Why everyone is telling Matt Damon to shut up about sexual harassment
“Me: Oh my god, someone broke all of my dishes!
Matt Damon, crashing through the door: You should talk about people who don't break dishes.”
A tweet that has been making the rounds all day has a lot of reasons to be both funny and sad and infuriating at the same time. Matt Damon, at the fag end of 2017, has decided to “out” himself as a mansplainer of rape culture and a “not all men” apologist.
The world’s reaction to the multitudes of sexual harassment allegations against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein has been the highlight of 2017. From movements like #MeToo to taking down powerful men like Kevin Spacey, Matt Lauer, Louis CK and many more, who have used their position to take advantage of women, to mainstreaming the conversation around rape culture, this year has been defined by how all men who the world once looked up to have dark secrets waiting to come out in the open. But, of course, where there is a conversation around women, about sexual harassment and rape, there are also men who waiting for an opportunity to shout “Not all men”.
Actor Matt Damon, it seems, is one of them.
Aside from the fact that there have been allegations about Damon trying to kill a 2004 story from the New York Times (that he dienies), the first of its kind about the sexual misconduct of Harvey Weinstein, barely a week ago, on December 14, Damon, in an interview with ABC News on the show Popcorn with Peter Travers, made some obtuse comments on sexual harassment in the entertainment industry.
Talking about Harvey Weinstein, Damon said: “I think it’s wonderful that women are feeling empowered to tell their stories, and it’s totally necessary... I do believe that there’s a spectrum of behaviour, right? And we’re going to have to figure — you know, there’s a difference between, you know, patting someone on the butt and rape or child molestation, right? Both of those behaviours need to be confronted and eradicated without question, but they shouldn’t be conflated, right?”
“And we live in this culture of outrage and injury, and, you know, that we’re going to have to correct enough to kind of go, ‘Wait a minute. None of us came here perfect.’ You know what I mean?... The Louis CK thing, I don’t know all the details. I don’t do deep dives on this, but I did see his statement, which kind of, which [was] arresting to me. When he came out and said, ‘I did this. I did these things. These women are all telling the truth.’ And I just remember thinking, ‘Well, that’s the sign of somebody who — well, we can work with that’,” he added.
Speaking about men who have come forward and admitted they sexually harassed women, Damon said, “At the moment … the clearer signal to men and to younger people is, deny it. Because if you take responsibility for what you did, your life’s going to get ruined.”
Actress Minnie Driver, who co-starred with Damon in Good Will Hunting, and has dated him, called the actor's views on rape culture tone-deaf. Speaking to The Guardian, Driver said, “[Men] simply cannot understand what abuse is like on a daily level. I honestly think that until we get on the same page, you can’t tell a woman about their abuse. A man cannot do that. No one can. It is so individual and so personal, it’s galling when a powerful man steps up and starts dictating the terms, whether he intends it or not.”
“There is no hierarchy of abuse – that if a woman is raped [it] is much worse than if woman has a penis exposed to her that she didn’t want or ask for... you cannot tell those women that one is supposed to feel worse than the other,” she added.
Rachel Hatzipanagos of The Lily notes correctly that Damon is missing the point of the #MeToo movement. She further adds, “He is so sure that he’s right, and he’s not taking a moment to consider he may have a lot to learn, and it goes beyond sexual harassment.”
And not trying to learn he is. Instead of taking cognisance of the criticism he faced, trying to understand why he is wrong, Damon did the opposite.
On December 19, in an interview with Business Insider, Damon went on to show off his ignorance when he said: “We’re in this watershed moment and it’s great, but I think one thing that’s not being talked about is there are a whole shitload of guys ― the preponderance of men I’ve worked with ― who don’t do this kind of thing and whose lives aren’t going to be affected. If I have to sign a sexual harassment thing, I don’t care, I’ll sign it. I would have signed it before. I don’t do that and most of the people I know don’t do that.”
When asked if he would back out of a movie if an actor, director or producer had sexual misconduct allegations against them, Damon said: “That always went into my thinking. I mean, I wouldn’t want to work with somebody who ― life’s too short for that. But the question of if somebody had allegations against them, you know, it would be a case-by-case basis. You go, ‘What’s the story here?’”
American singer and actress Cher, citing Damon’s interview, tweeted: “Matt Damon proving, once again, that nothing is more fragile than masculinity.”
As another Twitter user suggested, “Next time Matt Damon is stuck on a different planet, leave him there.”