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MeToo focused on what women’s speech can do, but not as much on how men’s speech can still so easily overwrite it. MeToo carried over the longtime assumption that women “breaking their silence” is the key to bringing about feminist justice, as well as “telling women’s stories.” Though the feminist internet called for men to meet some kind of further punishment, the torrent of pain and suffering—the torrent of women’s speech—seemed to be an end unto itself. And, for the first time it seemed, so many of them were being believed.

But at many different points over the last few years, it’s been the case that men’s speech is simply more powerful. Their ability to put forth a single version of reality—their own—has allowed other people to both “hear” and “believe” their accusers, without having to do anything about it. Ahead of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation, for example, Senators Jeff Flake, Susan Collins, and Joe Manchin stated that they “believed” Christine Blasey Ford before voting for her alleged assailant.

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Undoubtedly these senators are disingenuous; but the nature of their mental gymnastics is instructive. It may be that all of the speaking and hearing and believing involved in calling out a powerful man doesn’t ultimately do much for survivors themselves, an unfortunate reality many realized anew when Bill Cosby was released from prison in June.

Cuomo may still face repercussions for his actions, but he’s unlikely to alter his conviction that other people’s existence in the world—their feelings and experiences—are secondary to his own. And he certainly won’t lose his power to convince people of the same.