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Monday, January 22, 2018
The Producers Guild Has New Anti-Sexual Harassment Guidelines
jezebel.com: The Producers Guild of America has taken a belated step toward preventing sexual harassment and assault on film sets by implementing new guidelines that address workplace culture.
This article, while written on a morbid subject, did make me laugh a little because of the way it showed how sexual harassment and assault and how they are to be dealt with seem have started being reduced to "how to" and "DIY" lists. The idea of making a set of guidelines on how to not sexually assault and/or harass someone is just a bit jaw dropping to me. Do that many people in the entertainment industry really need to Google how to not be a bad person? I guess these questions show my own naïveté more than anything else-- of course people need a DIY Be a Good Person Kit, if only known because of the sheer number of allegations that come out every single week against a new producer, director, actor, etc. I hope that this list of guidelines really does help professionals act like professionals in their everyday lives, and I hope even more that someday soon, having guidelines in the first place becomes a little more silly.
I’m not so sure about how much guidelines are going to prevent sexual harassment… This is definitely a small step in the way of progress, but with what outcome? While I do think it’s a little outrageous that the PGA did not have Anti-Sexual Harassment Guidelines before this point, this is definitely better than nothing. The guidelines themselves seem reasonable and actually very realistic. PGA doesn’t want to just warn people about liability, but also address the fact that people often have no one to turn to in the instance of a sexual harassment occurrence. Having members of the crew that are taught to be able to address this situation is really amazing. While I do agree with Anabel, I do think that it's a little silly that people need such step by step guidelines. Producers shouldn’t be sexual predators in the first place. If producers set the tone for a set, than PGA shouldn’t be hiring producers that are also sexual predators.
The Producers Guild of America is making a great step by creating this Anti-Sexual Harassment guideline but just like the article says this is a belated action. Probably one of the saddest lines of this article is how the guide is used to encourage people “to ‘comply with federal and state laws regarding harassment…’” I find this so sad because people should be complying with federal and state laws on sexual harassment whether or not there are guild created guidelines. I know that many industries don’t follow these laws as there is a lot of sexual harassment issues in many industries but it is just sad that to see in writing about these laws and policies are blatantly ignored. I am so glad that these guidelines have people assigned to people to report issues to. This is so necessary for a field that is desperately lacking in having a person to report to. Hopefully, this will lead Actors Equity, IATSE, and the United Scenic Artist Guild to having a policy written about how to report Sexual Harassment in productions and auditions.
3 comments:
This article, while written on a morbid subject, did make me laugh a little because of the way it showed how sexual harassment and assault and how they are to be dealt with seem have started being reduced to "how to" and "DIY" lists. The idea of making a set of guidelines on how to not sexually assault and/or harass someone is just a bit jaw dropping to me. Do that many people in the entertainment industry really need to Google how to not be a bad person? I guess these questions show my own naïveté more than anything else-- of course people need a DIY Be a Good Person Kit, if only known because of the sheer number of allegations that come out every single week against a new producer, director, actor, etc. I hope that this list of guidelines really does help professionals act like professionals in their everyday lives, and I hope even more that someday soon, having guidelines in the first place becomes a little more silly.
I’m not so sure about how much guidelines are going to prevent sexual harassment… This is definitely a small step in the way of progress, but with what outcome? While I do think it’s a little outrageous that the PGA did not have Anti-Sexual Harassment Guidelines before this point, this is definitely better than nothing. The guidelines themselves seem reasonable and actually very realistic. PGA doesn’t want to just warn people about liability, but also address the fact that people often have no one to turn to in the instance of a sexual harassment occurrence. Having members of the crew that are taught to be able to address this situation is really amazing. While I do agree with Anabel, I do think that it's a little silly that people need such step by step guidelines. Producers shouldn’t be sexual predators in the first place. If producers set the tone for a set, than PGA shouldn’t be hiring producers that are also sexual predators.
The Producers Guild of America is making a great step by creating this Anti-Sexual Harassment guideline but just like the article says this is a belated action. Probably one of the saddest lines of this article is how the guide is used to encourage people “to ‘comply with federal and state laws regarding harassment…’” I find this so sad because people should be complying with federal and state laws on sexual harassment whether or not there are guild created guidelines. I know that many industries don’t follow these laws as there is a lot of sexual harassment issues in many industries but it is just sad that to see in writing about these laws and policies are blatantly ignored. I am so glad that these guidelines have people assigned to people to report issues to. This is so necessary for a field that is desperately lacking in having a person to report to. Hopefully, this will lead Actors Equity, IATSE, and the United Scenic Artist Guild to having a policy written about how to report Sexual Harassment in productions and auditions.
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