British actor and 2018 “sexiest man alive” Idris Elba recently told The Sunday Times that the #MeToo movement is “only difficult if you’re a man with something to hide.” Vanity Fair contrasted Elba’s uncompromising stance with remarks made by Matt Damon and Henry Cavill, who both had to walk back their criticisms of #MeToo’s potential excesses and their perceived sympathy for accused men.
Valerie Jarrett and Shonda Rhimes tweeted praise for Elba. Essence said his answer was “perfect.”
Is #MeToo only a problem for men who have something to hide? I doubt Aziz Ansari—who was smeared in the pages of babe.net because of a bad date involving some misinterpreted cues—would agree. Or Stephen Henderson, the first black editor of The Detroit Free Press’ opinion pages, who lost his job for vaguely-defined inappropriate behavior that had generated zero complaints. (My colleague Shikha Dalmia called this a clear case of #MeToo run amok.)
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