Monday, October 16, 2017
Harvey Weinstein’s biggest enabler: a culture that says sexual harassment is how the world works.
www.slate.com: Over the past six days, more than 28 allegations of Harvey Weinstein’s sexual misconduct have been made public. According to the women who’ve come forward, the A-list producer has spent more than three decades pressuring women into sex in exchange for jobs, exposing himself at one-on-one work meetings, groping aspiring models, making women watch him masturbate, and forcing sex acts on young actresses without their consent.
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Harvey Weinstein's death is starting a much-needed conversation about sexism in Hollywood, and hopefully, his death will result in a change to this standard. There should not be an industry that involves taking advantage of women in exchange for roles and positions in major movies and shows. Sexual Assault and Harassment is not okay, and Harvey Weinstein deserves to have his name discredited and his company run down because he should not have been able to take advantage of so many women, and his coworkers should not have helped him do it. The company is corrupt, Harvey Weinstein is corrupt, and this all leads into a bigger conversation about the corruption of not just Hollywood, but the entire entertainment industry.
This article brings up a really good point about the gray areas of sexual coercion. Ultimately I don't think people who are socialized in our society as men are offered a solid and clear definition of what is sexually innapropriate. Sure, all kids are taught in sex ed are taught that rape is wrong. But I would venture to say that a lot of rapists do not consider themselves rapists. Similarly a lot of men who are sexually lewd in less overtly violent ways probably don't assume a "simple comment"about their female counterparts legs to be harassment.
And the world of sexual coercion is even grayer. Is it always sexual coercion if one or both participants is under the influence? What if the man asks a few times before the female complies?
I think a lot of this boils down to the way that we teach our boys to treat people. I remember being hit and pushed by boys violently as young as 5 and I wonder often if their parents ever noticed that they had a tendency to do things to other children when the other child didn't want to be a part of it. I feel very strongly that the only way to fix the gray areas that are addressed in this article is to teach young boys about consent early: what is it, where is sexual behavior appropriate and where is it looked down upon, what can happen if you are sexual towards someone who has not consented. Ultimately it is all of our jobs to raise a more conscious generation of men who understand the impact of their actions on their peers.
The accusations that have brought to light Harvey Weinstein's horrific history of sexual harassment and assault are jarring and yet, to many, not at all surprising. The "solace" that many women have received in the past week is that Weinstein has fallen very far off of his pedestal. However, the line from this article that hit me the most says that Weinstein, in preparing for these assaults, "...comforted them [the victims] with the promise that a female executive would be present". The word "comfort" provides a stark contrast to that actions that actually happened in those moments, revealing just how harsh and horrible Weinstein's actions really were throughout the almost thirty years that he spent harassing and assaulting women. The biggest problem, though, is that women should not feel like the only way to be safe around men is when another woman is around. It is not okay that the only way a man like Weinstein can be expected to behave like an actual human being is when there are other people around to hold him accountable. People should "behave" no matter their circumstances, and it should not be shocking when a man does not take advantage of a woman in a situation that he could do so.
The stories that have been told by these women horrify me. The fact that a man with money and status can do whatever he wants with women knowing they will consent for the purpose of getting or keeping a job make me cringe. It's ridiculous that women have to work so hard just to even gain a position in the work force. Why must a woman have to sacrifice her mental health by going through a sexual interaction that she doesn't want in order to get a well paying job? Towards the end of the article it is mentioned that though we are hearing these stories from women in Hollywood, it doesn't end there. Men take advantage of women sexually in every field of work which makes me angry and fearful. Live theater is not far from film and Hollywood, and going into this profession makes me wonder will I have to be paranoid of every interaction I have with a director, actor, or designer. Will I have to go through something I don't want to just to get a job?
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