William Shatner Likens #MeToo Movement to French Revolution If Not Policed

Authored by hollywoodreporter.com and submitted by Neo2199

"I keep asking who is policing it because there’s a lot using it for their own personal vendettas that have nothing to do with the points of the movement," the actor said.

William Shatner on Saturday reaffirmed that he supports #MeToo, but he has serious concerns that the movement has gone too far.

The Star Trek icon recently gave an interview to DailyMailTV in which defended the Christmas song "Baby It's Cold Outside" — which came under fire this season for being inappropriate — at the same time calling the #MeToo movement "hysterical." He also likened it to the French Revolution.

"It's a whole new culture," the actor said in the interview. "The whole business has changed. The whole man-woman relationship has changed to a severe degree." Shatner added it has even changed the way he interacts with fans.

"People say, 'Can I put my arm around you?' I say, 'Yes, of course.' But I don't. I've changed my behavior to quite a degree… because it's a revolution," he said.

On Saturday, Shatner addressed those comments via Twitter with those who were upset over his remarks.

One user asked how the actor could go from supporting the movement to then calling it completely hysterical.

"Never said that. I basically said it’s going too far with some. I have 3 daughters so of course those issues concern me. It’s the ones co-opting it for personal vendettas. It needs to be policed or it will become akin to the French Revolution," Shatner tweeted.

Responding to another user, Shatner wrote, "I keep asking who is policing it because there’s a lot using it for their own personal vendettas that have nothing to do with the points of the movement. I likened it to the French Revolution because it started with trying to right noble injustices & descended into chaos."

Lupa2018 on December 24th, 2018 at 03:46 UTC »

He got the #metoo tag because he refused to stop and sign an autograph for a woman while he was rushing to the restroom. And he didn’t apologize profusely on twitter. So he’s the same as a rapist, obviously /s

HelenaHanKart on December 24th, 2018 at 00:30 UTC »

He's right. There are (some) people working out personal grudges this way. Doesn't mean we shouldn't call out bad behaviour, but let's not pretend that women are incapable of being liars. That's patronising and foolish.

MrBester on December 23rd, 2018 at 23:46 UTC »

Interesting how there isn't anything about why he said this (if someone did mention it in a comment, I must have missed it): some woman was pissed that he didn't give her an autograph at an airport when she stopped him while he was busting for a slash. He has repeatedly said he doesn't sign autographs outside of conventions or similar (so don't bother asking if you see him in a restaurant), but she then decided to invoke MeToo in that he treated her in a sexist and derogatory fashion for having the temerity to refuse to do what she wanted. Like he owed her his time.

Then the dogpiling began. Those who had no idea what was going on, and, more importantly, didn't fucking care, jumped on the "Shatner's a misogynist" bandwagon as part of a completely delusional mindset from an original misappropriation of the hashtag believed without question because he isn't a woman and that identical bullshit hysteria has been whipped up against him on Twitter in the past (the "'well, he's been accused before, no smoke without fire, right?' when it was all deliberate character assassination but never mind that" tactic).