Silence is not just assent, it is complicit consent
At the moment, Harvey Weinstein stands accused of sexual assault, sexual harassment and in a few cases, rape. Accused, not admitted or convicted. Let me add that while I will refer to any claims of inappropriate actions on the part of Harvey Weinstein in this blog as "alleged" I believe every single one of those claims.
Harvey Weinstein is the symptom but he is not the problem. The problem is that he isn't the only person; in Hollywood or anywhere else for that matter, who is abusing their power to sexually harass and assault people.
Dov Charney founded American Apparel and after his ouster in 2014 founded Los Angeles Apparel. According to Fortune Magazine, Charney was asked by Bloomberg if he was "going down the same path having sex with his employees and his response was "that question is private and it should be private."
Just last month the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed a lawsuit against Chipotle Mexican Grill, regarding claims that a 22 year old male shift manager was sexually harassed and then retaliated against by the general manager of the location. She allegedly "...slapped, groped and grabbed his privates..." and then he was locked in a walk-in freezer. In 2016 Chipotle was successfully sued by a young woman who was sexually assaulted and harassed by a store manager, when she was only 16. The jury awarded her nearly $8 million dollars and it was alleged in the complaint that at least one other manager knew what was going on.
There's the rub. Who knows what was and is going on? The New York Times is reporting that when Mr. Weinstein's contract was up for renewal in 2015, the attorney who represented him in the negotiations says that the board was aware of "...three or four confidential settlements" paid out to women. Multiple sources are reporting that the employment contract between Harvey Weinstein and the company that bears his name was signed, it contained a provision that he could not be terminated for any sexual harassment allegations from before 2015. Bob Weinstein, Harvey's brother and still a member of the Board of the Weinstein Company issued a statement on behalf of the company that claimed these allegations came as a complete surprise. The presence of this particular clause in the employment contract of Harvey Weinstein makes it seem the company was well-aware of what was going on.
The NYT reported earlier that actress Rose McGowan had been paid a settlement back in 1997 after an encounter with Harvey Weinstein. She claimed on Twitter when she told Ben Affleck what Weinstein had done to her (Affleck and McGowan had worked together on 1997's Going All the Way) had said "Goddamnit!! I told him to stop doing that" in response to her claim.
Brad Pitt has confirmed that he confronted Harvey Weinstein about his behavior toward the actor's then girlfriend, Gwyneth Paltrow. She says Weinstein had put his hands on her and made sexual advances at a "work meeting" in a hotel room.
Prior to founding the Weinstein Company in 2005, the Weinstein Brothers created Miramax Films. They sold it to Disney for $80 million in 1993 and continued to run it until departing in 2005.
During that time; after he'd allegedly confronted Harvey Weinstein about what happened to Rose McGowan, Ben Affleck acted in the following movies from Miramax:
Shakespeare in Love
Phantoms
Bounce
Reindeer Games
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
The Third Wheel
Gigli (I never did get my ticket purchase refunded for this dog of a film)
Jersey Girl
Brad Pitt made two films with Harvey Weinstein after his own 1995 confrontation with the movie mogul. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and Inglorious Basterds. Some will point out that Pitt was involved in those movies because of his personal relationships with the directors of those films; George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino.
If a man had made unwanted sexual advances on someone you cared about, would you be willing to work with them in the future? That's a tough call and while some may question Pitt's decisions I won't fault him for them. But for Ben Affleck to have gone on making movie after movie with Harvey Weinstein seems to be assent to what he knew the producer was doing to women.
That is the problem. By failing to call out sexual predators, assent to their behavior becomes consent. Consent becomes complicity.
Harvey Weinstein is not the only Hollywood power player who has done these kinds of things. Dean Cain told Fox News that what Harvey Weinstein was doing was the "worst kept secret in Hollywood."
Jessica Barth, one of the alleged victims of Harvey Weinstein told Seth MacFarlane about her encounter with Weinstein back in 2011. Seth MacFarlane made a joke about Weinstein at the 2013 Oscars.
The women who worked at the Weinstein Company knew enough to tell each other not to be caught alone in a room with Harvey Weinstein.
The women who were his victims aren't the problem. A victim has every right to remain silent, especially when people in positions of power can destroy their careers in an instant. The problem is the people who were NOT his victims did nothing.
As Edmund Burke said so eloquently, "all that is necessary for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing." A whole lot of men and women in Hollywood, the tech industry, government and every single other area of our society are giving their silent consent to such behavior by remaining silent.
Speak out. Speak up! Support the victims. Identify and punish the offenders!!
Harvey Weinstein is the symptom but he is not the problem. The problem is that he isn't the only person; in Hollywood or anywhere else for that matter, who is abusing their power to sexually harass and assault people.
Dov Charney founded American Apparel and after his ouster in 2014 founded Los Angeles Apparel. According to Fortune Magazine, Charney was asked by Bloomberg if he was "going down the same path having sex with his employees and his response was "that question is private and it should be private."
Just last month the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed a lawsuit against Chipotle Mexican Grill, regarding claims that a 22 year old male shift manager was sexually harassed and then retaliated against by the general manager of the location. She allegedly "...slapped, groped and grabbed his privates..." and then he was locked in a walk-in freezer. In 2016 Chipotle was successfully sued by a young woman who was sexually assaulted and harassed by a store manager, when she was only 16. The jury awarded her nearly $8 million dollars and it was alleged in the complaint that at least one other manager knew what was going on.
There's the rub. Who knows what was and is going on? The New York Times is reporting that when Mr. Weinstein's contract was up for renewal in 2015, the attorney who represented him in the negotiations says that the board was aware of "...three or four confidential settlements" paid out to women. Multiple sources are reporting that the employment contract between Harvey Weinstein and the company that bears his name was signed, it contained a provision that he could not be terminated for any sexual harassment allegations from before 2015. Bob Weinstein, Harvey's brother and still a member of the Board of the Weinstein Company issued a statement on behalf of the company that claimed these allegations came as a complete surprise. The presence of this particular clause in the employment contract of Harvey Weinstein makes it seem the company was well-aware of what was going on.
The NYT reported earlier that actress Rose McGowan had been paid a settlement back in 1997 after an encounter with Harvey Weinstein. She claimed on Twitter when she told Ben Affleck what Weinstein had done to her (Affleck and McGowan had worked together on 1997's Going All the Way) had said "Goddamnit!! I told him to stop doing that" in response to her claim.
Brad Pitt has confirmed that he confronted Harvey Weinstein about his behavior toward the actor's then girlfriend, Gwyneth Paltrow. She says Weinstein had put his hands on her and made sexual advances at a "work meeting" in a hotel room.
Prior to founding the Weinstein Company in 2005, the Weinstein Brothers created Miramax Films. They sold it to Disney for $80 million in 1993 and continued to run it until departing in 2005.
During that time; after he'd allegedly confronted Harvey Weinstein about what happened to Rose McGowan, Ben Affleck acted in the following movies from Miramax:
Shakespeare in Love
Phantoms
Bounce
Reindeer Games
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
The Third Wheel
Gigli (I never did get my ticket purchase refunded for this dog of a film)
Jersey Girl
Brad Pitt made two films with Harvey Weinstein after his own 1995 confrontation with the movie mogul. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and Inglorious Basterds. Some will point out that Pitt was involved in those movies because of his personal relationships with the directors of those films; George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino.
If a man had made unwanted sexual advances on someone you cared about, would you be willing to work with them in the future? That's a tough call and while some may question Pitt's decisions I won't fault him for them. But for Ben Affleck to have gone on making movie after movie with Harvey Weinstein seems to be assent to what he knew the producer was doing to women.
That is the problem. By failing to call out sexual predators, assent to their behavior becomes consent. Consent becomes complicity.
Harvey Weinstein is not the only Hollywood power player who has done these kinds of things. Dean Cain told Fox News that what Harvey Weinstein was doing was the "worst kept secret in Hollywood."
Jessica Barth, one of the alleged victims of Harvey Weinstein told Seth MacFarlane about her encounter with Weinstein back in 2011. Seth MacFarlane made a joke about Weinstein at the 2013 Oscars.
The women who worked at the Weinstein Company knew enough to tell each other not to be caught alone in a room with Harvey Weinstein.
The women who were his victims aren't the problem. A victim has every right to remain silent, especially when people in positions of power can destroy their careers in an instant. The problem is the people who were NOT his victims did nothing.
As Edmund Burke said so eloquently, "all that is necessary for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing." A whole lot of men and women in Hollywood, the tech industry, government and every single other area of our society are giving their silent consent to such behavior by remaining silent.
Speak out. Speak up! Support the victims. Identify and punish the offenders!!
posted by me at 1:46 PM
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