Facebook reported that within 24 hours, 4.7 million people engaged in the #metoo conversation, with over 12 million posts, comments and reactions.

However, not all of the reactions have been supportive. Comments, mostly from men, question why these women did not come forward sooner and accuse them of seeking attention.

According to clinical psychologist, Dr Rosaleen McElvaney, the negative reactions to #metoo from men can come from a place of fear.

‘’I think for some men, this kind of very defensive response or reaction comes from a place of anxiety or fear that they will be wrongly accused or labelled with the same tar just because some men have done it. But then I think there is a small cohort of people who do actually hold those attitudes ’’ Dr McElvaney said.

One thing Dr McElvaney wanted to point out is that there are also women who hold this view towards sexual harassment.

‘’Unfortunately when things come out there can be a narrative around all men or men in general, which is not actually fair to the men who don’t behave in that way or think like that. Let’s face it; some of the men who have behaved in this way, they probably always thought like that. They always had attitudes towards women or misogynistic views, and we still have people who think like that. We have women who think like that.’’

The issue with this cohort of people, according to Dr McElvaney, is that they don’t understand the issue of consent or sexual harassment.

‘’My area of expertise is childhood sexual abuse. But one of the things that they find is when you look at people who behave in this way, they do have different attitudes and different views. They think differently.  There is a lack of awareness of what is appropriate and inappropriate, what’s OK and what’s not OK.’’

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