CommentsBCK FILE--The weekend after the Harvey Weinstein sexual assault story broke in the New York Times, actress Alyssa Milano tweeted to encourage women to use social media to share their sexual assault stories, using the hashtag #MeToo to show the magnitude of this issue.
The Me Too movement didn’t begin with the disclosure of Weinstein’s record. Back in 2006, activist Tarana Burke, a sexual assault survivor, launched an awareness campaign of the same name to bring forward other survivors of sexual violence, particularly among women and girls of color. Burke has a documentary called “Me Too” expected to be released next year.
Burke has said that her motivation is for survivors to help other survivors -- and with hope, the amplification or co-opting of her movement, depending how you look at it, will raise awareness of sexual violence.
Perhaps the most telling part of the #MeToo social media blitz has been the pervasiveness of sexual harassment, across decades. As much as some attempt to portray this as a “Hollywood” or “liberal” issue, sexual harassment has existed since women entered the workforce -- and in every industry.
What struck me was the number of women who came forward. Just about every woman on my social media has shared the #MeToo hashtag and some even shared their experiences. A childhood friend shared his grandmother used to tell him stories of her boss in retail harassing her, which likely dated back to at the 1920s or 1930s.
As an increasing number of women come forward with their experiences with Weinstein and other men in Hollywood, it’s easy to isolate this as an entertainment industry problem but the stories shared by my friend’s acquaintances happened in doctor’s offices, law firms, car dealerships, department stores, schools. Whenever there are people in charge willing to exploit others, this will endure.
Along with the pervasiveness of sexual harassment come the blame and discounting as women bring forth accusations. Whether the accused is Donald Trump, Bill Cosby, Bill O’Reilly or Bill Clinton, there will be those who doubt the words of accusers who wait to disclose their stories till years or decades later.
Sexual harassment is a form of abuse -- and victims of abuse often question themselves or even the reality. Abusers are manipulative, gaslighting the women they assault so that the women (or men) doubt themselves. In addition, women are often positioned between keeping a job they’ve worked hard to achieve, afraid to be fired or pegged as “difficult to work with,” as is the case with many actresses who have come forward.
There’s strength in numbers, which is the reason the #MeToo social media campaign may make an impact. For some, however, the presence of women in the workforce is a problem.
Back in 2013, as a guest on SiriusXM’s The Opie & Anthony Show, Donald Trump, Jr. complained about women in “a guys’ place,” going so far as to say, “If you can’t handle some of the basic stuff that’s become a problem in the workforce today, then you don’t belong in the workforce. Like, maybe you go teach kindergarten. I think it’s a respectable position.” Trump, along with the show’s hosts, Gregg “Opie” Hughes and Anthony Cumia had spent the program lamenting that women had ruined the fun for men when they complained about harassment.
As long as we continue to blame harassment on the presence of women in the workforce and give men a long leash to harass at will, this environment will continue. For now, because this is a PR nightmare, Weinstein has hit a rocky road, getting tossed from the company he co-founded, as well as The Academy. Amazon Studios head Roy Price was promptly put on leave when a colleague accused him of harassment.
But that hasn’t always been the case. Harvey Weinstein’s 2015 contract with his company, as reported in various media outlets, included the protective clause that if “Weinstein treated someone improperly in violation of the company’s Code of Conduct,” he would need to reimburse TWC or settlements or judgements. He would also need to pay TWC “liquidated damages of $250,000 for the first such instance, $500,000 for the second such instance, $750,000 for the third such instance, and $1,000,000 for each additional instance.”
In other words, as long as he ponied up the cash, he was good to go. Weinstein did not have an exclusive on this leeway to assault. Fox news host Bill O’Reilly. On Saturday, the New York Times reported that, according to sources, O’Reilly paid out $32 million for a sexual harassment claim by former legal analyst Lies Wiehl. This amount exceeded the $26 million settlement the late Roger Ailes, former head of Fox, paid out to former Fox news anchor Gretchen Carlson.
At the time, “The O’Reilly Factor” was pulling in over $365 million in advertising revenues so O’Reilly signed a new contract but Fox parted ways with the host after another Times story broke about the harassment charges. O’Reilly had previously settled at least three other cases personally, as well as others settled by Fox.
If we look back at the Access Hollywood tapes and the numerous harassment charges against Donald J. Trump, we can see that sexual harassment claims -- and either bragging or joking about sexual assault -- is not taken seriously.
The only way to change this culture is to acknowledge that sexual harassment is pervasive in the workforce and a serious problem. Hopefully, the swift firings and suspensions aren’t just lip service after media exposure.
After hearing so many anecdotes … from women in the 50-80 year age group … about being harassed by a boss or colleague, I hope that this will not be the experience of the next generation of women who are about to enter the workforce, no matter what their occupation or industry. We need to take these accusations seriously and not only when the New York Times or TMZ is watching.
(Beth Cone Kramer is a Los Angeles writer and a CityWatch columnist.)
-cw
