October 22, 2017

I won't give details of my specific experiences, but as you've probably guessed, #MeToo. In fact, the same with my mom, my sisters, my daughters, my grandmothers, my aunts, my cousins, friends, co-workers, etc. I don't know a woman who hasn't had some sort of unwanted sexual experience or harassment.

That's a problem, guys.

And while there's something cathartic about lifting the veil of shame from the silence and realizing you're not alone in adding your voice to the #MeToo, there's something also painfully obvious that one whole part of this equation isn't being addressed.

The wounds of the #MeToo’s are likely ones we have been responsible for inflicting, if not in personal acts of aggression:

In the times we stood silently in the company of a group of catcalling men; too cowardly to speak in a woman’s defense.
In the way we’ve voraciously consumed pornography without a second thought of the deep humanity and the beautiful stories beneath the body parts.
In the times we pressured a woman to give more of herself than she felt comfortable giving, and how we justified ourselves after we had.
In the times we laughed along with a group of men speaking words that denied the intrinsic value of women.
In the times we used the Bible to justify our misogyny.
In the times we defended predatory bragging as simply “locker room talk.”

In the times we imagined our emotional proximity to a woman entitled us to physical liberties.

Guys, while we may not believe we have committed direct acts of violence against women (however given the statistics, this is quite likely), we have each participated in a culture of misogyny and sexism that continues to victimize and traumatize, to steal safety and generate fear, to deny humanity and to cultivate disrespect. We are fully complicit in these #MeToo stories, whether we have intentionally acted, contributed unknowingly, nurtured with our silence, multiplied with our laughter, our cosigned with our credit cards.

This morning, Sens. Sens. Claire McCaskill, Mazie Hirono, Elizabeth Warren, and Heidi Heitkamp will be on Meet the Press to discuss their own #MeToo moments. But you know what? I want to hear from every one of those male colleagues about how they feel about how they will stop contributing to this culture. When will it no longer be necessary for we women to remind you to treat us with common decency and for you to take the responsibility to be a good man?

ABC's "This Week" - Retired Army Gen. David Petraeus. A panel on National Geographic’s miniseries “The Long Road Home,” based on Martha Raddatz’s book: retired U.S. Army Sgt. Eric Bourquin, Army wife Gina Denomy and actor Michael Kelly. Political panel: Matthew Dowd and Cokie Roberts, Perry Bacon Jr.and Eliana Johnson.

NBC's "Meet the Press" - .Sens. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.). Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. Panel: Robert Costa; Danielle Pletka of the American Enterprise Institute; and Helene Cooper and Tom Friedman.

CBS' "Face the Nation" - White House budget director Mick Mulvaney; Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla.; Gold Star father Khizr Khan. Nate Boyer, former NFL player and U.S. Army Green Beret. Panel: Jamelle Bouie of Slate, Michael Duffy of Time, Susan Glasser of Politico and Rich Lowry of National Review.

CNN's "State of the Union" - Sens. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio. Panel: Jen Psaki and Bakari Sellers, former CIA officer Evan McMullin and former Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa.

CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" - Norman Roule, formerly of the Office of the Director of the National Intelligence; David Sanger of The New York Times; Anne-Marie Slaughter, president and CEO of New America; Elizabeth Economy of the Council on Foreign Relations; Jiayang Fan of The New Yorker; Chrystia Freeland, minister of foreign affairs for Canada.

CNN's "Reliable Sources" - Olivia Nuzzi of New York Magazine; Brian Karem of Playboy; John Kirby, former Pentagon spokesman and retired rear admiral in the U.S. Navy; Don Shipley, retired Navy SEAL; Geoff Ziezulewicz of Military Times; Eve Burton, senior vice president and general counsel for Hearst; former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson, author of “Be Fierce”; Noah Rothman of associate editor at Commentary.

"Fox News Sunday" - McConnell; Mulvaney; White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders; California Attorney General Xavier Becerra. Panel: former Congressman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah; Julie Pace of The Associated Press; Matthew Continetti of The Washington Free Beacon; and Juan Williams.

So, what's catching your eye this morning?

Can you help us out?

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