“The mixed response to calls to eject Schwyzer from feminist spaces also points to the ways in which feminism and other activist communities struggle and often fail to hold abusers accountable and provide safe space for survivors of abuse. Schwyzer has effectively wielded the narrative of redemption to obscure the fact that he has yet to fully acknowledge the ways in which behavior he names “self-destructive” was destructive and harmful to others. Nor does he own the fact that his victims will have to live with the personal repercussions of his actions for the rest of their lives, and conceivably experience emotional fallout from seeing their stories and traumas disclosed, spun in public fora for Schwyzer’s personal and professional advancement. Indeed, most of his writing focuses on the consequences of his past behavior for himself – that he may never be forgiven by or contacted by his exes, and that some people may never trust him. Schwyzer has used this assortment of stories about the various women he’s harmed to draw in followers who now rally round and defend him as reformed – based on his entirely self-crafted, unbalanced narrative about his past behavior and ultimate redemption. What would happen if one of Schwyzer’s exes were to tell her side of the story? What if she named her relationship with him as toxic and abusive – highly likely, given that he’s written publicly, with potentially identifying details, about at least two of his exes who have made clear that they want no contact with him ever again. Would Schwyzer’s defenders mobilize to silence someone he’s victimized for naming him as an abuser, as they’ve done to other survivors who have stated that his role in feminist spaces, and defenses of that role, further traumatize them and make them feel unsafe? What message would survivors of Schwyzer’s abuse get from seeing his tale of redemption hawked in feminist spaces?”
- Why do some feminist spaces tolerate male abusers?
- Why do some feminist spaces tolerate male abusers?