Feeling Cynical Over Hashtag Activism? – Me Three

Dirty old man:

Former President George H. W. Bush, now 93, has apologized for a 2014 incident that actress Heather Lind termed a “sexual assault.”

According to the Daily Mail, Bush attended the premiere of Lind’s AMC show, Turn: Washington’s Spies, and during a photo opportunity, the former President — then 91 years old — reportedly leaned over in his wheelchair, patted Lind on her bottom, and told her a “dirty joke.”

Lind told the story on Instagram, where she claimed in a post that the president had his wife, Barbara Bush, by his side, and that Barbara simply “rolled her eyes” “as if to say ‘not again.’”

The photo is now gone off the social media network, but the Mail captured Lind’s caption.

When I got the chance to meet George H. W. Bush four years ago to promote a historical television show I was working on, he sexually assaulted me while I was posing for a similar photo. He didn’t shake my hand. He touched me from behind from his wheelchair with his wife Barbara Bush by his side. He told me a dirty joke.

I’m curious to hear what the “dirty joke” was that he’s purported to have told. In the presence of his wife, too? Would it really rise above the definition of “inappropriate” to the level of “sexual assault”?

Context and details matter. And apparently Heather Lind deleted her original post. What’s up with that?

Meanwhile I can think of many other presidents who “behaved badly”.

Not everyone on social media thought Lind was doing the right thing by pointing out the alleged sexual assault by a former president. A number of comments on her Instagram photo pointed out that, at the time, Bush was 91, and that, according to recent reports, Bush now suffers from mild, age-related dementia, and a form of vascular Parkinson’s disease. Even those who claimed to have “never voted for a Republican,” seemed irritated with Lind’s “#metoo” type story.

While I applaud women (and men) for finding the courage to speak out (even if it took others before them to step up before finding their own courage), there is something troubling to me about the hashtag generation of social media activism vs. “hands on” activism.

The ice bucket challenge, Kony2012, Black Lives Matter/Hands Up Don’t shoot, and hashtag Bringbackourgirls are all prime examples of internet movements that can shed light on worthy causes and important issues; but also provides a lazy, insincere form of activism where the appearance of doing something and looking good is more important than actually doing and achieving good. The Ice Bucket Challenge seemed more like narcissism, although it did achieve the noble outcome of actually raising money for ALS research.

Call me cynical, but all the Facebook profile picture changes to show support for marriage equality, standing with Paris, etc. are just superficial and contrite. I suppose it’s no different than slapping a “support the troops” bumpersticker to your pickup and better than nothing, bringing some level of awareness; but still….

While it has its benefits, social media should not be the primary platform for the #MeToo campaign as activist movements based online can often become trivialized, diverting from their original goals.

Last Sunday, Oct. 15, in the midst of the Harvey Weinstein scandals, actress Alyssa Milano took to Twitter and proposed that victims of sexual assault use the hashtag #MeToo to showcase the appalling magnitude of sexual assault. What ensued was a surge of posts from celebrities, politicians and ordinary people (of all genders) detailing their experiences of abuse on various social media outlets. By the following Tuesday, #MeToo was tweeted over 825,000 times, and posted over 12 million times on Facebook. The company estimated that 45 percent of its users in the United States were friends with someone who had posted a status with the words “me too.”

I see the likelihood of bandwagon jumpers hitching their cart to popular movements. Again, call me cynical. Not hashtag cynical. Just cynical.

My initial response when I saw the hashtagged tweets was, “Okay, what now?” I had just skimmed through heartbreaking stories of sexual assault and abuse, and the first thing I wanted to do was think about something else. So I did. Literally with the flick of my thumb, I was reading a completely unrelated tweet about Joe Jonas’ recent engagement to Sophie Turner. I didn’t even think about the campaign again, until I saw an article explaining a “me too” movement had actually been started more than 10 years ago by activist Tarana Burke. A black woman’s decade-old movement to support sexually abused women of color had been rebranded and popularized by a famous white woman in less than 24 hours. Shocker.

As an avid Twitter user, I have seen so many serious and important problems shoot to the top of the “trending topics” page, only to be forgotten about a week later. Remember Kenneka Jenkins? Or the atrocities being committed by al-Shabab in Somalia? With so much exposure to people’s pain, it’s almost natural to become desensitized to human suffering on the internet. When a movement pops up between a surprise picture of puppies and an incoherent tweet from @realDonaldTrump, it’s hard to spread long-term awareness in a way that makes people see sexual assault for the affliction that it really is. Though #MeToo will generate conversation, as any viral hashtag does, reducing the prevalence of rape culture in our society will take more than a trending topic.

One may refute this argument by noting the success of campaigns like the #BlackLivesMatter movement, which started on Twitter and Tumblr. The main difference here is that #BlackLivesMatter founders Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi never intended their campaign to be just about social media presence. There was no rallying cry for all black people to publicize their trauma — the first #BlackLivesMatter tweets were in response to Trayvon Martin’s untimely death. If every black person in America had simply decided to tweet “me too,” the #BlackLivesMatter movement would not have nearly the impact that it did. Before, during and after the campaign, BLM activists have worked tirelessly offline to address the same issues of racism, mass incarceration and police brutality that they posted about on social media. #BlackLivesMatter has since evolved into an international activist organization with multiple local chapters and educational programming.