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Each of the accused is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
It has been impossible to avoid the sexual harrassment scandal that is sweeping through the entertainment and political worlds right now so I thought it was time to do a post about it. Firstly I admit that I'd never heard of Harvey Weinstein before the allegations surfaced. That is purely because I'm in the UK, I never watch awards ceremonies, I watch bits of CNN but not all day every day and I pay little attention to who produces and directs the films I watch. The stories about him were not greatly surprising, given the things you see in the media on a daily basis but the scale of the cover up is what was shocking.
If he is guilty of all/most of these offences, then Weinstein got away with it for so long because he was rich and powerful. He allegedly picked on young actresses who were afraid to speak up for fear of not being believed and having their career damaged by reporting it. I can understand the feelings of shame and humiliation, and fear of reporting him. But the really shocking thing is that everyone in the business seemed to know about it or had heard the rumours about it but nobody did anything. It is revolting to be shown those clips from TV comedies and award shows from years ago where jokes are openly being made about Weinstein as if it is actually funny. What the heck was going on??? Why was nobody helping these women to report him and why was he not being exposed??? That is what I find sickening about it.
When all the accusations came flooding in about him, the content of the accusations was horrible. Now all his film friends were rushing to get as far away from him as possible as he is seen as a toxic brand. But how many of these 'shocked' luvvies did know or suspected what the man was like and said nothing? How many had heard the stories? Pity we can't get statistics on that. The same luvvies rushing to condemn him and others, are the same people who have rallied in support of Roman Polanski who was actually charged with offences including rape and sodomy of a 13 year old girl, then CONVICTED in a plea deal!!! Hypocrisy, thy name is Hollywood. When is such appalling behaviour towards a child tolerated, ignored and the abuser defended and celebrated like some kind of hero???
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Polanski_sexual_abuse_case
This was the tip of the iceberg. The allegations come out about who raped Corey Haim after years of speculation with Dominick Brascia accusing Charlie Sheen. Sheen and Haim's mother deny it. Corey's mother alleges it was Sheen's accuser Dominick Brascia who did it. Here are a few of the relevant news reports. The more I read on this, the more confusing it gets. All I do know is that young actors were abused and their attackers got away with it.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5062721/Charlie-Sheen-sodomized-Corey-Haim-13-set-Lucas.html
http://people.com/tv/corey-haim-mother-names-his-alleged-abuser/
Various actors have now been accused-Dustin Hoffman, Richard Dreyfuss, Steven Seagal and many more, along with directors, producers, talent agents and publicists. One of the biggest names in the media was one of my favourite actors Kevin Spacey. Again I won't pre-judge anything but lets just say with the amount of allegations made that his career is probably over. As a film fan, I'm sad about that aspect but I also have to wonder again why this stayed quiet for so long when Hollywood knew about the rumours. I've seen clips from Family Guy making jokes about him and young boys...but again, nobody did anything to stop him. I don't ever blame the victims for keeping quiet but surely someone somewhere could have reported what he was doing??? Did journalists not know???
Having all these actors named might be a shock for the film fan and as more allegations surface,the scandal gets bigger. As a Kevin Spacey fan I was going to watch House of Cards over the winter to get caught up. I WANT to watch it because it sounds like a great piece of TV but watching it after hearing the allegations feels a bit weird. Will it affect my enjoyment of the series? Will I be put off watching things like The Usual Suspects, which I love? I hope not. It's not a crime to own these dvds or to watch them. It's not a crime to buy the rest of House of Cards. But at the moment, it just feels weird. It's like the Gary Glitter scandal in the UK when he was done for molesting kids. It was many years before I felt like listening to his music again because I felt wrong singing along with his songs which I really loved.Am I being silly by feeling like that? I don't know.
Anyway, many men and women have to face sexual harrassment and deal with strange attitudes towards it. Attitudes in the 70's and 80's was that it was ok to grope someone whether they liked it or not, and it was seen as 'just having a laugh'. Yeah dead funny for those on the receiving end.
Do you think that attitudes will change now? Will this scandal put you off watching a film made by or starring an alleged abuser? How can we determine which allegations are true and who is making it up since there are few witnesses and no physical evidence after such a long time? Are we going to be afraid to ask someone out or flirt for fear of being labelled a harrasser?
I don't know that male attitudes will be quick to change, but I think female attitudes might. Or I hope they do. Bryan Cranston is already saying Weinstein could redeem himself, which to be fair, I don't think immediate change is on the horizon, but I think females might think it might be easier to speak up. I think if you may be afraid to flirt with someone... part of me worries it might change that sort of interaction, which can be fun, but then another part of me thinks, if you are afraid to flirt or whatever, then something in you might be giving you pause about your past behaviour, which makes you worry now? I don't know for sure if that's even accurate, but this whole situation has me thinking one thing and changing my mind the next.
ReplyDeleteIt's going to be hard for people to work out where the line is drawn in the future. Light flirting can be fun if both parties are ok with it. I worry a bit that a man might be labelled as a harrasser just for asking out the wrong person once. Still, if the new attitudes stop unwanted groping and maybe gets stalking taken more seriously, it might be a price that has to be paid.
DeleteI don’t watch much TV, so I had never heard of Harvey Weinstein or most of the actors being accused. I can see how the accusations would impact viewers’ enjoyment of the actor’s work, but I think it’s still okay to watch the shows or buy the DVDs. If you look at the credits, there are tons of people who are working to make these shows happen. I wouldn’t want their careers to be harmed because of something they didn’t do and probably didn’t know about.
ReplyDeleteAj @ Read All The Things!
I don't know some of the TV actors being mentioned either so I'm glad it's not just me! That's a good point about the hard work of everyone else involved in the film or series-some of them are already suffering from films being pulled because of the actions of one idiot who can't behave.
DeleteI think a lot of the time, people keep quiet because they think "everybody knows already and thinks it's okay". It's a "missing stair" situation; everybody knows that you don't end up alone with X in the trailer, just as everybody knows the 13th stair is missing... until someone comes along who doesn't and things get stirred up. I have a lot of admiration for the people who decide that they're not going to put up with it anymore, because I think they get a certain amount of stick too.
ReplyDeleteI do worry about the conflict between the importance of believing victims and the difficulty of asking them to provide proof, and the importance of not convicting people based on hearsay.
It's a hard one to juggle isn't it? It takes guts for accusers to come forward and they need to be supported but we have to be sure they are telling the truth so innocent people aren't accused. With these historical accusations it is so hard to find evidence one way or another. It's easier to believe the worst about those who have had multiple accusers but if it is just one accuser, you can't be sure at all.
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