In what might prove to be something of a turning point in the movement, more and more big names are speaking out in defense of comedian Aziz Ansari after he became the latest celebrity target of a #MeToo accusation that many feel crossed a boundary in a way that may prove damaging to the cause.
Below are five responses from some well-known voices that present various arguments about why the "sexual assault" claim against Ansari by "Grace" is an abuse of #MeToo sympathy.
1. The Atlantic's Caitlin Flanagan: "Revenge Porn"
Of the responses highlighted here, Flanagan's is perhaps the most blistering in her condemnation of the accusation of "Grace," whose motives she calls into question, not only on the night of the regrettable sexual encounter with Ansari, but in her decision to present what Flanagan describes as what amounts to "3,000 words of revenge porn":
Flanagan expresses alarm at the speed at which the movement is able to professionally "assassinate" even someone like Ansari, who endorses many of the same values as those now destroying him — and all on the basis of "one woman's anonymous account." And who are these people celebrating his demise while retroactively changing the rules of sexual relationships? "College-educated white women," writes Flanagan, indulging the racially charged rhetoric of the Left.
2. HLN's Ashleigh Banfield: "Blue Balls," Not Blackballed
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"If you were sexually assaulted, go to the cops," she said. "If you were sexually harassed, jeopardizing your work, speak up, and speak out loud. But by your own descriptions, that is not what happened. You had an unpleasant date, and you did not leave. That is on you.
"I hope the next time you go on a bad date, you stand up sooner, you smooth out your dress, and you bloody well leave," Banfield concluded. "Because the only sentence that a guy like that deserves is a bad case of blue balls, not a Hollywood blackball."
Big Names Come To The Defense Of Aziz Ansari: Five Strong Takes On Ansari, #MeToo
Below are five responses from some well-known voices that present various arguments about why the "sexual assault" claim against Ansari by "Grace" is an abuse of #MeToo sympathy.
1. The Atlantic's Caitlin Flanagan: "Revenge Porn"
Of the responses highlighted here, Flanagan's is perhaps the most blistering in her condemnation of the accusation of "Grace," whose motives she calls into question, not only on the night of the regrettable sexual encounter with Ansari, but in her decision to present what Flanagan describes as what amounts to "3,000 words of revenge porn":
Was Grace frozen, terrified, stuck? No. She tells us that she wanted something from Ansari and that she was trying to figure out how to get it. She wanted affection, kindness, attention. Perhaps she hoped to maybe even become the famous man’s girlfriend. He wasn’t interested. What she felt afterward—rejected yet another time, by yet another man—was regret. And what she and the writer who told her story created was 3,000 words of revenge porn. The clinical detail in which the story is told is intended not to validate her account as much as it is to hurt and humiliate Ansari. Together, the two women may have destroyed Ansari’s career, which is now the punishment for every kind of male sexual misconduct, from the grotesque to the disappointing.
Flanagan expresses alarm at the speed at which the movement is able to professionally "assassinate" even someone like Ansari, who endorses many of the same values as those now destroying him — and all on the basis of "one woman's anonymous account." And who are these people celebrating his demise while retroactively changing the rules of sexual relationships? "College-educated white women," writes Flanagan, indulging the racially charged rhetoric of the Left.
2. HLN's Ashleigh Banfield: "Blue Balls," Not Blackballed
[clip]
"If you were sexually assaulted, go to the cops," she said. "If you were sexually harassed, jeopardizing your work, speak up, and speak out loud. But by your own descriptions, that is not what happened. You had an unpleasant date, and you did not leave. That is on you.
"I hope the next time you go on a bad date, you stand up sooner, you smooth out your dress, and you bloody well leave," Banfield concluded. "Because the only sentence that a guy like that deserves is a bad case of blue balls, not a Hollywood blackball."
Big Names Come To The Defense Of Aziz Ansari: Five Strong Takes On Ansari, #MeToo
