The #MeToo movement sweeping across the country has ruined dozens of careers and exposed multiple monsters. Harvey Weinstein’s once Midas-like touch has turned sour; everyone associated with him wishes that they weren’t.
Most men, however, are not Weinstein. Some of the people caught up in the #MeToo movement weren’t guilty of anything more than making than an awkward joke or hitting on a woman who wasn’t interested.
Ex-Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice recognizes the danger.
“Let’s not turn women into snowflakes. Let’s not infantilize women,” she said during an interview with CNN.
Women aren’t precious little flowers that need to be shielded from even the suggestion of a harsh word. Real abusers, men who take advantage of their victims, deserve to be publicly shamed. The hapless guy who tried (and failed) to ask out Jenny from accounting does not.
Rice admitted that she’s faced her share of crude comments.
“I’ve certainly had people suggest that maybe we should just go out — and you know — and situations in which it was somebody more senior than I,” she said.
“I’ve never had anyone do anything that I would consider assault. But I don’t know a woman alive who hasn’t had somebody say or do something that was inappropriate at best and aggressive at worst.”
Rice is the epitome of a tough, driven woman. She’s an African-American scholar who spoke Russian and was well versed in Eurasian affairs before she joined the second Bush administration. She knows from experience that you need to be strong to survive a high-powered career. A snowflake would have melted under the stress she’s endured.
(Source: CNN)