Yes, yes, yes… this is just what we need. A bunch of Hollywood women lecturing the rest of America about sexual harassment now that we have all learned how rife their industry is with it. Glass houses and whatnot…
(CNN)A group of more than 1,000 women in entertainment have detailed a comprehensive plan to combat sexual harassment across industries.
Time’s Up was officially unveiled Monday in a story by The New York Times, though the group was formed not long after the first round of allegations against former movie mogul Harvey Weinstein came to light in October.Director Ava DuVernay, producer Kathleen Kennedy and dozens of actors, including America Ferrera, Emma Stone and Constance Wu, laid out the mission of Time’s Up in an open letter.
Overall, their message is not horrible. Raising money to support women (men, too?) with legal funds should they need to litigate a sexual harassment claim is not a bad use of their platform. There are a few things about this that rub me the wrong way. First, as I so subtly pointed out before the excerpt, many of these women have stood by for decades while Hollywood was apparently riddled with blatant sexual harassment. After the stories about Weinstein, Lauer, Louis CK, Spacey, and all of the other stories were made public, what was universally acknowledged after the fact? Everybody knew. Everybody around them apparently knew that these Hollywood and Media moguls were wretched sexual predators and stayed silent – including many of the women now leading this effort. They simply lack the moral standing to lecture the rest of America. Frankly, the rest of America has been doing a far better job of battling sexual harassment than Hollywood.
Second, the organizers used this as their justification for launching the effort:
The women said they were encouraged to find ways to battle harassment in all industries after receiving a letter of support from Alianza Nacional de Campesinas (The National Farmworker Women’s Alliance) in November.
Although the Alianza Nacional de Campesinas is also an advocacy group for open borders and illegal immigrants, they also advocate for women farm workers. But the whole effort from the Hollywood folks seems to rest on the assumption that the aggressive sexual harassment that they have experienced in Hollywood is normal or common in the rest of America. It is not. Yes, sexual harassment still exists and it must be constantly combated, but the kind of aggressive 1920s-style behavior we saw from the likes of Weinstein and Lauer has been largely purged from most of the rest of America for decades. The Hollywood folks are suffering from the bias of their own experiences and projecting it on the rest of us.
Finally, I worry that this group is just going to create a massive legal slush fund that will be used as a weapon to target and bully people and businesses with whom they disagree. The proof will be in the pudding, but watch and see. Will the accusers of the likes of Al Franken get support from this group or only Roy Moore’s accusers? Time will tell.
How did you determine that “the rest of us” haven’t seen sexual harassment similar to that reported in Hollywood?