A brief critique of New York Times' report that "#MeToo Brought Down 201 Powerful Men [and n]early Half of Their Replacements are Women"

New York times reports on Tuesday 23 October 2018 that the #MeToo movement brought down 201 powerful men, 54 of whom were replaced by women.

While the report is a good read and the #MeToo movement commendable, the article however reflects poorly on the gains made by the movement: it distorts and discredits the achievements of the #MeToo movement.

The headline and possibly the running theme of the article seem to position the #MeToo movement as a tool for gender war/conflict, whereby the female gender accuses the male gender of sexual harassment or assault just to bring him down and create space for the ascendancy of a woman.

Granted, the #MeToo movement was established by women. In fact, its agenda was pushed by women, but it has been accepted by both men and women. The success it has recorded thus far would not have been achieved if it was not embraced by all genders, including transgenders.

But the way the New York Times has constructed its article and in fact the examples the authors have alluded to to buttress their points trivialize the #MeToo movement.

It make the movement lose credibility as a selfless, non-political movement carried out in public interest, which, to my understanding, is aimed at holding sexual harassers accountable for their actions (a very perfect and worthy objective).

Furthermore, the article has the tendency of invoking a feeling of alienation and rejection in the minds some victims of sexual assault/harassment. Not all victims of sexual harassment are women, but the reporting has been lopsided; for instance, it was reported that one famous female movie director and actress, Asia Argento, molested a boy when he was still a minor, but the condemnation thus far has been shallow: more shallow than it would have been had Asia Argento being a man and her alleged victim a girl. Such media approach does disservice to both the general public and the #MeToo movement in particular.

Same goes to the perceived gain as the New York Times' report shows.

I hope New York Times and other  critics take the hint for future reporting and stop stoking the flame of disunity among activists: do not genderize/sectionalise the gains of a movement.