Sexual assault cases have been more in the news now than they ever have been. People like Harvey Weinstein, James Franco, Aziz Ansari, Morgan Spurlock, and Matt Lauer have all been accused of sexual assault, or at the very least, sexual harassment. Due to the frequency of these allegations, it has become almost the norm for a new sexual assault allegation to come into the news. The importance – and the shock value of this – is slowly fading. However, the importance of sexual assault and harassment cannot be swept under the rug. We have to keep talking about this.
While the rest of the world seems too surprised by the frequency of sexual harassment and assault in workplaces, this is just the norm for women. Historically in pop culture, the woman is always the butt of the joke when it comes to sexual harassment. In Love Actually (and yes, Love Actually does actually play down sexual harassment) the male character Colin (played by Hugh Grant) attempts to feed a woman – after several failed communication attempts – whom he has just met hors-d’oeuvres. She refuses, and rather than apologize and move on, Colin declares that English women are just too ‘stuck up’ and that is the reason for his single relationship status.
Love Actually, of course, isn’t the only time a movie has attempted to make light of sexual harassment. Another romantic comedy, this one by the name of Bridget Jones’s Diary, features one of Bridget’s male love interests sexual harassing her. We first meet Daniel Cleaver (also played by Hugh Grant) as Bridget Jones’s boss. Throughout the film, he sends very sexual messages about what she wears to work (which is part of the job’s dress code) and eventually makes her so uncomfortable that she decides to quit. The subject is never properly addressed in the film – though it should be noted Bridget ends up with Mark, not Daniel.
Movies like this aren’t unique to only ‘the past’ as much as we’d like to believe. In the extremely popular teen drama, Riverdale, the first season features the main character – Archie – being preyed on by his female high school music teacher. In the trailer for season 1, the relationship between the two is seen as sexy and desirable despite being neither of those two things. That being said, Ms. Grundy does end up moving across town and cuts off all contact with Archie once they break up. (Spoiler: Ms. Grundy ends up dying from a serial killer in season 2).
Thankfully, due to the modern era and movements such as #MeToo and Time’s Up, shows and films are no longer romanticizing sexual harassment or sexual assault – most modern-day TV shows either avoid the subject altogether or clarify what the actual meaning of consent is. In the now-ended show Switched at Birth, one of the characters has sex while she is very intoxicated. A couple of days after, she relays the story to her mother (pretending it’s about a friend) where her mother asserts that consent while intoxicated is not giving consent. (The female character, Bay, later files a rape charge against the man who she had sex with).
While (parts of) Hollywood might be understanding the necessity of consent and proper workplace regulations – the rest of the world isn’t. In an ABC News poll published last year, 54% of women said yes to experiencing some form of unwanted sexual advances from men. That’s a little over half – and that’s still with the push about consent and what it truly means to consent to sex. The same poll also demonstrates the feelings of those women after the sexual harassment occurred – with 84% of women experiencing anger.
Time’s Up, while it will not fix the problem of sexual harassment, strives to vastly alleviate the stress and legal problems for the female victims. Notably, it is not empty charity in which celebrities put money in. Its goal is to provide legal funds to those who cannot afford them, as well as create legislation that would prevent women from signing Non-Disclosure-Agreements (NDAs) in the case of sexual harassment/sexual assault allegations.
As Oprah Winfrey stated in her acceptance speech at the Golden Globes, “And when that new day finally dawns, it will be because of a lot of magnificent women, many of whom are right here in this room tonight, and some pretty phenomenal men, fighting hard to make sure that they become the leaders who take us to the time when nobody ever has to say ‘Me too’ again.”