A Close Reading Of The Sean Penn #MeToo Poem Absolutely Nobody Asked For

Yes. You read that headline right. Sean Penn, award-winning actor and former husband to Madonna and Robin Wright, has written a poem about the #MeToo movement. More specifically, he’s written a novel which includes a poem about the movement to highlight how widespread sexual harassment and assault towards women is. According to him, it’s a ‘toddler’s crusade’. So of course, we have responded, as womankind, by saying ‘thanks Sean, but no thanks’.

His novel, Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff, was released today to the most savage reviews you could imagine. Various critics have referred to the book as ‘nonsensical’, filled with ‘linguistic traffic jams’ and an ‘addiction to alliteration’. However, the pinnacle of the books horror comes in the form of a six-page poem on the current political climate in which he compares MeToo to ‘reckless child’s play’.

Despite claiming the book is a work of fiction, the novel contains passages eerily similar to reality, including one paragraph where he refers to the ‘president of impeachment’, his use of ‘alternative facts’, and a million women marching on his inauguration. The passage even states ‘tweet me bitch, I dare you’. Then, despite being FICTION (apparently), he refers directly to MeToo, Louis C.K and Charlie Rose is his political poem. I won’t keep you waiting, here is the poem in all of its horrendous glory:

‘Though warrior women

Bravely walk the walk,

Derivatives of disproportion

Draw heinous hypocrites

To their flock.

[....]

Where did all the laughs go?

Are you out there, Louis C.K.?

Once crucial conversations

Kept us on our toes;

Was it really in our interest

To trample Charlie Rose?

And what’s with this ‘Me Too’?

This infantilizing term of the day...

Is this a toddler’s crusade?

Reducing rape, slut-shaming, and suffrage to reckless child’s play?

A platform for accusation impunity?

Due process has lost its sheen?

But, fuck it, what me worry?

I’m a hero,

To Time Magazine!’

The whole thing barely deserves analysis, since it seems, ironically, like the work of a toddler itself. However, since Sean is clearly so unaware of his own hypocrisies and misguidedness, I shall take the time to explain to him just how ludicrous this poem is.

Where to bloody start? For one, if you’re ‘kept on your toes’ by women speaking out about sexual misconduct then you might need to reevaluate your own behavior. And if that’s the case, then it probably isn’t in YOUR interest to ‘trample’ a sexual predator who groped multiple women that worked for him. However, it is in the interest of, you know, EVERY ONE ELSE in the world, men included.

Like the rest of his novel, the poem is filled with the very hypocrisy he refers to. Having previously described women speaking out about sexual assault as ‘brave’ in the novel, he goes on to compare them to children in the poem. One can only assume he is referring to the encounters of sexual misconduct or harassment that he may deem less important than ‘rape, slut-shaming, and suffrage’, unaware of how even the most seemingly insignificant encounters of sexual harassment shape a woman’s life and perpetuate an environment of intimidation and systematic sexism.

I particularly enjoyed the ‘due process has lost its sheen’ line, not only for its possible use of an alleged sex offenders surname to make a point about unproven accusations being taken as fact, but also for how threatened he clearly is by women outing their accusers on social media. Yes, due process has 'lost its sheen', because clearly due process has enabled generations of women all around the world to be continuously harassed and assaulted without question, so what else are we meant to do if no one else will take us seriously?

SEAN. THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM HAS CONTINUOULSY FAILED VICTIMS OF SEXUAL ASSAULT AND HARASSMENT. THIS IS NOT NEWS.

Of course, he will likely be told this a thousand times today through his favourite medium, Twitter. We can only hope he doesn’t feel the need to respond. This is one of those times where you just have to shut up and listen Sean, or if you can, go back in time and do that before starting a novel. Because not one was asking for you to write a poem about MeToo, not one person in the entire world

Click through to see all of the men in Hollywood accused of sexual harassment...

This article originally appeared on The Debrief.