During the past few days, dozens of women have accused Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual misconduct. Not to mention, other sexual misconduct allegations have arisen in the entertainment industry, including ones against Ben Affleck, and one by Terry Crews about an unnamed producer.
As more accusations continue to roll in, it's become clear that way too many men don't know how to treat women with the same amount of respect with which they treat other men. And that's a huge problem.
Writer and comedian Anne Victoria Clark realized that when it comes to teaching men to respect women, we might need a seriously revolutionary tactic. So, she came up with something called The Rock Test–which has already captured the attention of The Rock himself.
The technique is detailed in a blog post she wrote on Medium called "The Rock Test: A Hack for Men Who Don’t Want To Be Accused of Sexual Harassment."
And the way it works is pretty straightforward: "Treat all women like you would treat Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson," Clark advises men in the blog post. "Are you a man confused on how to treat the women you work with? Do you feel like if you can’t say or do *anything* you don’t know what to say or do at all?" she writes. "Well stress no more! This life hack will have you treating women like people in no time." The post details a few situations where the hack might be useful, from a getting coffee with a woman to having a business meeting with a woman. Some truly tricky situations!!!
After tweeting her post, it quickly went viral. Not only did The Rock share it, but so did feminist goddess J.K. Rowling (and plenty of other Twitterers).
And while the article is hilarious, and while the hack actually could be effective, Clark is not blind to how grim it is that a way to get men to respect women is by having them envision us as men. Someecards spoke with her over Twitter DM, where she explained that The Rock Test is a joke that comments on a larger problem.
"I think it's difficult for some men to put themselves in a victim's place, because I think there are a lot of men who have trouble relating to feeling powerless. The "picture them as The Rock though" was a joke I would make to kind of erase that power imbalance that some men just can't seem to get past. It's also a joke about how men complain about not knowing "how to act" around women, while not having that problem with men, when really I don't understand why there needs to be a difference.
She also elaborated on why she chose The Rock as opposed to another man for this life hack. "The Rock is the first guy I thought of when I tried to think of someone I thought all men would respond to positively," she told Someecards. "Like I flat out envy what must be that guy's ability to walk into a room and command it with his presence. I want to be The Rock, we all want to be The Rock."
Well, that's definitely true.