Actress and longstanding #MeToo activist Alyssa Milano has penned an op-ed trying to explain her ongoing support for former Vice President Joe Biden despite a sexual assault allegation from his former Senate staffer Tara Reade.
I wrote this op-ed about the Tara Reade allegations against Joe Biden. Please give it a read👉 https://t.co/MZUozj2LaX
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) April 30, 2020
She started far away from the Biden matter, elaborating on how MeToo advocates tend to see things merely as black and white: she claimed that there are what she called "obvious" instances, like convicted Harvey Weinstein and fully acquitted Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who has consistently denied his accusers' sexual abuse allegations.
Milano wrote that Kavanaugh’s "actions, told consistently over decades by his victim (and supported by her polygraph results), were clearly wrong”, before continuing to ponder on the light in which everything is representable on social media:
"Except it’s not always so easy, and living in the gray areas is something we’re trying to figure out in the world of social media. But here’s something social media doesn’t afford us – nuance", Milano wrote.
She went on to offer Biden, the presumed Dem nominee, her tips on to how to handle the allegations targeting him as he is embarking on full-on preparation for the November race:
"I’d advise him to face the allegation head-on, answer every question, and admit any wrongdoing, and to be the example for all men who face these kinds of accusations whether founded or not", Milano suggested to her preferred candidate.
The former "Charmed" actress insisted that Reade's allegations against Biden "concern me, deeply", but that Biden is someone "who I can’t picture doing any of the things of which he’s accused”.
Referring to his accuser - Ms Reade - Milano, who has been behind quite a few left-leaning social campaigns, said she believed that every survivor should "have space to tell their story", but urged the woman not to be "fodder for the machine".
"Believing women was never about 'Believe all women no matter what they say', it was about changing the culture of NOT believing women by default. It was about ending the patriarchy’s dangerous drive for self-preservation at all costs, victims be damned", Milano continued to explain.
For her part, Reade called out Milano when talking to Fox News, alleging that the actress is showcasing double standards.
"I think we need to compare how she responded to Brett Kavanaugh... quite different than the talking points she [used] regarding Joe Biden", Reade told Fox News. "She never reached out to me. I don't really want to amplify her voice because I feel like she hijacked my narrative for a while and framed it about herself... she knows nothing about it”.
Twitterians apparently think along the same lines, with one noting that Milano’s op-ed “is her patting herself on the back of MeToo”:
this entire “op ed” is you patting yourself on the back for #MeToo. WE BELIEVE WOMEN AND WE BELIEVE TARA READE
— ً (@drugrules) April 30, 2020
“This issue is about Me…..too”, another shared a similar stance, further explaining how Milano is shifting sides:
“As my late grandmother would say, 'don’t bite the hand the feeds you!' Well we know how Alyssa & others are ‘fed’”, the user rounded off.
#HypocriteQueen = @Alyssa_Milano,” another stated unambiguously.
“So, believe women, except when they accuse your guy of rape. Then it's, 'well.... this is a gray area'. That doesn't pass the sniff test, Alyssa”, a third went still further, whereas some summed up in the thread:
“World is gray when convenient” = moral of your story”.
Biden's accuser, Tara Reade, who was among the women who came out last year with stories about the former vice president being too handsy, claimed that he “just had her up against the wall” in a Capitol Hill hallway in 1993, when Reade worked on his staff during his tenure as a senator for Delaware.
A number of other persons have recently appeared to corroborate her claims, one of them being the woman’s former neighbour, who told Business Insider that she recalled hearing about the ex-Biden staffer's alleged assault exactly around the year 1993.
"This happened, and I know it did because I remember talking about it", she shared with the publication.
Another individual, Lorraine Sanchez who worked with Reade in the mid-1990s, told the edition that she remembered Reade explaining her dismissal from her previous job amid concerns about sexual harassment by her former boss.
Both allegations surfaced after a clip came out that allegedly features the voice of Reade's mother phoning in to “Larry King Live” in 1993 and asking if her daughter should turn to the press about a “prominent senator” behaving inappropriately.
