Hollywood Reporter: This is not the article you might be expecting about Les Moonves. It’s not going to be wise or inspiring. It’s going to be petty and punishing. In spite of my proper Southern mother’s admonition to always be gracious, I am all out of grace when it comes to Mr. Moonves. In fact, like a lot of women in Hollywood, I am happy to dance on his professional grave. And not just any dance — this will be the Macarena, the rumba, the cha-cha and the Moonwalk. You get the idea.
2 comments:
When I read the blurb for this article I was prepared to be annoyed. Despite the fact that it’s well deserved and completely allowed to be upset and angry at sexist, bullying behavior, I believe it’s just bad press and should be avoided in public sphere’s until this fight is less polarized. Until more people in positions of influence stop painting women who stand up for themselves as either whiny or vindictive. However, this woman did a good job of pleading her case for anger. She was rational in her “irrational” outburst and she laid out all that happened in a way that both allowed her to vent and highlighted the very real non sexual harassment that women face. As a female carpenter, I’ve been lucky enough not to face workplace sexual harassment, but the misogyny I have seen and experienced is very real. I haven’t had a career destroyed but I’ve had entire days where I was relegated to opening doors and calling elevators because obviously I was not allowed to carry anything heavy. While what I’ve been through is minor, it is still disheartening. I hope that with the traction of #metoo we can bring light to more misogynist bullying all the way from career destruction to jobsite degradation.
I agree with almost everything this columnist has said, except for the notion that the harassment she experienced wasn't sexual. Just because he made no advances on her does not mean that it was not sexual harassment. He was rejecting her ideas due to the fact that she was a woman who wanted to write about other women. That is sexual harassment. Sexual harassment does not have to involve sexual assault, as many of the stories she told did. Sex based harassment is simply when someone discriminates against or harasses a person based on their gender. He was clearly playing his power, and using it to oppress her and prevent her from having a successful career, which is most certainly sexual harassment, even if he never tried to actually hurt her. There is also one other thing about this article that I understand, but do not agree with. She knew all of this was happening, and all of these extraordinary actresses and actors wanted to work with her, and she knew what he was doing to countless women, yet she never spoke out about it. I understand how terrifying it must have been, and it's a true sign of the oppression she was experiencing that she didn't feel like she could leave the network, but I wish she had spoken up sooner, since at that point she had nothing to lose from him. I hope that in the future if women feel like this they do not feel like they have to stay where they are and accept the world they live in. I hope in the future women feel like they can stand up for themselves.
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