Thanks to Alyssa Milano, the #MeToo movement is now creating a moral panic.

If you have spent any time on social media lately and watching the news, you have probably been shocked and sad to see the incredible viral spread of the hashtag #MeToo Movement.

The #MeToo Movement is the product of a broken legal system, using the internet to cause stars to fall from the skies. Phones at sexual assault hotlines all over the world are ringing off the hooks, organizations are scrambling for help and media love it.

No one’s reputation is off limit anymore.

Tarana Burke

It is in 2016 that social activist and community organizer Tarana Burke created the expression “Me Too” on Myspace, as part of a grassroots campaign to promote “empowerment through empathy” among “women of color” having experienced sexual abuse.

Alyssa Milano

On October 15, 2017, actress Alyssa Milano encouraged spreading the expression as part of an awareness campaign in order to reveal the ubiquity of the problem among all women.

On January 4, 2018 Milano announced in an article published in the Rolling Stone magazine that she and 300 other women in the film industry were now supporting another movement called Time’s Up, an initiative aiming to help fight sexual violence and harassment and inequality in the workplace with creative strategies ranging from establishing a legal defense fund to aid working-class women to lobbying for legislation that would punish companies that foster environments for harassment.

In this exclusive essay for Rolling Stone, Milano explains how she was working to make sure that Time’s Up will have a positive effect for women both inside Hollywood and in the world at large.

After millions of people started using the phrase, and it spread to dozens of other languages, the purpose changed and expanded, as a result it has come to mean different things for different people and whoever you are, if you have any skeleton in your closet of any kind, your reputation is more at risk than ever.

A new comer: SpeakUp.eu

In the aftermath of the #MeToo Movement a new worldwide denunciation is born: SpeakUp.eu by People Intouch, a multi-language, integrated phone/web misconduct reporting & case management website.

The SpeakUp® Phone and Web System are designed for communicating with anonymous reporters of misconduct all over the web and make sure that all misconducts reported can be judged and investigated in a fair way [they say,] for all parties involved and to create a SpeakUp Culture without fear of retaliation.

Based in Amsterdam, People Intouch, a truly international company operating in 57 countries and 70+ different languages, was founded in 2004 to accommodate organizations seeking a European alternative to the American approach to whistle-blowing.

Again, whoever you are, wherever you are, if you have any skeleton in your closet of any kind, your reputation is more at risk than ever.

Is all this going too far?

While  many women may consider the #MeToo movement an important step toward countering widespread sexual abuse and wrongdoing, this never has been the final intended goal of the movement. This was only part of it and in the wake of the #MeToo movement analysis, we have somehow lost the intended plot and story-line.

Instead of celebrating a movement that was looking forward to making workplaces safer for women, classrooms better learning environments for girls and public spaces more accessible to all genders, women are now strangely only focusing on men.

Today, the alleged evil behavior of Weinstein, in other words, goes far beyond the Hollywood casting couch. For women, monsters are everywhere. In the hostile world that women face, we are now told, Weinsteins lurk around every corner.

Are all these Good Feminists fair-minded people?

Are all these Good Feminists fair-minded people or are they only, feeding into the very old narrative that holds women to be incapable of fairness or of considered judgment, giving their opponents another reason to deny them positions of decision-making in the world?

While I do believe that due process shall be applied to both, the denunciator and the denounce and that everyone’s rights shall be respected, many [including women] are now questioning whether the #MeToo Campaign has created a moral global societal panic and if there should be greater transparency in the nature and motives of the denunciations.

Sadly, some people would rather cast stones at all men and cast all women as victims.

The #MeToo movement has already received a fair share of criticism and the way it is going; the movement is doomed. Though they may have wanted to be in solidarity with other women, too many women have joined #MeToo too quickly and unthinkingly.

Meantime if you still have to fight for your reputation, let me know. It is time for everyone that is unduly and unfairly crucified on the public place to fight back.

JMD

JMD, a former attorney, a Crisis & Reputation Management Specialist is a Columnist for The Futurist Daily News and editor of the Social and Political Blog JMDlive.com. Follow JMD on Twitter @ jmdlive and visit the following JMD websites: jmdsystemics.com , bunkumless.com and jmdonline.tumblr.com

 

Note:

Tarana Burke accepted the title of the leader of the MeToo movement but has also stated she considers herself a worker of something much bigger: “A movement that includes both men and women of all colors and ages and supports marginalized people in marginalized communities.