. He was the spark that ignited a movement, incinerating titans of media and entertainment and politics whose industries had long tolerated the bad behavior of powerful men.
There is, however, an element of anarchy to #MeToo. It implicated men such as Aziz Ansari for little more than being a bad date. The breakneck speed at which #MeToo plowed through society rattled workers and employers alike, leaving women to question whether men would fear working with them, and men to question whether they would be next on the chopping block.
A March poll conducted by Vox and Morning Consult found that nearly 70 percent of women strongly or somewhat supported #MeToo, and most believed it would result in positive outcomes, with men becoming more conscious of inappropriate behavior, and women becoming more comfortable reporting sexual assault and harassment. But roughly half also believed it would lead to men avoiding one-on-one interactions with women in the workplace, and to men being falsely accused of assault and harassment. About 60 percent were either very or somewhat concerned that #MeToo would cause women to be denied professional opportunities because men are reluctant to work with them.
For all its benefits, #MeToo has also had its excesses, and there should be nothing wrong with saying so, since that’s a reality clearly felt by women. The Weinstein scandal is like a rock thrown into the middle of a pond; it’s heavy and concrete and disruptive and real, but it sends ever shallower ripples outward. And now, the #MeToo ripples are splashing up against people innocent of anything worse than clumsiness.
Perhaps Weinstein’s arrest is an opportunity for the movement to re-center itself and focus on behavior that has always been foul and, more to the point, criminal. If #MeToo covers everything, it will mean nothing, or at least, nothing good.
For the movement to last, and to sustain the popular support that its central causes of justice and decency deserve, it needs to show self-restraint and avoid triumphalist and vengeful presentism. It should end and punish criminal behavior that always had to be hidden by its perpetrators. It should not be allowed to engulf people who merely failed in the past to live according to the strictures of today’s sexual politics.
