- A new study has found US men appear to be following Mike Pence’s lead.
- Maybe they’re angry that #MeToo ever happened
It’s yet another form of victim-blaming; another way to quietly put women back in their place. Photograph: Bert Hardy Advertising Archive/Getty Images
"It looks like Mike Pence is quite the trendsetter.
The US vice-president famously refuses to have dinner alone with any woman who isn’t his wife – and now working men across corporate America appear to be following his lead.
A new study, due to be published in the journal Organizational Dynamics, has found that, following the #MeToo movement, men are significantly more reluctant to interact with their female colleagues.
A few highlights from the research include:
• 27% of men avoid one-on-one meetings with female co-workers.
Yep, that’s right, almost a third of men are terrified to be alone in a room with a woman.
...most men are perfectly aware of the difference between a friendly hug and a creepy hug.
They are perfectly aware of what constitutes harassment and what doesn’t.
Which makes you wonder why so many men are afraid to interact with women at work?
The answer to that question, perhaps, is that a lot of men aren’t so much afraid of being accused of anything as they are they are angry that #MeToo ever happened.
They’re angry that they’ve been made to think about their behavior, made to interrogate power dynamics they always took for granted, and they are punishing women for it by refusing to interact with them.
It’s worth noting, I think, that the Harvard Business Review article previewing the study’s 2019 results is headlined The #MeToo Backlash.
You see that phrase a lot and that framing subtly implies that #MeToo went too far, that a backlash is only natural.
It’s yet another form of victim-blaming; another way to quietly put women back in their place."
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