Last week, Lindsay Lohan managed to stomp on all that goodwill she earned from her 17-second MTV spot by claiming that women who speak out against sexual assault as part of the #MeToo movement “look weak.” Those comments, which she made to UK publication The Times, prompted appropriate backlash, and on Sunday Lohan issued an apology in a statement to People:
I would like to unreservedly apologize for any hurt and distress caused by a quote in a recent interview with The Times. The quote solely related to my hope that a handful of false testimonies out of a tsunami of heroic voices do not serve to dilute the importance of the #MeToo movement, and all of us who champion it. However, I have since learned how statements like mine are seen as hurtful, which was never my intent. I’m sorry for any pain I may have caused.
Lohan added that she feels “very strongly” about the #MeToo movement, despite having suggested to The Times that women who called out their alleged abusers were “weak” and “attention seekers.”
“If it happens at that moment, you discuss it at that moment. You make it a real thing by making it a police report,” Lohan said in the interview. “I’m going to really hate myself for saying this, but I think by women speaking against all these things, it makes them look weak when they are very strong women. You have these girls who come out, who don’t even know who they are, who do it for the attention. That is taking away from the fact that it happened.”
This wasn’t Lohan’s first foray into #MeToo punditry. In October 2017, shortly after the many, many sexual assault and harassment allegations started coming out against Harvey Weinstein, Lohan posted a couple bizarre Instagram story videos of herself defending the movie mogul. “I feel very bad for Harvey Weinstein right now. I don’t think it’s right what’s going on,” she said in one.
In another, she said, “I think Georgina [Weinstein] needs to take a stand and be there for her husband. And he’s never harmed me or done anything wrong to me. We’ve done several movies together. So I think everyone needs to stop. I think it’s wrong. So stand up.”
She later put up an Instagram post claiming “most women in America” didn’t care that she was allegedly abused by her ex-fiancé, Egor Tarabasov, but ended up replacing that caption with one celebrating “#womenempowerment.”
DISCUSSION
Someone posted a thread in a Facebook book discussion group asking if books should have trigger warnings. I came away from it with the distinct feeling that cruelty is winning. People who are triggered by books are weak and should not read. Also, if you research, you will never be surprised by anything in a book. Also, since you can’t warn against all triggers, warning against any becomes moot. Also, no one deserves special consideration/common decency.
I thought an interesting idea in that discussion had codes at the end of the book, so people who want trigger warnings could seek them out there, and people who don’t could avoid them.
Anyhow, I was reminded of this when LiLo equated #MeToo with weakness. You know who loves that view? Predators. You know who thinks empathy is bad? Trump voters.