#MeToo, Sex Wars 2.0 and the legal regulation of sexual harm
The Faculty welcomes Professor Brenda Cossman, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, for the 2020 Patricia Allen Memorial Lecture. Brenda Cossman's research focuses on the legal regulation of sex, gender and sexuality. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, she is the Director of the Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies. She is currently working on a book on #MeToo under contract with NYU Press.
This event is eligible for inclusion as 1.5 hours of continuing legal education as reported by members of the Barreau du Québec.
Abstract
How should we regulate sexual harm? It is an issue that feminists have been debating for decades. From the sex wars of the 1970s to the contestations about #MeToo today, feminists disagree about sexuality, agency and law. The debates have long run deep, often antagonistic, occasionally outright hostile. Well before #MeToo erupted, feminists have been embattled in renewed and contentious sexual politics over the regulation of sexual harm. The feminist debate about regulating sexual harm was already in full swing.
Then came #MeToo. On October 15, 2017, Alyssa Milano began a viral sensation with her #MeToo tweet. Within a day it had been retweeted 500,000 times, and within days, millions of women from 85 countries had taken to social media with the hashtag. In the weeks and months that followed, powerful men – Harvey Weinstein, Charlie Rose, Matt Lauer to name a few of the most prominent – lost their positions in the wake of the many stories of sexual violence and harassment. Broader conversations ensued about the pervasiveness of sexual violence against women, the meaning of consent and the role of law.
The massive outpouring of #MeToo stories was quickly met with a range of detractors. Many decried #MeToo for going too far – although what they meant by too far differed. Some called it a sex panic, others the end of flirtation, yet others the death knell to due process. While these criticisms came from across the political spectrum, some feminists also expressed discomfort and disagreement with elements of the #MeToo movement. This feminist debate was quickly framed as a generational one, with media reports focusing on the conflict between millennials and second wave feminists.
I argue however that age or generation alone cannot account for the fundamental disagreements around sexuality, agency, consent and law that are swirling around the #MeToo movement. Rather, I argue that these feminist #MeToo debates are better understood through the lens of Sex Wars 2.0 – the continuation of the feminist sex wars of the 1970s and 1980s.
The Patricia Allen Memorial Lecture
Created in 1992 by the Class of 1988 in memory of Patricia Allen, a graduate of the Faculty who was tragically and senselessly murdered, this annual lectureship is devoted to sensitizing and educating the legal community and others about pressing social and legal issues related to violence, especially against women.
