The predictable backlash after the recent fallout from the Lehrmann trial can’t undo #MeToo’s momentum

‘One could understand why [Brittany] Higgins might have been nervous about coming forward and, perhaps, feared a similar fate as other complainants.’ Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Reports of the Australian #MeToo movement’s demise, or the suggestion that it has somehow been mortally wounded by recent events following the trial of Bruce Lehrmann, are misguided. The entirely predictable backlash we are currently experiencing – a backlash driven by actors intent on preserving a culture that has always punished complainants – can’t take away from the movement’s many gains.

And, I firmly believe, there will be more to come.