The Weinstein Allegations: How Hollywood Finally Got it Right
On the morning of Sunday, October 8th, news broke that Harvey Weinstein, founder and one of the current CEO’s of the famous film company the Weinstein Company, had been accused of multiple sexual assault allegations during his time working with the company. The allegations have ranged since about three decades ago, and span over a multitude of women who have worked with the famous film company, whether they were actresses, set workers, or other office staff. The New York Times released an article during the weekend breaking all of these allegations against Weinstein with detailed sources and specifics to each story. The story shocked Hollywood and the United States as a whole, but there is one incredibly important aspect to the story many don’t know.
The allegations had been vaguely known to many for a long time.
In a position of power as the one Weinstein held, he was nearly untouchable for decades. Weinstein was described to have an “enforced code of silence” within the company. Employees of the Weinstein company sign contracts that explicitly state that while working under the Weinstein Company, these workers will not disclose any information to anyone that would risk making executive or officials look bad in the public eye. It has been said that dozens of Weinstein’s workers knew of the misconduct and only few confronted him about it, while nobody did anything to fix it. Unable to turn a blind eye to The New York Times article heavily detailing Weinstein’s track record, the company finally took a stand. The company released this statement on Sunday:
“In light of new information about misconduct by Harvey Weinstein that has emerged in the past few days, the directors of The Weinstein Company — Robert Weinstein, Lance Maerov, Richard Koenigsberg and Tarak Ben Ammar — have determined, and have informed Harvey Weinstein, that his employment with The Weinstein Company is terminated, effective immediately.”
Weinstein has been served justice after many decades in the making. Though Hollywood has turned away from sexual assault allegations toward the rich and famous before, they have finally taken a path to a better future with the handling of Harvey Weinstein. It must be known to young boys and girls that sexual assault allegations are taken seriously and they should grow up in a world knowing that justice will be served when it is due.