Cassie Jaye on #MeToo: ‘Falsely Accused People Are Victims, Too’

“We all need to recognize that falsely accused people are victims, too,” said Cassie Jaye of persons — mostly men — who are falsely accused of committing sexual misconduct. She made her comments within a broader discussion on feminism and associated #MeToo narratives.

Jaye, documentary filmmaker of The Red Pill, offered her comments on Tuesday’s edition of SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Tonight with co-hosts Rebecca Mansour and Joel Pollak.

Describing “public opinion” as succumbing to a “mob mentality” in pursuit of prominent men accused of sexual assault or varying misconduct, Jaye warned against premature judgment.

“Without due process, we cannot take sides, but that is what’s happening, mainly driven by the mainstream media that is calling for public stoning of these people without due process taking place,” said Jaye. “I think we need to recognize that the falsely accused are victims, too.”

Women should not be reflexively believed when they make allegations of sexual misconduct against men, advised Jaye:

I think what’s a problem with our discussion around the accusations and the accused is we automatically take woman’s word as the truth if she’s accusing someone. If we’re really searching for equality — that you shouldn’t judge people based on the color of their skin or the gender that they were born with or identify as — then we shouldn’t automatically believe one person’s word over the other because of their sex.

Democrats and leftists regularly call for women’s accusations of sexual assault against men to be believed.

Growing momentum of false accusations of sexual misconduct made by women against men will dissuade men from wanting to work with women, said Jaye: “A bad side effect of all this is that a lot of men are going to be afraid to work with women. What I think we should learn is that we need to find a way to communicate with each other.”

The conflation of awkward or failed attempts at courtship with violent sexual assaults via #MeToo’s political narratives is a problem, agreed both Jaye and Mansour.

“One of the most controversial statements by a celebrity in Hollywood was saying that sexual assault does fall on a spectrum, and I absolutely believe that,” said Jaye:

For all the years I was working on women’s issues, I met many survivors of horrible things, so when I hear that a woman had someone — a potential boss or whatever that situation was — he put his hand on her knee and she was offended, and then this became a big story, it’s really so insulting to victims of horrific rape. In so many different ways, too, whether it be a violent one or when you’re child and it changes the way you grow up and how you see the entire world. … There is a spectrum of assault victims.

The #MeToo campaign risks fetishizing victimhood, said Jaye, describing it as “having gone too far” in many ways. It further places young women at risk by casting sexual victimhood as a social commodity.

“[#MeToo is] idolizing victims,” said Jaye:

For young girls, I know when I was growing up, you would look up to women who got a lot of attention and praise from media, social media, professors and other educators, family and friends, and our culture is giving a lot of attention and praise to the #MeToo women and their campaign. I don’t think young girls should be idolizing and striving to be [#MeToo victims]. I would rather see female NASA engineers, or mothers and teachers, or something that you can really look up to as an empowered woman. I’m worried that a lot of young girls are going to see all these women and celebrities that they look up to and think they got all this fame and power for being a rape victim. Now, I also want to say, I’m not saying that any victims should live in the shadows … but I don’t think we should be glamorizing that experience and those traumas for young girls and women to try to emulate or achieve.

Those in politics and Hollywood share interests in hyping the #MeToo campaign, said Jaye: “The people who have the loudest voices — or the most interest in having the media share their story — are people who are involved in politics or Hollywood.”

Domestic abuse should be viewed as a “human issue” and not a “gender issue,” said Jaye: “Men can be abused, too. … It’s really not a gender issue, it’s a human issue that I believe all people, regardless of their gender, should have access to resources for.”

Michelle Obama prioritized girl victims of Boko Haram over boy victims, with the former being abducted and married into marriage while the latter were murdered. Broadly, the news media ignored Boko Haram’s murder of men and boys, said Karen Straughan, a “men’s rights activist” featured in The Red Pill.

“[Karen Straughan] explained to me that, for over a decade, Boko Haram was killing and brutally burning alive all these boys and men, and there wasn’t worldwide outrage over this,” said Jaye. “When the around 200 girls were kidnapped, that’s when we saw Michelle Obama and all these other public figures engage in a #BringBackOurGirls campaign.”

Obama made no similar move towards the male victims of Boko Haram.

Breitbart News Tonight airs Monday through Friday on SiriusXM’s Patriot channel 125 from 9:00 p.m. to midnight Eastern (6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Pacific).