Sean Penn's Poem Calls #MeToo A 'Toddler's Crusade,' And People Aren't Happy
Sean Penn is in hot water after he seemingly criticized the #MeToo movement and called it "toddler's play" in his new book Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff
#MeToo Insult
Reviews are out for the actor's controversial novel, which by far received more negative responses than positive. A poem about the #MeToo movement that serves as the book's epilogue particularly irked supporters of the initiative that aims to end sexual harassment and abuse in the workplace and beyond.
Unlike other A-list celebrities who have been vocal about their support for the initiative, Penn seemingly belittled the effort and called it an "infantilising term of the day." Penn called out a couple of Hollywood personalities affected by the #MeToo movement. He namedropped CBS This Morning host Charlie Rose and stand-up comedian Louis C.K., who has since admitted to the allegations of sexual assault filed by his former protégés against him.
"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?" reads part of the poem.
"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?" Penn adds.
Reactions
Now Twitterverse has weighed in on the actor's #MeToo poem and the reactions have largely been negative.
"My new theory is that Sean Penn wrote a deliberately laughable novel to distract attention from the more serious scandal of his poisonous #MeToo poem," The Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw tweeted.
"Said the man who abused his wife. Women aren't children, Sean Penn. I can see why the #MeToo movement scares you," actress Sarah Levin wrote.
Meanwhile, others claimed that Penn does not agree with the #MeToo movement because he was once an abuser too. They brought back his alleged past abuse of former wife Madonna.
"Who would have thought the man who beat Madonna with a baseball bat would be critical of the movement?" one user commented.
"Really hoping that #SeanPenn writing about the #MeToo movement leads to him finally facing permanent consequences for the time he literally assaulted and almost killed Madonna," one Twitter user wrote while another said, "Sean Penn is against the #MeToo movement because he assaulted Madonna in the 80s."
Outside of the #MeToo movement, Penn also referenced U.S. President Donald Trump in one of the characters in his book. He described the Trump-like character as an "immature seventy-year-old boy-man with money" and "cotton candy hair."
