Hi Ed! How do you know that #MeToo has been weaponized ? What evidence do you have?

Also, in response to this: “Looking back on it, from a mature and seasoned perspective, I can see that I was abused without my consent, meaning that though I may have consented at the time, I now realize that it wasn’t really consent and that I permitted myself to be coerced.”

What you describe above fits a brand-new legal category that I just invented: The Ick Scenario.

Anyone who wakes up to the fact that “I permitted myself to be coerced” 20 years after the fact is going to have a very hard time working up a case against the alleged “perpetrator.” Who HASN’T had that experience? Female or Male? The Ick Scenario you describe has simply been the norm in sexual encounters for many, many people, and not just women. It’s the garden variety stuff that’s been going on for eons. The difference now: FINALLY, we are talking about it.

If the victim is underage, as I was, and the perp is in a position of authority, that’s a different matter. But to drag him into any kind of legal action once I saw the light would have destroyed me psychologically.

One of the best things about #MeToo is that we are finally having, what a man I interviewed on the subject (more on that later) called “a need for difficult conversations.” In the past, if a woman woke up to the fact that she was in fact coerced, 20 years after the fact, would have been greeted by most people with a puzzled look or an eye roll: Even her female friends would be like, yeah, welcome to the real world, honey. What else is new?