Shannon Sharpe naming his accuser reveals the weakening grip of #MeToo, for better or worse

Shannon Sharpe has put another nail in the believe-all-women mandate of the #MeToo era.

On Monday, the NFL great and media personality was accused of rape by an anonymous ex-girlfriend. In a bombshell $50 million lawsuit, she described their relationship as “rocky consensual” and alleged that Sharpe had threatened to “brutally choke her and violently slap her.”

Not too long ago, an accusation like that would have sent a man into retreat or contrition mode.

But Sharpe didn’t issue a denial or apologize or crawl under a rock. Instead, he went scorched earth on his ex-paramour, who filed the lawsuit as Jane Doe.

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His attorney Lanny J. Davis, not only publicly named the woman, he released a trove of raunchy texts she had sent Sharpe — requesting various types of kinky and rough sex acts.

In a statement, Davis said the texts “clearly indicate the nature of their relationship was consensual and sexual in nature — and, in many cases, initiated by her with specific and graphic requests” that included “role-playing, sexual language and fantasy scenarios.”

None of us can truly know what happened between the pair. Perhaps she’s a victim of violence. Maybe he’s a victim of vindictiveness. Maybe the messy truth is somewhere in between.

But one thing is certain: Sharpe isn’t rolling over. He’s getting down in the mud and fighting back. He even posted a video today, explicitly calling the lawsuit a “shakedown” and saying he was going tosue the woman for defamation.

It’s further evidence that #MeToo has lost its death grip on our society.

The almighty movement — which sent any and all accused men, regardless of the degree of transgression, to the career electric chair and social purgatory — has been defanged.

And the fairer sex, once unimpeachable under the “believe all women” motto, are no longer automatically given the rubber stamp of absolute veracity.

Among those refusing to retreat is former governor (now NYC’s mayoral frontrunner) Andrew Cuomo, who resigned in 2021 after a slew of women said he sexually harassed them. At the time, he gave an obligatory apology but said “it was unintentional.”

But now, as he attempts a return to public office, Cuomo is threatening to sue one of his accusers, Charlotte Bennett, for defamation.

After Jay-Z was accused in a lawsuit of raping a 13-year-old girlin 2000 — along with Sean Diddy Combs, who is sitting in jail, facing sex trafficking charges — he wrote a blistering reply, calling it “extortion.” He filed a defamation suit, detailing alleged inconsistencies, against the now-adult woman. She subsequently withdrew her suit.

When the #MeToo movement took hold in 2017, it wasset off by many women alleging movie mogulHarvey Weinstein had sexually assaulted them. (He was later convicted of rape and other sex crimes, which he has denied, in California and New York; the latter was overturned in 2024.) That case led to sweeping conversations about harassment in the workplace, sexual violence, power dynamics and consent.

Suddenly, scores of high-powered men — from Charlie Rose and Matt Lauer to Al Franken and Louis CK— were being called out for bad behavior and sent packing. (All four of those men apologized but either denied some of the accusations or said they were misconstrued.)

It became a tsunami, sweeping up some stragglers in the quest to rid our society of toxic masculinity. There was little to no nuance or distinction between boorish and criminal.

At times, allegations blurred the line between women being violated and feeling regret — which did no favors for real victims of assault and sexual violence.

That became apparent in 2018 when actor Aziz Ansari was the target. In a piece for babe.net, an anonymous woman described a sexual encounter with him where he “ignored clear nonverbal cues” from her.

So men now needed to be Kreskin — and read minds.

That almost farcical account chipped away at the movement’s credibility and what progress that had been made in the name of equality.

But many scared men still went quietly into the night.

Then in late 2021, Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy was the subject of a Business Insider investigation that accused him of sexual misconduct and filming intimate acts without his partners’ consent.

Portnoy punched back.

“At no point was it not 100 percent consensual,” he said. “If I committed the crimes I’ve been accused of I’d walk myself to jail,” he wrote on X.

He sued the publication for defamation, and though that lawsuit was tossed, it sent a message that men were willing to fight for their reputation.

Now, a growing number of media personalities, including Candice Owens, are taking a fresh look at the era. Joe Rogan recently remembered that time as “a hot witch hunt.”

And Weinstein, who is now facing a retrial in New York City for that overturned rape conviction, is hoping the shifting consensus around #MeToo will help him.

His attorney Arthur Aidala told The Hollywood Reporter that “people are realizing that the phrase ‘believe women’ is an anti-American and anti-ends-of-justice idiotic statement” — adding, “We shouldn’t believe everybody.”

On Tuesday afternoon, attorney Davis admitted that Sharpe was going to pay his ex, who is an OnlyFans creator, $10 million for her silence before she filed her lawsuit — maintaining that the accuser was blackmailing Sharpe, who was about to sign a “very lucrative” contract for his podcast “Club Shay Shay.”

It’s all so sordid. But Sharpe’s willingness to air his dirty laundry to publicly fight shows just how far the pendulum has swung now.

For better or for worse.