Time to Turn #MeToo Into #WeToo
Sexism and sexual abuse in this country is no different today than when I was 16. I’m 62. It’s time to take the #MeToo movement to a much higher level.
It’s time for a #WeToo movement to attract more men who are committed – not to harming women in numerous, varied ways – but to protecting them from sexual abuse, harassment and discrimination and allowing them to feel good about waking up in the morning and going to work, school, college or making meals for their families and helping the kids with homework.
New York Attorney General Letitia James could lead a #WeToo movement nationwide by doing more than lecturing or wagging her finger at Governor Andrew Cuomo for his bad “behavior” against women staff in his workplace and the men and women who died in nursing homes during the height of COVID. (The vast majority of caregivers and nursing home patients are women.)
Based on what James has reported already on nursing home deaths and what the women who have worked or work for Cuomo have said publicly, all existing laws regarding the two investigations should be enforced, not danced around or ignored.
By doing so, James could spark a light on a #WeToo movement where other Attorneys General across the country, most of whom are men, could do more than any has done so far to stop the abuse, whether it’s sexual or gender driven, by making it a top priority, along with voting rights and racism in police departments.
In New York, reforms are needed in nursing homes, as well as ending the wink and nod attitude too many men have toward women, often ones closest to them on a daily basis.
Today too many of our political “leaders” are notorious womanizers and/or misogynists, yet we brush their crimes or misdeeds aside by either enabling or ignoring them for political reasons benefiting both political parties: Former Republican President Donald Trump and Republican Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz are allegedly high on the sexual abuse list, while former Democratic presidential candidate and business leader Michael Bloomberg and Democratic mayoral candidate and businessman Andrew Yang are reported to have a pattern of misogynism in their workplaces.
They all have denied violating women’s rights.
And, the 2020 list of male politicians, both Republicans and Democrats running for election and re-election after being accused or found guilty of sexual abuse and harassment, grew. This is one of the worst examples of what I call penis politics – men’s attempt to assert control over women to further their own ambitions. For men like this, it’s not always about sex, but it is always about power.
What’s the plan to put women’s rights on the front burner, instead of the back burner, where they have boiled since two-thirds of states refused to add the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution in 1977? In 2017, four decades later, the MeToo movement started stirring the pot.
It’s time to turn up the heat, by getting more men from not only attorneys generals offices but also from corporations, government agencies, and national campaign committees to join with women in a push to turn #MeToo into #WeToo.
Hundreds of corporations did the same on an anti-voting rights law passed recently in Georgia. Who made that happen? Black women in Georgia, Stacey Abrams, state Representative Park Cannon, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, LaTosha Brown, and many more.
Since taking office, the country’s first female Vice President, Kamala Harris, and the first Black VP, has said nothing about Cuomo’s alleged treatment of four women staffers, yet she clearly has taken many stands, telling an U.N. audience in a recent speech on women empowerment, “Without equality, there can be no democracy.”
Her boss, President Joe Biden has made it clear Cuomo should step down if the investigations find him culpable. In my opinion, the culpability should be based on what isn’t just illegal but immoral as well.
Women need to feel good about getting up every day because we need women – Black, brown, and white – to end troubles facing our country today: climate change, anti-voting rights laws in all states, and racism in police forces. We need women to support low-income people of color, especially after COVID attacked a higher percentage of them than whites, and to rebuild deteriorating roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, electrical grids and more, not only to create jobs but also to make the country a better place for our children, in the decades ahead. Mic recently identified five cities with the biggest risks from climate change: New York, New Orleans, Miami, Phoenix, and Los Angeles. Men lead all of those cities except New Orleans.
#WeToo needs to echo loudly what Cuomo told us he supposedly believed in 2018, but what women and many men really believe.
“Our country is finally taking a long look in the mirror as to how we treat women. And we are disgusted with what we see.”
Let’s all take a look in the mirror for real change. #MeToo & #WeToo.
Karen Hinton is a communications consultant who served as press secretary for Mayor de Blasio and Governor Cuomo when he was the Housing Secretary in the Clinton Administration.
