Kate Roiphe and the Twitter feminists who want her fired
When the academic suggested that the #MeToo movement infantilises women, she knew she would provoke debate. What she didn't expect was the venomous fury that would be unleashed. By Julia Llewellyn Smith
Katie Roiphe, 49Anna Schori/Camera Press
The Times, March 31 2018, 12:01am
"I'm used to making people angry," says Katie Roiphe, longtime feminist bugbear. But still Roiphe was unprepared for the furore that was about to envelop her a couple of weeks into the new year. It started with Twitter rumours that someone was about to publish an article "outing" the woman behind the Shitty Media Men list. This was a notorious spreadsheet that had been circulating online since October, consisting of anecdotes sourced anonymously concerning the alleged sexual misconduct of around 70 men in the (mainly) New York-based media. It had resulted in workplace inquiries into male employees' behaviour and in several men losing their jobs.
Tweeters quickly asserted that the article – ostensibly about the #MeToo movement – was to be published in venerable monthly magazine Harper's…