Is the #MeToo movement a tool of justice?

  Tarana Burke founded the MeToo movement when she started using the phrase “me too” to raise awareness of sexual abuse and assault in society. From the beginning, the #MeToo movement seemed a good and noble mission. Actress Alyssa Milano was the first to use the phrase “Me Too” as a hashtag. Slowly the MeToo movement turned from a hashtag that gave women the platform to share their stories, gain empathy, and garner support to take action, to #BelieveSurvivors.

  This turned into #BelieveAllWomen when Donald Trump nominated Pro-Life and Republican Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court, and Christine Blasey Ford, whose attorney, according to The Federalist, admitted abortion support motivated her accusations, came forth with her sexual assault accusation against Kavanaugh. According to The Guardian, “more than 300 protesters, including the comedian Amy Schumer, had been arrested at the US Capitol in Washington as they made a final, desperate appeal to senators to reject the embattled supreme court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.”

  The Kavanaugh accusation led to no avail, but the grudge against the Republican party and its ideals only grew larger from the heads of the MeToo movement, which has been deeply infiltrated by the feminist movement. Women involved in the MeToo movement were quick to side with Christine Blasey Ford, but when one of their own, Joe Biden, received sexual allegations, Tarana Burke and Alyssa Milano were silent for a while after these allegations, going against their status quo of jumping to help the victim. Tara Reade’s evidence against Joe Biden compared to Christine Blasey Ford’s is overwhelmingly thorough and she supplies much more proof. Because of this ordeal, the #BelieveAllWomen turned into #BelieveOnlySomeWomen.

  To further compare both stories, Christine Blasey Ford’s and Tara Reade’s, we still have to maintain a presumption of “innocent until proven guilty,” as we do every single criminal accusation. Ford had an ever-changing story, with no one who said that they had even heard the story until she came forth almost 40 years later. Contrastingly, Tara Reade had substantially more evidence, including a court document The Tribune released from 1996, three years after Joe Biden allegedly assaulted Tara Reade, as opposed to 40 years later. In this document her ex-husband speaks of how she struck a deal with the Chief of Staff at Senator Biden’s office to keep quiet.

 He concluded by saying “It was obvious that this event had a very traumatic effect on Petitioner (Tara Reade), and that she is still sensitive and effected by it today.” More evidence for Tara Reade’s accusation, supplied as well by The Tribune, was a tape of Tara Reade’s mother who called into the Larry King Show in 1993 asked how her daughter should go about her “problems” with a “prominent senator.” Tara Reade later confirmed this caller to be her mother.

  Many women, including Rose McGowan, a famous actress who was a victim of Harvey Weinstein and a spokesperson for the MeTooMovement, have denounced the Democratic Party because of this. Rose McGowan stated in a tweet, “I believe Tara  Reade. She may not be politically convenient, but that doesn’t make it untrue. If you are smearing Ms. Reade, you are rape culture.”

  Our justice system should give these victims all the necessary help and equity they deserve, but we need to ensure those whom the alleged victims accuse obtain a just process before they are condemned. We should always allow women to accuse their perpetrators, but we need to draw the line at believing them solely because of their gender. This is not only unfair to the accused but also unfair to legitimate rape victims whose assaults are thereby downplayed.

  How can we ensure there is no misuse of sexual allegations to fit personal and political agendas? We can’t, and that is the danger of the MeToo movement. The idea that radical feminists purport is that all men are natural predators, but we need to teach boys in society that there is more to being a gentleman than to “not rape a woman,” and to teach girls that feminism is not to degrade men. We need both masculinity and femininity for our country and this world to thrive. If you intend to ensure equality, never base the credibility of someone on whether they claim to be a victim or what their gender is. There is a difference between coming forth to bring justice to your perpetrator and using the MeToo hashtag that can ruin someone’s name or career without due process of law.

  Therefore, with all this information in mind, we can safely conclude that the #MeToo movement is not a requisite tool of justice.