In the last few weeks, the topic of sexual assault and harassment in the entertainment industry and in general have been at the forefront of every news and media outlet imaginable. With the Harvey Weinstein scandal blowing up the secrets of female aimed assault in Hollywood, male stars have been inspired to come forward with their accounts of assault, harassment, and abuse as well.
In the week that followed the Harvey Weinstein news-break, actor Terry Crews came forward with his account of sexual harassment. In a series of tweets, he writes that at an event in 2016, a high-up executive groped his genitals in front of Crews’ wife and grinned when the pair was shocked and horrified. Crews admits to not coming forward sooner with the account because of his fear of being ostracized.
Similarly, just yesterday, actor Tony Goldwyn revealed his unfortunate experience with harassment, as well. While his story doesn’t go as in depth, he told Access Hollywood about his experience with a man while on a casting couch in his final year of acting school. “It happened to me by a man… It was the casting couch and I didn’t understand what was going on, what was happening — I thought it was my fault. I thought I was misunderstanding the situation … It took me a couple of years to get over it.”
In the midst of all of this, in an unfortunate coincidence, singer/songwriter and actor Harry Styles was inappropriately groped during a performance for the We Can Survive breast cancer benefit concert. In videos captured by fans, you can clearly see a concert-goer grab his crotch before he hastily pushed the hand away and stood up, continuing his set.
Many fans spoke out on Twitter to voice their upset and disapproval. #RespectHarry was even trending on Twitter for most of the night.
There has been no comment from either Harry or his team, which comes as no surprise as the star has proven to be very private over the years. However, formed band member Niall Horan had a comment on the matter: “You’ve got one of your favorite stars in front of you and your reaction is to grab them by the nuts? I think it’s a little bit odd to be honest!” He told Australian radio HIT105. “I was actually at that gig – standing side stage – and I didn’t see it myself… but once a video’s there, then it goes viral…”
Musician Khalid, who met Styles this past weekend, also had something to say about the incident, telling TMZ “I think it’s definitely inappropriate. I feel like, as a performer, you do your best to make everybody happy, and I feel like he got taken advantage of. He’s such a nice person, and, I mean, man or woman, nobody deserves to be disrespected that way.”
While women are certainly more often the victims of sexual violence (one in six American women have been the victims of attempted or completed rape), it seems that because men are often the perpetrators of these violent acts against women, we forget that young men are at risk, too. RAINN reports that one out of every ten rape victims, in total, are male.
If the last few weeks have told us anything, it is that sexual assault is not only prevalent in the entertainment industry, but influenced by it as well. The rape culture in America is often encouraged by media and other cultural markers in our society, from sexual assault jokes on hit television shows, to athletes making sexist comments to female reporters, to Olympic doctors accused of multiple accounts of sexual assault against their patients, to even the President of the United States of America being accused of sexual assault and rape numerous times.
Women are objectified and sexualized on a daily basis in America, but men, especially young, idolized celebrities, are subject to this as well. It is undeniable that women certainly get the short end of the stick; for thousands of years women have been assaulted, abused, harassed, subjected to the “male gaze” and countless other sexist and misogynistic behaviors that became normalized in society, and it has taken us this long to try and turn it on its head. But in our crusade for women, have we forgotten men? Have we created a double standard that now tells us it’s okay for us to objectify and sexualize men as well? Some would say yes, we have, and that it is completely justified, considering women have dealt with the same treatment for so long; maybe it’s time for men to taste their own medicine.
(Differences in women and men portrayed in media.)
But that sets a dangerous precedent. As we have seen with our attitudes towards women, these normalized, everyday comments and behaviors have resulted in a toxic rape culture here in the United States and all over the world. We see this when we tell young girls they need to cover up in class because they are distracting to boys, or when women are cat called on the street, or when we tell girls they were “asking for it” based on their clothes or behaviors. Unfortunately, it looks like this type of attitude is already starting to apply to men as well, evident in this insensitive and problematic headline by TMZ regarding the Styles incident:
Our fight for gender equality is more important now than ever. Women and men, especially young and impressionable adults, are in danger of being taken advantage of and abused. While protecting women and shedding light on the grossly unjust incidents they face every day is as important as ever, it is also important for us as feminists, parents, siblings, friends, partners and humans to remember men, too. Sexual assault is not “gender blind”. Sexual assault can happen to anyone, at any time… even in the middle of a performance. The double standard that we have created in our views towards men and women isn’t helpful for anyone, and in order for us to truly reach gender equality, we need to include men in our feminism; our protective veil. We need to include young boys who are at risk of assault, and men who are struggling to come out as LGBTQ, and men of color who face injustice every day.
The definition of feminism is “the belief in gender equality of the sexes,” and we need to make sure this applies to victims of sexual assault, too.