Friday, October 20, 2017
Female Animators Call for End of Culture of Sexual Harassment in Open Letter
Variety: In the midst of the Harvey Weinstein scandal and the #MeToo movement, 217 women and gender non-conforming people working in the field of animation signed an open letter to a dozen studios calling for the end of a culture of sexism and sexual harassment in the industry
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I think one of the most powerful sentences in this letter was “We are tired of relying on whisper networks to know who isn’t safe to meet with alone.” While I am in no way surprised that this is the state of the industry, I think it is completely absurd that we as a society continue to let things slide simply because that is the way things are. I think this letter is incredibly important, and I really hope every studio that sees it decides to take the demands at the end of the letter (which, side note, are demands that should have been the case all along rather than something that needs to be asked for). The fact that we continue to brush off men treating women with disrespect and creating a workplace environment that alienates women simply because that is how it has always been and men (particularly men in power) don’t see the problem as important enough to justify going against the norm and acknowledging unacceptable behaviors that have been tolerated as unacceptable is absurd. I really hope this letter helps make progress, though I can’t say I have much faith that those who receive this letter will listen to it and commit to meeting the demands.
I found this letter a really moving read--and the second paragraph really stood out to me: "In the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, many of the women who work in animation have begun discussing more openly issues that we have dealt with quietly throughout our careers. As we came together to share our stories of sexism, sexual harassment and, in some cases, sexual assault, we were struck by the pervasiveness of the problem. Every one of us has a story to share, from tossed-off comments about our body parts that were framed as “jokes” to women being cornered in dark rooms by male colleagues to criminal assault." The fact that everyone of them has a story to share is just utterly horrifying. As the "Me Too's" flooded social media, I saw many people post that they were certain that every women has a "me too" posted or not. The surprise that many men felt towards just how many "me too's" was equally telling to me-yes, all of us have experienced something. I once heard from someone that the only way to fight these hostile workplaces is to hire more women. More women so that we can band together, have a support net, and a voice that can do more than scream into the void that this is not normal.
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