The MeToo movement has been called one of the most consequential social movements of our times. Its critics claim that it has unfairly targeted prominent men, ruining their reputations, careers, or even lives. For this assignment, you will pick three men accused of sexual assault, harassment and/or misconduct and write an essay detailing the accusations and consequences.
You can choose from the following cases or find another case on your own. The case that you choose should have been covered in mainstream news sources. You do not need to use in-text citations, but you should include a list of sources at the end of your essay.
Harvey Weinstein
Bill CosbyBill O’ReillyRoy Moore
Donald Trump
Bill Clinton
Brett Kavanaugh
Aziz Ansari
Kevin Spacey
Roman Polanski
James Franco
Matt LauerLouis C.K.Woody Allen
Morgan Freeman
Al Franken
Michael Jackson
R. Kelly
Mel Gibson
Joe Biden
In your essay, I want you to address the following questions:
What was the person accused of? Do the accusations cover instances of sexual assault, sexual harassment, both, or neither?Were the accusations brought up before, or as part of, the MeToo movement (i.e., after October 2017, following the accusations against Harvey Weinstein)?
o Wereaccusationsmadenumeroustimes?Wasthereatippingpoint?List the number of accusers. Were there any differences in the charges brought up by each accuser?
o Were there any differences in the perceived credibility of each accuser? I want to see some discussion for this prompt! Were the accusers believed? Were
their efforts to discredit them? Were these efforts successful? Think about
intersectionality here.What were the consequences of the accusations?
o Did the accused person lose their job as a result of these accusations? Did they (or their company) reach an out-of-court financial settlement with some, or all, of the accusers? Were there any criminal charges pressed against them?
o Did the accusers face consequences? Did they lose their jobs or face public scrutiny? What were the long-term consequences? Was the accused person later able to return to their career? Did public perception of this person shift over time?
Essay should be no less than 3 pages.
