How the Diddy verdict silenced #MeToo

There’s still some time to go until we get to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the MeToo movement, and try to figure out just how much things have changed since then. The slogan came into its own in October 2017, meaning that we still have just over two years before we look back on that decade. We could start now, of course, but people really do just love a round number, and a neat excuse to try and establish a clear narrative.

Starting now would also mean admitting that, while a week can be a long time in politics, 27 months can mean nothing at all when it comes to social mores or current affairs. For a little while, some time near the back end of the 2010s, it looked like things were going to change for the better. Yes, that creep Trump had won the election the year before, but maybe that was going to act as the catalyst for something bigger.

Maybe that was what women had needed: one last push. Actresses spoke up about Harvey Weinstein, and suddenly the dam burst across the world. Some rapists got convicted in courts of law; some abusers lost their careers and profiles; others just disappeared, seemingly into the ether. No one believed it would be the end of the patriarchy, but it did feel like something had, perhaps, finally started shifting.

Men were listening, and institutions were willing to make some much-needed changes. Well, some of them were, anyway. It was, we dared to hope, maybe going to become easier to be a woman. At the very least, it would become harder to be a predatory man. Oh, how sweet to think back on those days. How bitter and how sweet.

Earlier this week, rapper Diddy was found not guilty of racketeering and sex trafficking, following a lengthy trial which was closely followed by the world’s media. Though guilty of “transportation to engage in prostitution”, the mogul has managed to avoid all the more serious charges levelled against him.

That his former partners testified and had to recount, in some detail, events they clearly found humiliating and traumatising apparently didn’t matter. In the game of “he said, she said”, the former always wins. In the game of “principles or money”, on the other hand, it’s the former you should always bet your money on.

Take The Sandman; Netflix just released the new season of its show, after weeks and months of advertising it and trying to whet the appetite of its viewers. The TV series is based on the comic books originally written by Neil Gaiman, who was accused of sexual abuse and assault by several women last year, then again earlier this year.

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In February, Gaiman and his ex-partner’s former nanny filed a civil suit in New York’s U.S. district court accusing the couple of having “knowingly recruited, enticed, harboured, transported, and/or obtained Scarlett for labour or services while knowing she would be forced to engage in sexual acts as a condition of receiving the pay and housing they promised her”. He, meanwhile, is seeking $500,000 from another one of his accusers, having accused her of breaching her NDA. Has this mattered in any way to the streaming giant? Apparently not. (Gaiman has said he regrets being “careless with people’s hearts and feelings” but has denied all allegations of sexual wrongdoing.)

Elsewhere, the release of movie F1 has been hard to avoid of late. Brad Pitt, its leading star, has done quite the promo round for it, appearing on numerous podcasts, YouTube channels and the like. What you may not know is that his little helper is crisis-management publicist Matthew Hiltzik, who is mostly known for his work with, among others, Johnny Depp and Donald Trump.

Lest we forget, court documents alleged that “during a trip on their private plane in 2016, Pitt threw [then-wife Angelina] Jolie against a wall, shook her, and poured alcohol on her while she was trying to sleep. When their children tried to defend Jolie, Pitt “physically abused one of their children”. Still, he looks good going vroom vroom in the movie about fast cars, right? That’s got to be worth something. Well, it definitely is worth something, as the blockbuster is already set to make its studio millions. (The FBI investigated but did not bring any charges; sources close to Pitt have denied that he was physically abusive towards Jolie or their six children.)

In short: no-one actually cares. There was a short window of time during which we thought that, with enough luck and effort, we could convince just about enough people that the safety and dignity of women mattered, but it didn’t work. Soon, we will be able to look back on MeToo a decade on, but it isn’t clear that we need to wait for the big one-oh to draw any conclusions.

27 months can be a lifetime but sometimes it can also be nothing at all. MeToo was a battle and we lost; the war isn’t over, and what choice do we have but to keep fighting?