theconversation.com: The presenter, comedian and actor Russell Brand is at the centre of a joint investigation by The Times, The Sunday Times and Channel 4 Dispatches, which has reported allegations of abuse made against him by four women, which include emotional abuse, sexual assault and rape. Brand has denied these allegations, saying his relationships have been “always consensual”, and they have not been tested in any court of law. However, this investigation focuses attention on a problem at the heart of the culture of the UK’s television industry.
4 comments:
It is really disappointing to hear about yet another story of a man abusing his power to take advantage of other women in the industry. I was shocked to learn that about 93% of people have witnessed bullying or harassment in their careers. That number is astounding, and that is not okay. There should not be this many cases of this. Workplaces should be places where people feel comfortable, supported, and inspired. I also had no idea that this was specifically an issue in UK television. I am not surprised that cases like this occur in other countries, but I had no idea that it was so prominent in the UK. I do agree that a lot of this has to do with the structure of the industry and just the way the environment feels in general does a lot to contribute to these issues. It is quite difficult to tackle problems that are so systemic like this. However, I do think it is nice that they are trying with the Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority and Times Up UK, even though that just barely makes a dent in the issue.
As this article covers, bullying and harassment are massive issues in the TV industry, but even broader in many artistic fields. As a minor I have been in environments with guest directors and educators being emotionally and verbally abusive and bullying young kids. In the time at my highschool I had to report three people at the time only for nothing to really be done. While it is upsetting that this is found in education settings, I know that this is a norm in the industry at large. All of these behaviors are unacceptable in any circumstance and it is appalling seeing how many people get to slide by due to lack of protection. As this article says, if the system repeatedly lets people continue and get by relatively unscathed it will create no precedent for people to change their actions and be better. I only hope this improves in the next few years, and the workplace can become safer for everyone.
The pervasive harassment and abuse in entertainment is honestly sickening, and especially the comment that “You know, it’s what happens with the talent, Boys will be boys” is deplorable. The fact that there are initiatives to help change things is a nice notion, however they will do little to actually change things, there needs to be an overall structural or governmental change in how these workplace abuses are handled. The fact that we have a system that leads abuses to feel that they can act with impunity is the problem, and we can’t blame that on a “few bad apples”, bad faith arguments will always be but forward to excuse people’s actions, and the fact that people are finally calling out these arguments is a good first step. The fact that these kind of accusations are prevalent in both the UK and US shows that the problem is endemic to the industry rather than the industry in a specific place.
It really just sucks how stories like this seem to be so common. I mean, the article said it, 93% of the survey responders experienced or witnessed harassment. I think that this article did a really good job of bringing in information about how this is such a worldwide systemic issue in the entertainment industry. It’s just crazy how a lot of these issues are just considered to be “part of the job” or “part of the industry,” fully implying that basically everyone is aware of what is going on (which is pretty accurate, especially considering the 93%) yet simultaneously, it is just accepted. In this current time, I think a lot of people (including the general public) are becoming more aware of how sucky a lot of this film industry stuff is, and I hope that that helps to encourage change. With how many stories we have of allegations and workplace bullying and harassment in the film/TV industries of multiple different countries, it’s hard to believe that there hasn’t yet been a straw that seems to have broken the camel’s back.
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