I don’t know about you, but the last couple of weeks have felt very familiar – and I’m not talking about Bennifer re-breaking up . Once again, the headlines have been dominated by horrific allegations of sexual misconduct involving powerful men. How on earth did we land back here? When the MeToo movement became a global conversation after the first explosive accusations against Harvey Weinstein in 2017, it was supposed to be a turning point.
Never again would so many women be abused and silenced in this way. We’d shone a light on the culture of impunity that allowed men like the disgraced Miramax producer to commit crimes and believe they could get away with it. Enough was enough.
So why does it suddenly feel as though MeToo 2.0 has arrived? Take the former Harrods owner Mohamed Al-Fayed, who has been accused of sexually assaulting and raping former employees at the Knightsbridge store. A BBC documentary spoke to more than 20 women who say they were attacked by the billionaire, who died in 2023, while the Metropolitan Police have received allegations made by 19 different women dating back to 1979 – and are wading through, they say, an “unknown number” of new reports.
Lawyers claim they are now helping around 190 women who have come forward to date, with more expected. Then there’s P Diddy, 54, who’s currently sitting in a New York detention centre accused of – among other things – violent crimes against women, including coercing them into sex during orgi.
