Why men need to fess up

In the wake of the #MeToo campaign, it's time for men to come clean

What about the men behind the #MeToo campaign?
(Image credit: Ikon Images / Alamy Stock Photo)

I've been watching the #MeToo social media campaign roll across my feed with a sickening sense of familiarity. It's not just that there was literally another "me too" campaign 10 years ago. Nor is it that those pink pussy hats are less than a year old, or that it's been only three years since the accusations against Bill Cosby burst into public consciousness — accusations that, with a bit of research, were revealed to have been widely known for years.

Going back at least to the 1991 Clarence Thomas hearings, we seem to go through these "teachable moments" with metronomic regularity. We discover over and over, as if we didn't already know, just how familiar sexual harassment, abuse, and even assault are to very nearly all women.

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Noah Millman

Noah Millman is a screenwriter and filmmaker, a political columnist and a critic. From 2012 through 2017 he was a senior editor and featured blogger at The American Conservative. His work has also appeared in The New York Times Book Review, Politico, USA Today, The New Republic, The Weekly Standard, Foreign Policy, Modern Age, First Things, and the Jewish Review of Books, among other publications. Noah lives in Brooklyn with his wife and son.