Turning Point USA's Communications Director, Candace Owens, is making waves in the conservative movement after she posted a handful of tweets on Monday about the #MeToo movement.
Modern feminism is so toxic. It is singlehandedly deteriorating relationships and eventual motherhood.
— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) June 11, 2018
I will always speak out against what has become a rabid cult of misery.
If you believe in equality between men and women, you cannot be a feminist today.
The entire premise of #metoo is that women are stupid, weak & inconsequential.
— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) June 11, 2018
Too stupid to know what men might want if you come to their hotel room late at night.
Too weak to turn around and tell someone not to touch your ass again.
Too inconsequential to realize this.
Biggest problem with the #metoo movement is that it turned sexual assault into a trend and simultaneously drowned out the voices of real rape victims— who deserve to be heard.
— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) June 11, 2018
I will speak about all of this at #YWLS2018 in a few days.
It’s time for real women empowerment.
Owens quickly received backlash from people on both sides of the aisle for her comments.
Hey Candace, would love to introduce you to some depressed & often suicidal victims of assault and rape, terrified to share their stories cuz of the nocuous narrative you just tweeted. #MeToo
— tara strong (@tarastrong) June 11, 2018
Hey Tara, would love to introduce you to some of the female survivors of rape who think the #metoo movement has cheapened their assaults.
— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) June 11, 2018
They are terrified to say so publicly bc of people like you who think there is something proprietary about the victim narrative. https://t.co/zMm9E7coOA
That is.... not the premise.
— Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) June 12, 2018
You’re seriously deficient in your knowledge and your empathy
— Mira Sorvino (@MiraSorvino) June 12, 2018
Riiiight and women who are kidnapped and raped? Are they stupid, weak and inconsequential in your warped opinion? Really uneducated to suggest that all victims of rape or harassment are at fault for not “expecting” it.
— Selina Slays (@selinawatermans) June 12, 2018
I'm just going to say it.
— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) June 11, 2018
This is completely ignorant, disgusting, and terrible. I really just don't even have words to explain how bad this take is. https://t.co/bOP1uq5AFd
Candace's tweet is clear evidence that she has never talked to a victim of sexual abuse in her life.
— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) June 11, 2018
Candace, you should really have a conversation with someone like @Kimberly_Corban before you tweet out gross takes like this to your thousands of followers.
As a conservative and lawfully-armed survivor of rape, I respectfully and vehemently disagree. #MeToo isn’t a problem with women. It’s also not a problem with men. It’s a problem with a culture that lays blame upon victims and shames them into silence.
— Kimberly Corban (@Kimberly_Corban) June 11, 2018
Rape survivor Kimberly Corban reached out to Owens to have a dialogue about the #MeToo movement.
.@RealCandaceO, you have a fast-growing platform and are an important voice for many young women. I’d love to get together while we are both at #YWLS2018 this weekend. As a survivor of rape, I respectfully disagree with your interpretation of #MeToo. https://t.co/nHVObCB6tJ
— Kimberly Corban (@Kimberly_Corban) June 11, 2018
Love this. Let’s definitely link bc my entire speech at #YWLS2018 is about why I hate the #metoo movement.
— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) June 11, 2018
For those of you who subscribe to groupthink:
You can hate #BLM and still support black lives.
You can hate #metoo and still support victims of rape. https://t.co/MDj1uCmJNX
Candace, I respectfully disagree with this statement and am disappointed that this comes from TPUSA’s Communications Director. This is not a message TPUSA should send. I’d love to have a conversation at YWLS about how I stand with all #MeToo survivors and why you should too. https://t.co/xCUGyhBvzb
— Kennedy Copeland (@kpconservative) June 11, 2018
Corban also explained why it's important to rethink how we categorize sexual assault survivors.
How we speak about abuse victims matters. Countless survivors watch and hear these messages, weighing whether they will be judged for speaking out—for reporting—for trying to carry on in the face of shame or guilt that does not belong to them. Don’t add to that burden. #MeToo
— Kimberly Corban (@Kimberly_Corban) June 11, 2018
Being victimized does NOT make you weak.
— Kimberly Corban (@Kimberly_Corban) June 11, 2018
Victimizing someone does not make you strong.
The IJR's Caleb Hull was very upset by Owens' comments and made his position well known:
Maybe it’s just me, but I thought a communications director for a national org would have an understanding that making others’ suicide about herself and shaming victims of sexual assault countless times publicly to her hundreds of thousands of followers would be a bad idea...
— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) June 12, 2018
Candace Owens literally just said that she can’t support the #MeToo movement because it’s “sewing division between men and women” and that she wouldn’t apologize.
— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) June 12, 2018
What the actual hell. https://t.co/XCGM7qTfXH
I don’t disagree with everything Candace has said on this topic, but I literally don’t think it’s possible for her to communicate what she’s saying any more poorly.
— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) June 12, 2018
The Explanation
Owens took to Twitter on Tuesday to clarify her position about the #MeToo movement and why she believes the mob mentality is dangerous.
Why I don’t support #blm #metoo or #marchforourlives. (Herd mentality is toxic) https://t.co/XODJOZndxx
— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) June 12, 2018
The whole premise of what she said is that the herd mentality is dangerous and we shouldn't all be lumped together.
The Reality
What Owens said has some merit but how she said it could have been worded WAY better.
The #MeToo movement started out with good intentions and really did become a bandwagon phenomenon. Part of the issue with a movement gaining popularity so fast is the lack of a controlled message. There's no definitive definition of who falls into the #MeToo movement. Does someone have to be sexually assaulted to be part of the movement? Does molestation count? What about sexual harassment? There is no hardline definition of who fits into the #MeToo movement, which causes confusion and arguments.
While I don't agree with everything the #MeToo movement is about, I do appreciate their efforts to encourage woman to speak up about being sexually assaulted. When I was raped in college I struggled to come forward and report my story. I was riddled with shame and guilt. I blamed myself and thought I could have changed what happened to me, even though I fought and said "no" over and over again. I'm not alone. This is what most assault survivors go through. Even the most outspoken, lively people can suddenly become fearful and struggle to find their voice.
Sexual assault survivors don't want people to look at them like they're cowardly, that all they want to do is sit in a corner and be scared. That is not what we're about. And, just like men can attempt to peg us and pin us down with a label we don't want, women can do the same thing. And I believe that's what Candace just did and why so many people are upset.
It's important for survivors to know that what happened to them is not their fault. It's important for survivors to know that there are other men and women out there that are ready and willing to listen to their story. We are here and we will be an asset. After all, the people who resonate the most with us are other people who have been through a similar situation. There's a sense of relief knowing you're talking to someone who understands how you're feeling, even when you don't.