The #MeToo movement is far from over. That is the overriding message that has come through in the process of putting together the editorial series The #MeToo Legacy. While the stories of harassment and misconduct that got the movement started might not get as many column inches today as they did in the immediate aftermath of the allegations against Harvey Weinstein, the fight rages on.
That’s certainly true in the case of the arts professionals I had the chance to interview as part of this series. For the professional wrestling promoters trying to rebuild trust in the industry after the #SpeakingOut campaign, it’s a case of moving with the times and constantly reworking policies to make the business safer than it has ever been before – especially for women.
“There's no question that the [wrestling] sector has improved in a great many ways, which were long overdue. But you need to be alive to the possibility that progress is not necessarily inevitable,” said Riot Cabaret co-founder James Lawrence.
Certainly, it’s important for everyone who believes in true equality to keep banging the drum as loudly as we can. While I was putting together this series, the exceptional Netflix TV show Adolescence shone a chilling spotlight on the ways in which young men are being increasingly radicalised online. That radicalisation threatens to lead to the rollback of some of the rights championed by the brave women who shared stories during the height of the #MeToo movement.
As photographer Eliza Hatch told me in our interview: “It's a constant conversation that needs to be had again and again and again, especially as we're seeing this backlash to feminism – especially in Gen Z. We’ve got young men and boys who think that feminism has done more harm than good. It's a conversation that is unfortunately continual, and we have to keep having it. The work is never done, basically.”
But the positive side of the work done throughout this series is the thoughtful ways in which today’s young women are moving to consolidate the progress achieved via #MeToo. In pieces written by some of Voice’s excellent contributors, including Kaitlin Jefferys’ piece on the literary impact of #MeToo and Elisha Pearce’s take on the allegations against fantasy author Neil Gaiman, I loved reading the level of analysis and thought being applied to the movement by the women who are growing up in its wake.
Ultimately, it’s clear that the #MeToo movement has had a palpable and considerable impact on the arts and cultural landscape, whether it’s wrestling’s reinvention or the rise in prominence of intimacy coordinators like Tommy Ross-Williams on movie sets. But as with so many big issues, the work has to continue in order to ensure that the line of progress remains as straight and direct as possible.
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