Too Bad, Aziz Ansari

The #MeToo bandwagon juddered to a halt at the Aziz Ansari junction recently.

- Sheila Kumar

A quick recap of the whole distasteful affair first. A few weeks ago, Babe, a feminist website targeted mainly at youngsters, ran a graphic account of an anonymous woman’s sexual encounter with Ansari. Grace, the pseudonym used in the article, described the encounter as sexual assault. The two had gone out on a date in New York after meeting at an awards show, after which Ansari invited the woman back to his apartment. In Grace’s recounting of what happened next, Ansari forced himself sexually on her in a variety of ways, without her explicit consent. After an uncomfortable few hours, she took a taxi and went home. Grace texted Ansari about her feelings the next day, and he apologised, saying he was under the impression it was a consensual encounter.

The article broke soon after what seemed like the best day of the actor’s life — he had just won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a TV series for his acclaimed Netflix show, Master of None. Thus, while Ansari probably did not have much of a celebration for his big win, the article had an even more devastating effect on #MeToo, the campaign around which millions of American and other women around the world had coalesced to fight sexual violence, and to support survivors in the wake of revelations about men like Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey.