William Shatner has said some women use the #MeToo movement as a “weapon” when they “don’t get an autograph”.
The Star Trek actor, 87, suggested a portion of the complaints made against men were driven by women bearing a grudge.
The #MeToo movement has its origins in 2006 when activist Tarana Burke first coined the phrase. It went viral in 2017 following a tweet by the actress Alyssa Milano in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal.
It has since become an all-encompassing name for the movement against sexual harassment and discrimination.
However Shatner, immortalised for his portrayal of Captain James T Kirk in the Star Trek franchise, believes it is being exploited by women with scores to settle.
Replying to a fan on Twitter, Shatner said: “My issue is that women use me too as a weapon when they don’t get an autograph, when they don’t get their way, etc & the circus that ensues is comical and sad. aka hysterical.”
Shatner later added women were using the movement for “their own personal vendettas”, before comparing it to the French Revolution “because it started with trying to right noble injustices & descended into chaos”.
After saying he was “fine” with #MeToo, Shatner clarified his comments, writing: “I basically said it’s going too far with some. I have 3 daughters so of course those issues concern me. It’s the ones co-opting it for personal vendettas. It needs to be policed or it will become akin to the French Revolution.”
Earlier, Shatner had spoken to DailyMail TV and praised #MeToo for exposing harassment.
But he suggested the “firebrands” leading the movement should move aside and let “business-like” people take over.
Shatner added: “I’ve got three daughters and I’m glad that they have more opportunity. At the same time, it’s become hysterical. It’s a whole new culture. The whole business has changed. The whole man-woman relationship has changed to a severe degree.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here