It wasn’t long after the #MeToo moment began that people started to wonder if North American society was in the midst of a sex panic.
Values are shifting rapidly as we all deal with the reckoning that men can sometimes be horrible, even violent, toward women. But it’s hard to say what exactly this moment means.
“It’s hard to determine the historical impact of a sea change in societal attitudes, when you’re standing in the middle of that sea change of societal attitudes,” Anne-France said.
On this episode of The Goldwaters, the family wonders if we’re really in the middle of a broad moral panic, or if maybe the #MeToo moment is something else.
“Part of my concern when you’re talking about a real sex panic, a moral panic that afflicts all of society, is getting past the individual story…because the question of the egregious conduct complained of is so different from one extreme to the other. It’s kind of strange how they’re all being pigeonholed into this one category,” Anne-France said.
“I hope that the #MeToo movement is going to lead to one concrete result, which is: to require a re-thinking of sex-ed in high schools and to take sexual education into the realm of communication between boys and girls,” she added.
ALSO: Anne-France gives an update on her recent meeting with Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante. The two talked animal rights, the budget, and Anne-France shares what it was like to be face to face with Montreal’s first female mayor.
Further Reading:
- Daniel Goldwater: Cat Person By Kristen Roupenian — A recently viral short story that explores the dating arc of a young woman and an older man, told from the woman’s perspective. “I find it perfectly exemplifies these grey zones where a woman might be expecting men to behave in a certain way, and…is maybe paralyzed by a social situation,” Daniel said. “I thought it does justice to what we’re talking about here without a sacrificial lamb.”
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PHOTO CREDIT: Caren Litherland/flickr