The Weinstein effect has tentacles that reach far beyond Hollywood - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Posted: Thursday, November 16, 2017 by Tyler Durden in
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The Weinstein effect has tentacles that reach far beyond Hollywood - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)



A wave of sexual assault and harassment allegations is crashing across the world, reaching into an increasing number of industries with claims men are abusing positions of power.
The New York Times published the article Harvey Weinstein Paid off Sexual Harassment Accusers for Decades on October 5.
Since then, men at the height of several industries have faced sexual assault or harassment allegations.
  • Leaders in Hollywood
  • Bosses at media companies
  • Prominent chefs
  • Big names in technology
  • Politicians
  • Academics
  • Judges
  • The list really does go on
There are no geographical boundaries to this surge in allegations either.
Taking a snapshot of our coverage to date in November alone, stories on claims and cases of sexual assault and harassment, as well as women speaking out against violence have included:
Add to that, an Austrian politician resigning amid sexual harassment claims, France's "rat out your pig" movement, similar social media trends in Italy and Spain as well as the countless stories told around the world that had mentions of #metoo on Twitter doing this:

The common theme? Power

Dacher Keltner is a professor of psychology at the University of California Berkeley and has spent 25 years studying power.
He said the Weinstein case "brought together every force that makes power problematic".
"It is striking to just think about the context that 95 per cent of directors in Hollywood are male," Professor Keltner said.
"When you have a kind of concentration of a certain type of person, so men or a certain ethnicity, you're more likely to get an abuse of power against another group — like young women."
Professor Keltner has been watching with great interest as the Weinstein case unfolds and the world wakes up.
"I think this is a pivotal moment. I really do," he said.

Is it **really** different this time?

We started to wonder if there was a genuine and enduring shift happening.
Is this different to Bill Cosby? Is this different to that time a recording of a presidential candidate saying he grabbed women "by the pussy" was released during a campaign and he got elected anyway?
Professor Keltner:
"Feminists have been writing about this, social scientists have been studying sexual harassment, women have been talking about it among themselves, but sometimes you need these pivotal moral events …where suddenly it's like, 'OK, we've got to change this'.
"I think this is it."
His theory is that this time women have allies and they're taking control of the discussion.
Those New York Times journalists who fought for more than a decade to get the Weinstein story up, pressed publish at a time when movements like Women's March had made significant gains.
Now, there is a network of people — men and women — who are getting strength from one another to say harassment — from cat calling on the street to assault as invasive as rape — is not OK and will no longer be accepted.
Professor Keltner talked about a group of female leaders who run multi-billion-dollar sections of the US healthcare system.
"What they do, is what women will now be doing post-Weinstein," he said.
"[They say]: 'Here are 12 things a man cannot do to you, period. And if he does it, you get to tell somebody'.
"He can't whistle at you. He can't roll his eyes when you're in a meeting. He can't grab your body or try to kiss you — he just can't do that."
As media coverage has increased, activists and victims have found a very specific voice.
"When you gather stories, you allow people to use this language," Professor Keltner said.
"You allow people to say, 'That senior male professor grabbed my breast' and before, we were hesitant to use that language and so we couldn't get a clear picture of this phenomenon and that's different now.
"Women own that language and when you do that you empower people."
Remember when Donald Trump called Hillary Clinton a "nasty woman"?
That term didn't fade. Activists took ownership of it.
To cut through, to claw back power, Professor Keltner says: "You've got to take on the grittiness of it."

Grit. Like this?

YOUTUBE: YouTube: Ashley Judd's at Women's March

Language. Like this?

INFOGRAPHIC: A court sketch of Taylor Swift as she gave evidence in 2017. (AP)
Professor Keltner:
"Women are gaining power right now more than they've had in 15,000 years."
Australia's Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Kate Jenkins, agrees the time is now.
"I'm really hopeful and optimistic that this global spotlight, but also an Australian spotlight particularly on sexual harassment and assault, will be the catalyst for real change," she said.
Ms Jenkins referenced different research projects that examined experiences for women in a cross-section of Australian industries, including:
  • Defence
  • Victoria Police
  • The Royal College of Surgeons
  • Universities, via the Human Rights Commission
  • The arts, via Actors Equity
"They all show alarmingly high rates of sexual harassment in the workplace and the community at large," she said.
"What is happening at the moment is it has become a talking point for people who really don't understand what experiences for women are."

Why it seems like it's always men

Because, as the research shows, it usually is.
Research. Data. The people who interview perpetrators. The people who interview victims.
If we look at the data around gender and harassment, we learn some truths.
Here's one domestic truth:
When you read about the "participation gap", you're reading about boardrooms/parliaments/movie credits that have more men than women.
There are fewer women in positions of power, therefore there are fewer women who abuse power.
"There has been a historical view in Australia that sexual assault and harassment happens because men can't control their urges," Ms Jenkins said.
"But these situations don't happen everywhere, they happen in situations of power. They happen where speaking up is difficult."

Is it a 'bad time to be a man'?

Because, if you've ever been on Twitter, you've probably read that.
The way Professor Keltner described it was, "No". This is just a "long overdue" correction.
He said women gaining power was a "balancing out", not a takeover.
Maybe the Weinstein tide will subside only when it has dredged up the last of these abuses of power and we get to a point where it's a good time to be someone who identifies as any gender.
"We need to move from big villains to the small everyday things that lead to this environment where we tolerate sexual harassment," Ms Jenkins said.
"My hope is not that we start catching high-profile people in Australia, but in the everyday experience we just reduce the prevalence of sexual harassment so it's not part of the workplace experience for women."
Topics: arts-and-entertainment, community-and-society, women, sexual-offences, law-crime-and-justice, united-states, australia,united-kingdom
First posted 9 Nov 2017, 4:37pm
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Mike H1
Well I can agree as we all can that "Power clearly corrupts" and power leads to abuse, but what disturbs me about the tenor of Keltner and Jenkins is this focus that gender of the abuser and the victim is more important than the level and type of abuse.
What concerns me is that whilst women are sexually harassed at double the rate of men, little or no funding or focus goes to helping the estimated 3 million or so Aussie men (1 in 4) who have been victims of the same behavior. Rather we get "Man up" (Tory Shepard anyone) thrown in our face and even treated as a purpetrator / potential one even though a significant number of us are victims whilst "Bad Girl Advice" type purpetrators are celebrated for their bragging about getting away with their abuse online and are seldom punished by the legal system.
Don't believe me? Well note that even though Corey Feldman (a man) had been talking about Hollywood's awful culture involving rape and sexual assault against child actors like himself for years, he found few allies until women decided to speak up about Weinstein in relation to conduct that had objectively less of an effect on the victim.
#only an issue if it affects a woman - seems a lot more plausible to me now because depensing of justice for some victims but ignoring other worthy victims and indeed encouraging perpetrators of their own gender consider themselves as victims purely because of statistics creates the very inequality Keltner & Jenkins profess to despise.
PositiveFuturist
What would it take for the pendulum to settle in the middle, rather than the (most likely to occur) big swing in the opposite direction? Absolutely brilliant that this is all being flushed out and society's status quo is being re-set - long overdue and great to see. What I hope we don't see are witch hunts and more fuel on the man-hating feminists' fire and countless good, decent men being unfairly tarred with the same brush on account of their gender. I know it's all a bit too Pollyanna, but why can't we just all be kind to each other and have each other's backs? (Rhetorical, of course.) 
MrkBO8.
Really shows the moral fortitude of Hollywood, line up to complain about Trump, ignore the Democrat contributor who assaulted them. Spineless.
Citizen One
Ok - I know I’m going to get hammered for this... but!
There’s a huge imbalance on the reporting (and subsequent social media response) of this issue!
I’m not at all justifying HW’s position at all - but Rose McGowan (as an example) is no wilting flower! The night of her alleged rape was not a tearing of the fabric of time and space in her world. She would have known what was potentially on the cards when invited to Harvy’s Room in the middle of the night to “discuss possible acting work”.
Hollywood personnel don’t sign a napkin without their lawyers present!
And - going even further - it seems to be ok for RM to parade around red carpet affairs with them b/f Marylin Manson dressed in literally nothing but a fishing net.
Again, this is no defence of HW - it sickens me that so many men just can’t keep it in their pants!
But there (as always) is 2 sides to this sad story and both parties have to accept a certain amount of responsibility for it.
AND.we should be able to at least talk about ‘a victim’s’ responsibility if applicable.
LoftyR
Despite men being sexual harassment victims 50% as often as women, funding for male victims is probably about 2% of the funding and attention available to women.
Just as almost 60% of assault victims are male, whereas only a fraction of funding is made available to men.
Statistics, huh.

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