Harvey Weinstein, American film producer and former film director, was once coined Hollywood’s “few first of the film industry’s most prominent supporters of progressive causes” by The Spectator, a newspaper from the United Kingdom.
Brothers Harvey and Bob Weinstein co-founded Miramax; the American film company most famous for distributing classic independent films such as director Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction," starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson and Uma Thurman.
The Weinsteins have worked with hundreds of aspiring actors and actresses over the years, and Harvey Weinstein at one point seemed to be one of the most powerful men in Hollywood until Thursday, Oct. 5.
New York Times reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey published detailed evidence of Harvey Weinstein covering up over 20 years of sexual assaults. According to Miramax company officials, at least eight cases with women who accused him of sexual assault have resulted in settlements, a legal agreement to resolve a dispute without a trial.
Three days later, Harvey Weinstein was terminated from his family-owned Weinstein Company on Oct. 8; his brother decided the movie mogul's fate.
“I find myself in a waking nightmare,” Bob Weinstein stated in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
Over 30 women have come forward to speak on their experiences with Harvey Weinstein, including actresses such as Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow.
In an email sent to the New York Times, Jolie stated, “This behavior towards women in any field, any country is unacceptable."
In an Oct. 10 The New Yorker article, the magazine said rumors of sexual assault, rape and sexual harassment trailed Harvey Weinstein for more than 20 years. It also stated his malicious behavior was “an open secret” to those behind the scenes with Harvey Weinstein himself. The report said journalists, including ones at The New Yorker, had struggled ethically to publish any findings due to a lack of hard evidence and not enough people willing to go on the record.
Why did this story take so long to break if there was 20 years worth of testimony? Why did the officials who spoke about Harvey Weinstein’s cover ups just now decide to speak?
Harvey Weinstein is a prime example on how the war on women continues to thrive in the 2017.
The New Yorker reported the New York Police Department held a sting operation on Harvey Weinstein in 2015, where he admitted to groping model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez. Even with the audio evidence, Gutierrez lost her modeling credibility after her sexual history was brought into light.
An anonymous police source involved told The New Yorker, “We had the evidence. It’s a case that made me angrier than I thought possible.”
This isn't an uncommon trend in American society. It seems like some of the main questions asked when a woman comes forward about an assault are:
“Were you drinking?”
“Were you flirting?”
“What were you wearing?”
The 2015 Virginia Crime Report stated there were 5,097 victims of forcible sex offenses and of those, 4,787 victims were female. You're telling me 5,097 people in the state of Virginia alone, were all either too drunk, too flirtatious or dressed too sexy to be treated appropriately in public?
The pattern of victim-blaming is one we've seen for years. We are never the victim, always the liar or the whore.
The Weinstein case, however, wouldn't have been possible without Hollywood enabling his mysogynistic and predatory behavior.
Despite sets of sexual allegations against him, BBC reported director Woody Allen said, “No one ever came to me or told me horror stories with any real seriousness.”
Allen added, “And they wouldn’t because you are not interested in it. You are interested in making your movie.”
With his statement, Allen described not only what it’s like to be a woman in Hollywood aspiring to become a film actress but a woman in today’s society.
As nothing a woman says is of “real seriousness," Allen's statement suggested actresses shouldn’t expect men to care what happens because they’re doing the women a favor by making the movie. It’s clear an actress' safety isn't a priority in the film industry.
Hollywood has done an excellent job in exploiting women as objects on and off screen by casting women as a sexy damsel in distress on screen and a sexy object off screen. This manipulation doesn't appear to have a clear end, despite the scandal surrounding Harvey Weinstein.
That doesn't mean it will be tolerated.
A recent social media campaign encouraged those who have been sexually assaulted and harassed to simply write “Me Too” on their profiles in order to bring attention to the taboo issue and demonstrate its reach.
Since its start on with a tweet from actress and model Alyssa Milano on Sunday, Oct. 15, there have been over six million and counting Facebook posts and at least 1.7 million tweets.
If you’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted write ‘me too’ as a reply to this tweet. pic.twitter.com/k2oeCiUf9n
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) October 15, 2017
While this campaign is important when it comes to addressing a nationwide problem, one should ask why a survivor must go on a public platform and out themselves as a victim in order to bring attention to an issue that has plagued society for generations.
Many heartbreaking stories are captured in that 140 character Twitter count. Stories speaking about how the president triggers them and how women have quit their jobs to evade their alleged predators. It’s truly devastating to know though millions of women have been taken advantage, society seems to do nothing but regress.
From President Donald Trump's Oct. 6 decision to allow employers to deny women coverage for birth control to Stanford rapist Brock Turner, who only served three months in jail for raping an unconscious woman behind a dumpster because the judge said, “Imagine how this will impact him,” the treatment of women as a whole continues to step backwards, despite how anti-feminist rhetoric is used to make us believe otherwise.
It almost becomes normal to turn on the television or open the computer to see there's one more reform, rollback or not guilty verdict that puts women one step back.
We as a culture have done the bare minimum to make women safe on the streets, in their careers and at their own homes.
Now a woman can vote, wear whatever she wants and can earn an education and a career, but the fight is far from over and serial alleged abusers like Harvey Weinstein are one of the reasons why women are forced to keep fighting.
One of Hollywood's most recognized film producers Harvey Weinstein is brought under the spotlight in the worst way possible.
