When the hashtag #metoo began to circulate in digital and social media, it challenged a familiar interpretation of those who are raped or sexually harassed as victims, positioning women as embodied agents. Yet, almost exactly a year after the #metoo movement shot to visible prominence, a different, though eerily similar, story began to circulate on the same multi-media platforms as #metoo: a story about white male victimhood. Powerful men in positions of privilege (almost always white) began to take up the mantle of victimhood as their own, often claiming to be victims of false accusations of sexual harassment and assault by women. Through the analysis of five public statements by highly visible, powerful men who have been accused of sexual violence, I argue that the discourse of victimhood is appropriated not by those who have historically suffered but by those in positions of patriarchal power. Almost all of the statements contain some sentiment about how the accusation (occasionally acknowledging the actual violence) ‘ruined their life’, and all of the statements analyzed here center the author, the accused white man, as the key subject in peril and the authors position themselves as truth-tellers about the incidents. These statements underscore certain shifts in the public perception of sexual violence; the very success of the #metoo movement in shifting the narrative has meant that men have had to defend themselves more explicitly in public. In order to wrestle back a hegemonic gender stability, these men take on the mantle of victimhood themselves.

当#metoo主题标签开始在数字和社交媒体中传播时，它挑战了对被强奸或性骚扰为受害者的人们的熟悉解释，将妇女定位为具体的代理人。然而，在#metoo运动大放异彩后大约整整一年，一个不同的故事，尽管极为相似，却开始在与#metoo相同的多媒体平台上传播：一个关于白人男性受害的故事。有权势的男人（几乎总是白人）开始担当受害人的幌子，常常声称自己是对妇女性骚扰和性攻击的虚假指控的受害者。通过对被指控遭受性暴力的知名度高，有影响力的男性的五项公开声明进行分析，我认为，受害论调不是历史上遭受苦难的人，而是父权制国家的人。几乎所有的陈述都包含关于指责（偶尔承认实际暴力）如何“破坏了他们的生命”的观点，在这里分析的所有陈述都以提交人，被告白人为主要危险对象和作者为中心。将自己定位为事件的讲真话者。这些声明强调了公众对性暴力观念的某些转变；#metoo运动成功地改变了叙事，这意味着男人不得不在公开场合更加明确地捍卫自己。为了争取霸权的性别稳定，这些人自己承担了受害者的责任。