The past few weeks have been full of women stepping forward about sexual abuse in Hollywood after years of being too afraid to do so. In a culture where stories of sexual harassment are often dismissed, it is not surprising that it took the women who have come forward as long as it did to explain what happened to them. The most accusations are currently directed towards Harvey Weinstein with actresses including Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie, Cara Delevinge, and Ashley Judd sharing their stories about Weinstein’s sexual harassment. Matt Damon was also under fire for these allegations because he killed a story regarding Weinstein’s sexual harassment in the past. However, the author of the story he helped to kill has clarified that he did not know the story was about sexual harassment.
In conjunction with Harvey Weinstein’s fall from grace, Ben Affleck has been facing criticism of his own. Affleck is one of the most well known names in Hollywood, but since announcing his split from Jennifer Garner in June 2015, many news stories have come out about his actions that don’t live up to the respect he earned in the past. Most recently, news broke that he groped Hilarie Burton, best known for playing Peyton Sawyer on One Tree Hill, on a Total Request Live appearance in 2001.
Ben has recently apologized for this behavior, but thus far he has failed to see the irony in the relationship between his statement regarding Weinstein, “I am saddened and angry that a man who I worked with used his position of power to intimidate, sexually harass and manipulate many women over decades,” and his own behavior.
Additionally, actress Rose McGowan tweeted that Affleck knew of Weinstein’s behavior saying to her, “GODDAMNIT! I TOLD HIM TO STOP DOING THAT!” which has further implicated Affleck.
Despite this, many fans on Twitter have come to defend Hilarie Burton and share her story that has been forgotten about for more than 15 years. Following a tweet about Affleck’s statement about Weinstein, one fan reminded the Twitter world of the incident with Burton and how everyone forgot about it to which Burton replied, “I didn’t forget.”
Since then, Burton has revealed that she, “…had to laugh back then so I wouldn’t cry,” and that she is impressed by girls today. Despite the horrible events that have taken place in the past with these Hollywood men and other men around the world, there is a silver lining in that the stories that have been hidden for decades are finally coming to light and hopefully will help put an end to sexual harassment in the future.