#MeToo Archives - Public Seminar

Sex & Gender

The Courage of E. Jean Carroll

Telling one person you were raped is hard; telling a nation is heroic

May 11, 2023 • by Claire Potter

It would be foolish to tell anyone not to be afraid of Donald Trump, and it would be foolish not to fear the consequences of being widely known as a person who has been raped....

Democracy

Why the Harper’s Letter Got It Wrong

The most serious threats to protest and open debate come not from the left or the right but from the state and powerful political institutions

July 16, 2020 • by Nicole Hemmer

So I took a new job in a new city and began again. I have been thinking about my decision to speak up, and its costs, in light of The Letter. You know the one: the open letter in Harper’s magazine that praises the “needed reckoning” of the past few months ...

Why the <em>Harper’s </em>Letter Got It Wrong

Activism

How Do You Protest in a Pandemic?

The challenges of creating a social movement while social distancing

May 12, 2020 • by Jane Desmond

On Thursday, April 15, the traditional day for paying federal taxes, several thousand cars rolled to a stop on the streets in Lansing, Michigan. They surrounded the State Capitol, commencing “Operation Gridlock” to protest Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s extension of the state’s “stay-at-home” order. Blaring horns, waving flags, and sprouting signs ...

Sex & Gender

The Weinstein Trial and the #MeToo Movement

February 26, 2020 • by Britta Reuther and Chiara Bottici

--- Britta Reuther: How did the Weinstein case change society when it comes to tolerating sexual harassment? Chiara Bottici: It did not change the thing itself, but it did change certain established ways to perceive it. In the American Society, until a few decades ago, sexual harassment did not even exist as a ...

The Weinstein Trial and the #MeToo Movement

Psyche

#MeToo and the Ontological Trauma of Consciousness Raising, Part 1

Reflections and Conversations Across the Gender Divide

February 10, 2020 • by Andrea Singer

It was two years ago that actor Alyssa Milano, in response to the sexual abuse allegations against media mogul Harvey Weinstein, brought activist Tarana Burke’s #MeToo movement into the social media mainstream. And it was one year ago that Christine Blasey Ford, in the midst of Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court Justice hearing, ...

#MeToo and the Ontological Trauma of Consciousness Raising, Part 1

Sex & Gender

The Reckoning of Junot Diaz

October 8, 2019 • by Lucy Marx

As a lifelong feminist, I knew the #MeToo movement was important and long overdue. Moreover, I was strongly inclined to believe the accusers. But I kept coming up against my own resistance to the possibility of Díaz being fired. I’d been pleased when, soon after he joined MIT’s writing program, Díaz ...

Blue Monday

With Outrage and Injustice for All

Itinerary of a thought about the Kavanaugh controversy and the public significance of a fair hearing

September 24, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

“I merely took the energy it takes to pout, and I wrote some blues.” -Duke Ellington As readers of this column know, I believe that Trumpism -- the Trump administration, the Republican Congress, and the Trumpist Republican party -- represents a profound threat to liberal democracy, human rights, social justice, and public decency. ...

Feature

Big Hair, Boots, and Business

Bidding Happy Trails to Nashville

September 1, 2018 • by Sarah Handley-Cousins

It’s no big secret that I’m Nursing Clio’s resident country music fan, as evidenced by my previous post on women in modern country music as well as my penchant for cowboy boots. Like many fans, this summer I’m mourning the conclusion of country music soap opera delight, Nashville, in late July. For six seasons, Nashville has treated us ...

Feature

Sexual Assault and the Other

On the Contemporary Politicization of Sexual Violence

August 30, 2018 • by Maria Bucur

Though it has been receiving a lot of attention in the media since the #MeToo movement started, sexual violence remains a poorly understood phenomenon. But the statistics on this crime of national proportions are getting better, because the climate of accountability and protection for victims has actually improved over the ...

Feature

Michael Kimmel’s Learning Moment and Ours

A prominent professor’s rumored #HeToo behavior prompts a fundamental rethink about gender and ethics

August 27, 2018 • by John Stoltenberg

I first met Michael Kimmel in the early 1980s, when we moved in the same profeminist men’s movement circles. We were both starting out in our writing careers, trying to reckon with what feminist women were saying and trying to reconcile it with how we understood ourselves as men. I ...

#MeToo

The Courage of E. Jean Carroll

Telling one person you were raped is hard; telling a nation is heroic

Why the Harper’s Letter Got It Wrong

The most serious threats to protest and open debate come not from the left or the right but from the state and powerful political institutions

How Do You Protest in a Pandemic?

The challenges of creating a social movement while social distancing

The Reckoning of Junot Diaz

With Outrage and Injustice for All

Itinerary of a thought about the Kavanaugh controversy and the public significance of a fair hearing

Big Hair, Boots, and Business

Bidding Happy Trails to Nashville

Sexual Assault and the Other

On the Contemporary Politicization of Sexual Violence

Michael Kimmel’s Learning Moment and Ours

A prominent professor’s rumored #HeToo behavior prompts a fundamental rethink about gender and ethics

Newsletter

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Telling one person you were raped is hard; telling a nation is heroic

The most serious threats to protest and open debate come not from the left or the right but from the state and powerful political institutions

The challenges of creating a social movement while social distancing

Cancel Culture: Failed Activism or Post-Traumatic Response?

Reflections and Conversations Across the Gender Divide

As a landmark #MeToo case comes to trial, a defense attorney questions the usefulness of the law.

Itinerary of a thought about the Kavanaugh controversy and the public significance of a fair hearing

Bidding Happy Trails to Nashville

On the Contemporary Politicization of Sexual Violence

A prominent professor’s rumored #HeToo behavior prompts a fundamental rethink about gender and ethics

Newsletter

Connect With Us