Teen Vogue's Emily Lindin has more than 23,000 followers on Twitter but, unless you're in that crowd, you won't be seeing her tweets any time soon. On Tuesday night, Lindin locked down her account after a wildly unpopular tweet earned her the scorn of what seems like just about all of social media. And that's a lot of scorn.
Lindin wrote: “Here’s an unpopular opinion: I’m actually not at all concerned about innocent men losing their jobs over false sexual assault/harassment allegations.” When the backlash ensued, the writer tried to justify her position, writing “false allegations VERY rarely happen, so even bringing it up borders on a derailment tactic. It’s a microscopic risk in comparison to the issue at hand (worldwide, systemic oppression of half the population).”
Lindin then declared: “The benefit of all of us getting to finally tell the truth + the impact on victims FAR outweigh the loss of any one man’s reputation,” and added, “If some innocent men’s reputations have to take a hit in the process of undoing the patriarchy, that is a price I am absolutely willing to pay.”
Critics lined up to criticize her, with CNN’s Jake Tapper referencing “To Kill a Mockingbird,” in which a character with high moral standards champions above a prejudiced town.
He also hit back on Lindin after her response, saying that her point of view is “immoral” and it’s not a price that she will pay.
Donald Trump Jr. also weighed in on the controversy.
While she claims that she's a columnist Teen Vogue, according to her bio on the magazine's website, she hasn't written since mid-July. Rare has reached out to Conde Nast, the company that owns Teen Vogue, asking for a comment. At the time of publication, Rare has not heard back.
In addition to her work at the magazine, Linden has produced "Unslut," which is a documentary about combating "slut-shaming" and sexual bullying in schools. According to her bio on the film's website, she has also written for a number of other outlets including "The Daily Dot" and "Glamour UK" and did a piece entitled "Let's Talk about Sex with our Children" for the popular blog "Scary Mommy."
Linden’s remarks come as an avalanche of sexual harassment claims are leveled against powerful men. The floodgates burst when Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein was accused of sexually harassing scores of women but the allegations have since been leveled against powerful men in Washington and journalism.
Some critics have also warned about painting sexual predators with a broad brush; Bari Weiss of the New York Times posited that there’s cause to be disturbed by the “moral flattening” that’s going on.
Just for reference, here’s a clip of Emily Linden and Amber Rose on the popular show “The Doctors” in which they talk about sexual bullying.
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