#Metoo and the Demands of Justice
[A]nalysis of #MeToo apologies draws our attention to two competing and potentially incompatible narratives of accountability and repair. The first—embraced by the #MeToo movement itself—presents accountability and repair as a question of reckoning, even revolution. It frames the misogyny of endemic assault and violence in [Kate] Manne’s terms: as a social-political phenomenon that predominantly impacts and affects women and marginalized people. This model is also relational: In telling their stories, #MeToo survivors situate themselves in relation to that broader phenomenon and to other survivors (quite literally, me too). The harms in question are repaired when the moral landscape is changed, and the social conditions have shifted; when perpetrators are reliably and systematically held accountable, and victims are reliably and systematically believed and protected. Most #MeToo apologizers, on the other hand—and those who support, defend, and enable them—draw on a performative and even purifying model of accountability. On this model, the repair at issue is a matter of soul-searching and penitence; what needs fixing is interior and achieved through self-reflection and sustained—but not permanent—remorse. Repair takes place when the wrongdoer is (in their own lights) sufficiently sadder and better (emphasis added)
I learned so much from reading this. Undoubtedly, soul-searching is a great good. Personal reform and restoration for offenders is worthwhile, in part, because every human life is worthwhile. Yet, MacLachlan's point hits with the weight of a thousand moral bricks. When it comes to harms against women, personal accountability, apology and soul-searching do not achieve reparative closure. There is something beyond the perpetrators and their transformation that matters. There is the whole "moral landscape," as MacLachlan puts it, and the women who inhabit it. I take this to mean that we have to draw our attention to the systems, attitudes, practices and norms that allow and encourage these harms. Some of us may need to ask, "what could redemption look like for offenders?" For sure. But MacLachlan and others are pushing us to ask more. For me, the exhortation is to ask: how can we create organizational structures (in our businesses, schools, organizations, churches, etc.) that ensure safety and accountability, and how can we create inertia toward a culture of respect, equality, and empowerment for those who have been harmed and who are the most at risk of being harmed? What needs to be overthrown and replaced?
#shiftthefocus
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Yes, this is how I prefer to think about the issue. How can we change the way that society is framed so substantially that those at risk feel safe? How can we ensure accountability so much that potential offenders seek help instead of acting out? How can we set up a structure that supports both equally?
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