COMMENT
This week, the #MeToo movement was rocked with revelations that Asia Argento, one of its loudest voices and one of the first to speak out against Harvey Weinstein, had faced of her own.
The has reported that the Italian actress and director paid $380,000 USD to Jimmy Bennett, a former child actor who claimed to be assaulted by Argento, 42, in a California Hotel room when he was 17. Argento was 37 at the time of the alleged assault. While the revelations are maddening, disturbing, and frankly, depressing, does it really discredit the #MeToo movement, as some critics might hope it would?
Last night, #MeToo founder and civil rights activist Tarana Burke took to Twitter to reaffirm the movement’s existence in the wake of Bennett's allegations. “I’ve said repeatedly that the #metooMVMT is for all of us, including these brave young men who are now coming forward,” she wrote. “It will continue to be jarring when we hear the names of some of our faves connected to sexual violence unless we shift from talking about individuals to talking about power.”
As Burke points out, sexual assault and violence is about power and privilege, and “we won’t shift the culture unless we get serious about shifting these false narratives.”
Sexual assault and harassment is not about gender, it’s about an imbalance of power. It's about what happens when those people in power exploit their privilege. When allies like Argento, or so-called 'nice guys' like and , are accused of harassment, it shows that these structures of power infiltrate so much of our culture. There's no one type of perpetrator, just as there's no one type of victim.
Leah Fessler : "When we buy the delusion that only 'really bad people' manipulate their power toward sexual misconduct, we paralyze progress. And we blind ourselves to a system whose toxicity lives within all of us—not any individual person, company, gender, or industry.”
Speaking to the , Burke pointed out that drawing a line between gender only gets in the way of healing. “It should never have become an ‘us and them’ thing. #MeToo has been popular because of the moment we’re in, but it’s not really a women’s movement: it’s a movement for all survivors of sexual violence. Yes, women are the drivers because so many are victims, but we can’t erase the boys who spoke up about Kevin Spacey or the millions of men who have been subjected to sexual violence, too.”
Rather than weakening or discrediting the movement, these allegations against Argento strengthen what #MeToo is all about: standing with victims and elevating their voices. It's about creating an environment where no perpetrator is immune to accountability, as uncomfortable as it may be.
As Burke puts it: “My hope is that as more folks come forward, particularly men, that we prepare ourselves for some hard conversations about power and humanity and privilege and harm. This issue is less about crime and punishment and more about harm and harm reduction.”
