The #MeToo Tipping Point

The cultural and overall societal impact of the deluge of sexual assault and harassment accusations has only just begun to be realized. Already, careful observers – both men and women alike – are noting that the broad and fuzzy definition of "harassment" can encompass behaviors previously considered routine flirtation and will obliterate the good manners of gentlemen who compliment women. This new spate of redefining acceptable behavior continues to complicate relationships between men and women during an era when the uncertainties and overturning of tradition have already made male-female interactions not just problematic, but precarious. Dating is increasingly rare – almost nonexistent – anymore, and men are left bewildered about how or whether to express interest in any woman for fear of offending her. Employers are wondering whether it is worth the risk to hire women for high-level positions, for which daily consultations and occasional out-of-town travel are de rigueur.

The inescapable conclusion is that women are going to be the losers big-time in this cultural transformation. Feminism promised women that adopting the behaviors of men (good, bad, and ugly) would yield an equal playing field. Instead, in the workplace women shed their true feminine power to reach for the brass ring, only to discover that this new world reduced them to mere sexual objects who had to "play along" to get in the door of top-floor suites. On campus, they gave up courtship and romance only to discover that they were viewed, in the words of Tom Wolfe's I Am Charlotte Simons, as sexual "dumpsters." Now marriage rates are abysmally low, and young women who cohabit give up their best years to guys who are happy to have them foot the bills and do the chores before ending up, after several years of sexual and financial freeloading, marrying someone younger and "hotter."

Many of us are wondering if this sexual climate will lead to a new Victorian era, where chaperones will be necessary to protect women from male predators and immunize men from female predators. When the pendulum has swung so far, it must swing back. It remains to be seen just how far it will travel towards stricter rules and more traditional standards of male-female interaction.

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