The #MeToo movement has had a storied evolution for almost four years now. Just in its first year, in 2018, the New York Times reported that the movement had seen the demise of 201 prominent men, with 50% of their replacements being women. So in 2021, and considering all of the non prominent ripple effects of the more high-profile cases that began with the reckoning of Harvey Weinstein, suffice it to say that #MeToo sufficiently shifted culture. Don't get me wrong, the patriarchy is still high, but there's an awareness, more channels to speak truth to power, and a general air of "ew" that have made life a little bit less like Handmaid's Tale for many women. But the now somewhat routine experience of a man being outed as an abuser has created the awkward outcome of society having to constantly ask itself what to do with these men after they've been Me Too'd. And Ryan Adams has taken to his social media this week to make us all feel about as uncomfortable as possible about that.
Ryan Adams was an indie phenom on the cusp of mainstream musical success in the early aughts and into the 2010s. He was a beloved institution in the rock, folk and punk scenes, and a prolific one at that. Over his two decades of success, he released over 20 LPs if you count all of his iterations between Whiskeytown, the Cardinals and other off shoot side projects, and earned seven Grammy nominations. But on the other side of Adams' often romantic-leaning catalog apparently was a darkness. It all came crashing down after a 2019 exposé detailing a range of abuses towards multiple women, from his ex-wife Mandy Moore, to Phoebe Bridgers, to a 14-year-old fan (the last of which Adams "unequivocally denies" and there has yet to be an update in that specific sexting scandal).
