Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Female founders are making progress in the U.K., a founder of a rape kit startup charges forward despite backlash, and two sentences speak to the current state of the #MeToo movement. Happy Friday!
- Still here. Last fall marked the fifth anniversary of the viral #MeToo movement. On that occasion, my colleagues and I spoke to women who were driving forces behind the campaign against sexual abuse and harassment. Many had a similar question: Is there a backlash brewing?
Taken together, the reversal of Roe v. Wade, the vitriol directed at Amber Heard throughout the Johnny Depp trial, and the misogynoir experienced by Megan Thee Stallion during the Tory Lanez shooting case—suggested the general public was growing weary of these stories and becoming less likely to take women at their word or rally to their defense, despite polling that shows that people still support #MeToo.
Months later, that sense of fatigue is still palpable. And two pieces of news yesterday highlighted the tension of the moment we're in.
In Los Angeles, Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to another 16 years in prison for rape and sexual assault on top of his existing 23-year sentence for rape and sexual assault in New York, all but ensuring the 70-year-old convicted rapist will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
In Chicago, R. Kelly was handed down a 20-year sentence on his child sex convictions. However, he will be allowed to serve all but one year of the sentence simultaneously with his existing 30-year sentence for racketeering. Rather than keep the 56-year-old singer in prison past his 100th birthday, a federal judge opted to allow the possibility of Kelly’s release at around 80 years old. Judge Harry Leinenweber did note that Kelly’s victims would experience the effects of his abuse for the “rest of their lives.”
So what do these sentences mean, in the context of current public sentiment? The Kelly and Weinstein sagas are two of the most prominent #MeToo cases to make it to sentencing and offered overwhelming evidence. The allegations against Weinstein ignited a movement; Kelly’s abuses go back years and are the subject of a documentary by dream hampton.
That the final sentences in the men's long legal fights arrived on the same day more than five years after the #MeToo hashtag went viral may just be a coincidence. And activists like hampton may still fear a backlash. "We are certainly in the backlash phase," she told us last fall, referencing the reversal of Roe v. Wade. "All of these things are connected; all of these things are about restricting the progress that women have made." But the sentences delivered Thursday show that while the road toward accountability is long, real consequences—and change—are still possible.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
@_emmahinchliffe
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