Old Text Reread | The Metoo Dilemma: The Unfinished Construction of Legitimacy

Recommended Article | The Metoo Dilemma: The Unfinished Construction of Legitimacy

Summary:

Since patriarchal prejudice cannot be used all the time, and the judiciary itself has errors and flaws, how will this movement go on? Perhaps in the future, the participants of the metoo movement can really create a new set of judgment standards that are different from the judiciary, but acceptable to the vast majority of people, and use such standards to examine cases and accusations that are difficult to obtain evidence. However, the realization of this prospect may be more pessimistic.

This article was written in 2020, and it struck me when I first read it. There is not much difference between me now and then, and I will still speak up for every incident of sexual assault and harassment. But at the time, I didn't think about it, and I narrowly believed that Metoo's resistance was caused by the fact that everything it fought against was too powerful and cunning.

Reading this article now is also very inspiring. But before sharing, I want to tell a story.

I was molested by my father's friend when I was young, and I was ignorant and didn't know what was going on. Until I was in elementary school, one day I saw a newspaper on the teacher's desk, in which there was a column with words like "Father rapes his own daughter" written in bold type, which was very eye-catching.

I didn't read the whole report, I hurriedly put down my homework and ran away, but I had a bad day. I found a word in that newspaper to describe what had happened to me, but it embarrassed me. Later as I got older, the word became a little more accurate, "obscene."

When I was twelve or thirteen years old, I had friends I could trust, and finally had the courage to say it, she wept silently, and told me that it happened to her too. This is something I didn't expect. At that time, I was just playing it as a game of courage: I like you so much, I want to show you, how dare I tell you the saddest thing about myself. How could such an understated story get her tears. I was terrified for a moment, so I reached out and hugged her, and she spoke the truth in my ear. During the noisy class, we hugged together and couldn't hear anything else.

I can still imagine the scene at that time, in such a noisy classroom, our voices were so insignificant, no one paid attention to us, and everyone in their teens had their own sweet troubles. Our tears, secretly shed over the past few years, have never been so smooth. We sat so close we could look each other in the eye and bravely tell each other: Me too. The subtext is, don't be afraid, we grow up, and fortunately we will grow up.

This friend is still in contact with me today, and our friendship has been more than ten years. I also just thought of it today, maybe it has something to do with the dialogue that took place between classes at that time, we trust each other, no need to say more.

At that time, we would never have imagined that there would be a movement called Metoo, which allows victims who have never met and who are completely unfamiliar to hug together and become each other's strength. People know better than ever, "What happens to one person can happen to everyone. All the rivers are connected, you flow into me and I flow into you. What happens to you, also happens to On me, it's just that you met at school, and I will be elsewhere." ("Reciprocating Letters")

I tell this story to illustrate my hope and vision for Metoo. But you must have noticed that when it's called a "movement," it's a lot more complicated than what's ever happened to us. So, I think Metoo supporters and participants should think about this question: how does the movement go.

In this article, the author argues that the ongoing predicament of the #MeToo movement is that the construction of legitimacy has not been completed. So what exactly does "legitimate" mean? The literal meaning is actually quite annoying. In order to avoid misunderstandings, I have excerpted the instructions in the text here to help understand:

The #MeToo movement and past anti-sexual harassment campaigns use a different approach. It encourages the parties to make allegations in public opinion to gain attention, and then based on the view that "sexual harassment is generally a habitual offender", it is expected that more victims will come forward and provide evidence. Such innovative methods that do not go through judicial channels naturally arouse the public's doubts about "legitimacy".

This is very clear, and we can also observe that basically every Metoo event is indispensable for this part of the discussion, and it also causes a lot of damage to the movement itself.

The article enumerates and overturns three responses that try to construct "legitimacy", which is what I often use when speaking for the Metoo incident, so it's really shocking to hear the "other side" voice, and also be ashamed of yourself. All in all, this article is not out of date no matter when you read it, and I only write it here. I hope everyone can read the original text.