Recently I encountered the latest in a string of commentators/writers, both male and female, who characterized #MeToo as a bandwagon and not-so-subtly implied that people were simply making up stories to be able to use the hashtag. It baffled me that anyone could have such a pessimistic view of the situation. But then I realized that most people simply don’t want to acknowledge that sexual assault and harassment are as common as they are, and so they tell themselves most users of the hashtag must be lying, rather than admit that so many people shared such an awful experience. You make an excellent point that many men might feel they’ve failed in their role as protector. I think also that many worry that they might be friends with an abuser. Unfortunately, we all must accept that we are likely friends with or related to at least one person who’s done something like this. It’s simply a numbers game; you meet hundreds, sometimes thousands, of people in your life. Statistically, it’s likely that at least one of them engaged in sexual harassment or assault at some point. It only reflects badly on you if you know about the behavior and make excuses for it.