More than fifty women have alleged that they were sexually harassed or assaulted by the movie giant, Harvey Weinstein. Although the scandal and reactions to it has been a great example of women standing together to fight injustice, it is worrying that the industry’s bias towards the producer was so strong before the whole thing blew up. One of the most important lasting lessons to be learned from this scandal is that antiquated institutions, such as and especially including Hollywood, are rampant with internalised rape culture.
The Weinstein scandal and #MeToo hashtag caused a momentum, creating space for conversation and support for victims who vocalised their distress. Within a day, the hashtag was used an overwhelming 109,451times. The #MeToo hashtag is making waves, as it allows women and men from all around the world to show, using a simple hashtag, how many people this happens to. What remains troublesome, however, is the need for such a scandal in order for society to hear the voices of those abused. Sexual assault is real, and it is happening daily to your friends, family, neighbours and colleagues. We cannot progress in a society that silences the claims of women and men who have been assaulted, and looks away when assault happens – no matter how big or small the power structures that allow for such abuse.
Whether the momentum of the scandal and #MeToo will make a lasting impact is another troublesome question. Until the internal structures of the movie industry are fundamentally changed, we will keep facing scandals like these. As soon as Harvey Weinstein’s disgrace became highly publicised, few male actors came out and told stories of how, in retrospect, they knew what was going on. Where were these statements when women were being raped, coerced and manipulated from an obvious position of omnipresent power?
When the democratically elected American president himself jokingly said“(…)and when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything (…) Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything”, it becomes clear that complicity to male abusers is a wider societal problem. If you aren’t speaking out and amplifying the voices of those who need to be heard, you are assisting the preservation of rape culture.
It is important to emphasise the responsibility of those complicit in abusive situations, if change is to be made. In response to the scandal, Lena Dunham wrote, for the New Yorker: “The reason I am zeroing in on the men is that they have the least to lose and the most power to shift the narrative, and are probably not dealing with the same level of collective and personal trauma around these allegations. But here we are, days later, waiting for Mr. Weinstein’s most powerful collaborators to say something. Anything.”
There are still so many things that need to be said about Hollywood, the media surrounding it and its problematic power structures. Why is nobody talking about Woody Allen anymore? Bill Cosby, Mel Gibson, Roman Polanski, the list of alleged and prosecuted male abusers goes on, but Hollywood seems to love forgiving them. We must follow through, and take action in order to improve the structures that give birth to such behavior, but also out of respect to those who are, and have been, acted upon.
The Harvey Weinstein case has made a positive impact with regards to the way that it empowered many female actresses to come out and speak against him, but why does it take so many voices of victims to lend such a case credibility? The discouragement that women face daily when attempting to speak out against sexual assault is shocking. Especially when it comes to highly publicized cases, people are quick to respond to the voices of those assaulted with backlash. Nobody wants a bad light cast on their beloved actor/producer/director, but it is necessary to amplify the few voices of those abused, rather than make a judgment on a public figure’s (fabricated) personality. Sexual assault is not a matter of character, it is integral to the structures of power we are participating in every day.
The #MeToo hashtag highlights the enormity of the problem, but can only be used as real fuel for change if we follow through on our condemnations of the abuse of power and react to the instances of assault and signposts of rape culture in our immediate life.