thedailybeast: The young woman said she did not have stage fright. She was looking around the room to see if the alleged perpetrator of the sexual assault she had endured was there.
“I don’t say that just as a victim, but also a witness of an assault,” she said.
2 comments:
Well I suppose that it s good that we are weeding these predators out of our industry. I know there are a lot of people that were hoping this wouldn't touch us, or that we somehow just were always held to a higher standard than the rest of the world, but you can ask any woman in theater and she would tell you that we are not. There is going to be a large article coming out in the New York Times that calls out people in theater who are abusive and I am looking forward to the trouble it causes. This reckoning is going to get bigger before it gets better and I for one can't wait to see all these people lose their jobs. It hurts to watch things you love get cut out, but loving bad people and dealing with that, and accepting that a system you value highly is fundamentally flawed is the way to a better world and a better industry. Sexual assault is a social problem, and one that we created from scratch, and while that is disheartening it is also exciting because it means it can shift as fast a culture does, if we all decide we want it to. Change is coming, big things are happening, and I'm excited to be alive when it is.
I really identify with the comment given in this article about helplessness and feeling in control, "Sometimes the only sense of power in these situations [is] in choosing when to come forward." This is so very true, and really sheds light on why so many people often times wait to come forward. Deciding to take control of the situations on your own terms should be praised not condemned. Reading the female stagehand's description of her experiences makes my blood boil: "A stagehand said in her field of work she was one of four women working with 200 men. “They talk about what they want to do to their girlfriends. There are microaggressions, like them telling me I’m not strong enough to move a box, then they tell me they like watching me push a box so they can watch my ass.” The stagehand had complained. Her boss’ solution was to say she wouldn’t have to work with that person, or “I could walk away and find a job elsewhere.” She was incredulous that this “solution” would see her leaving a job she loved and was qualified to do." The idea that women are not safe in their work of choice is unacceptable. The idea that we have to put up with aggressions in any sort of manner that make us uncomfortable without the support of HR or higher ups is unacceptable. The workforce that my mother started in 1970s has not changed. Her stories are stories I have now and that is profoundly sad. The female stagehand states, "I’m so tired of comments about my boobs, about the way I walk, about not being strong enough, but then that it’s ‘nice to see something while they’re working.’” That sort of abuse and harassment takes an emotional mental toll that is crippling to women in the work force. How do we tell our friends and someday daughters that their career choice is a good one when you know first hand how much abuse is waiting for them? Do we as women need to limit our dreams to only working in companies with other women? Of course not. More women should absolutely be hired and promoted to positions of power, but we also need to expel men who have harassed and harmed others, as well as those who have been complicit and are unwilling to make changes for a safer workplace for all. As one of the women in this article said, "Be angry, stay angry, keep doing it." We need to keep fighting not only for our sakes, but for the women and girls who will follow us as our mothers/sisters/aunts/grandmothers did for us.
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