Will Kavanaugh case be setback to #MeToo?

Associated Press

NEW YORK

Some skeptics of #MeToo activism are hoping Brett Kavanaugh’s angry, tearful denial of sexual assault allegations might help fuel a backlash against the year-old movement. But advocates for victimized women say it’s now too powerful to be derailed.

The mixed reactions followed Thursday’s vehement assertion by Kavanaugh and his Republican allies that he was the victim of a “political hit job” by Democrats. They suggested that Kavanaugh’s accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, was being exploited for partisan purposes.

In a Philadelphia Inquirer column on Friday titled “Kavanaugh creates #MeToo moment for accused men,” conservative writer Christine Flowers expressed empathy for the embattled federal judge, who is President Trump’s nominee to fill a Supreme Court vacancy.

“Through those real tears, the rage came through like a laser and a sword,” Flowers wrote. “And for a moment, I felt as if, finally, one man had found the courage to say my life matters.”

As for Ford, Flowers wrote: “I think she allowed herself to be used as a valuable tool in the unleashed fury of the (hash)MeToo movement.”

On Twitter, in the aftermath of the televised Ford-Kavanaugh hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, there was widespread use of the #HimToo hashtag — which has been used to convey the idea that too many men are being falsely accused of sexual misconduct. Many of the new tweets included hashtags supporting Kavanaugh, including one by conservative activist Candace Owens.

“I’m loving the hashtag #HimToo,” Owens tweeted. “It appears to be a movement built of men who have had their lives and families destroyed by false allegations and a lack of due process.”