What comes after #MeToo?

Let’s go back to 2017. Does it feel like a lifetime ago? Sometimes it does in our current political/social climate. So I’ve been thinking a lot lately, what comes after some of these movements? Do the words that start them fade away or do they do what we need them to do and absorb themselves into the system in a way in that changes things for the better?

Time can gradually create a change, but sometimes it’s time that allows people to forget – and things or people come back around again. Nearly 18 months after the #MeToo movement and many of the accused and removed are back where they were – working at the heads of companies and recreating the discomfort, hostility and working conditions that replay days gone by.

This week after reading a post about Emma Thompson declining a project because she found out John Lasseter was attached to it struck a chord. The thought of what happened? What happened to someone like Lasseter who was simply given a slap on the wrist for his long-standing sexual harassment issues in the workplace? Well he was hired again as a head creative at Skydance Media. Why or how there is not enough other talent to fill such a position in a market teeming with creativity seems to be beyond the few news outlets even covering the story. And then, there was Emma Thompson. Emma Thompson released the letter this week that she sent to Skydance Media on her reasoning behind declining to work on a project she was set to star in – and that reason – John Lasseter.

In it she details the importance of doing what is right, in this case declining the project, because supporting a team that supports the environment bred and behavior accepted by Skydance Media is not okay. She explains that the employees under Lasseter may not have the ability to quit their jobs, but as someone with her position in the industry she can make a statement and make it out loud.

And yet, is anyone at Skydance worried about losing Emma Thompson? Their actions say otherwise. They are standing by John Lasseter which keys you in to some major flaws in their corporate structure. The problem that we are finding more and more as a society is that it is the accuser not the accused that is forced to leave. Even when everything checks out and is substantiated there is this strong support for those at the top who have pushed it too far, too many times. Why the loyalty? Why the disregard for the victim?

It won’t be until more people like Emma Thompson, continue to stand up and unfortunately walk away from these positions that the tides can turn and the opposite impact can be created.