Essence.com: I started acting in theatre when I was 14 in Chicago. The idea of playing make-believe as a professional career was intoxicating. It was a much needed escape and a place where I could find my voice as an artist. It was also a place where the whisperings about unwanted advances from men who held any type of power ran rampant.
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Harvey Weinstein is a true piece of human garbage. And it’s not just him, unfortunately. The article reads: “When I finally parted ways, I thought I was lucky: a forceful kiss and sexist remarks were all I had to endure. In hindsight, the fact that I had to endure it at all was insane. Other women weren’t so “lucky.” When the story was published, many people —men in particular— talked about how they all heard it was going on but because they didn’t have “proof” (meaning, anything other than a woman’s word) they did nothing. They still auditioned, they still critiqued, they still worked with them —because it was all just rumors.
More importantly, it was just part of the business.” I can only sigh in defeat that this is an instance that happens much more frequently than is reported. Women are in danger when they are trying to work in an industry that they love. I hate this.
The author's line, "More importantly, it was just part of the business," is really devastating to read as is the later paragraph, "You’d be hard pressed to find any woman in the arts (theatre, film, poetry, music, etc) who hasn’t experienced some type of harassment from the Powers That Be. More often than not, those powers are men who exert control over our careers. And behind those men are the people who prop them up through sins of commission and omission, because that is the way it has always been." The way it has always been is a maddening concept and needs to no longer be allowed as any type of excuse. Just because you were a product of the 60's and 70's does not give you the license to be a horrible human and abuse others. The decade you were born and spent your formative years gives you no pass on bad behavior. if anything, being alive longer should require a greater amount of responsibility simply because you have had years to learn. I can say that I think our community is moving forward in this issue, but it still feels like it has a long way to go. I constantly evaluate the breakup of production teams when I join, and can admit to feeling relief when I realize a majority are women.
With the Harvey Weinstein scandal still breaking, and details still emerging, I think one of the worst things to do in this case is to separate the film industry from the entertainment industry as a whole, including theater. This kind of problem transcends any particular realm or sphere. So too, we must recognize that we are at a crossroads. Current ways of perceiving and metabolizing the patriarchal power problem are only years old, instead of decades old. Many of us just now entering the field were not told that there was anything innately, inherently wrong with the "casting couch" methodology. Rather, our generation was primed to "deal with" such problems, rather than correct them. I think achieving a truly safe work environment within the entertainment industry is still a long way off. Right now, people are inclined to punish those who abuse women, and the power they hold over them. Someday, I hope for an environment in which punishment is not the norm; rather, these transgressions simply do not happen, because women are finally seen as utter equals, rather than as those who need protecting.
I truly hate that we live in such a strict patriarchal society where women have to feel as though their voices aren’t heard or are shut down by a man’s voice for even thinking of speaking, and it’s even more disturbing when it happens in the entertainment industry. The industry as a whole requires you to be very vulnerable and open when creating art, and that space is violated when situations like this occur, and they do frequently.“You’d be hard pressed to find any woman in the arts (theatre, film, poetry, music, etc) who hasn’t experienced some type of harassment from the Powers That Be. More often than not, those powers are men who exert control over our careers.” Recently, with the #metoo trending on social media, this statement proves to me to be explicitly clear, as you can see just how many people have faced sexual harassment or assault. Women shouldn’t have to chose between their careers and their safety, and this article emphasizes the fact that they still do.
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