The #MeToo movement, which gained momentum last fall, ignited a global reckoning on sexual harassment and toppled countless powerful men. The New York Times recently spoke to 20 people who previously came forward to see how the movement changed their lives.
The New York Times’ Jodi Kantor and Melena Ryzik, whose reporting helped expose the widespread nature of harassment and fueled the #MeToo movement, joined “CBS This Morning” to talk about why it was important to revisit those who spoke out and highlight how their lives have changed — for better or worse.
“Going on the record is such a difficult thing to do in this instance … and we felt like we wanted to stay with the story,” Kantor said. “We knew that this was kind of a moment, but we don’t think that moment is over. It’s continuing to play out publicly and it’s also continuing to play out in the lives of the people who participated in it.”
“What was striking to us in our original reporting and is still striking in the responses is the commonalities,” she said. “These women and men don’t know each other. Totally different backgrounds. Different economic-type backgrounds, and yet the things they say are so similar.”
Ryzik started hearing from some of her sources soon after their stories were published last fall. Some told her they no longer needed to go to therapy, while others experienced the opposite, and sought help after sharing their stories.
“We really heard a diverse array of reactions and that was one of the things that we wanted to highlight. People responded to this in so many different ways,” Ryzik said. “You don’t even know what you’re carrying in some cases, how big this burden is. You know, these people have sometimes kept this secret for sometimes 20, 30 years, and all of the sudden to see it exposed in this way, to see it on the front page of The New York Times is a really powerful moment in their lives.”
As far as what they’ve heard from those accused of sexual harassment: “Very little,” said Kantor.
“With other men I’d say there’s a big difference between the public conversation and the private conversation,” Kanto said. “In many ways it’s the private conversation that is the most powerful. We’re hearing about lots of men, groups of men, who have gotten together and just had really searching conversations of, ‘Have I ever done anything that’s upset somebody? How would I even know about it? What is the sets of rules that I grew up with and how does that set of rules need to be revisited now?'”
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