Every woman I’ve spoken with or seen on social media is gutted right now. We are raw. While some people clearly knew what was going on — at this point many are acknowledging it’s been an open secret for a long time — lots of women can tell you their own stories of dudes in the business who have sexually harassed them, and not necessarily at the hands of Harvey Weinstein. Weinstein is having to answer for his behavior now — but let’s not forget that there are hundreds who are still getting away with it.
Weinstein has now become the moniker for the toxic masculinity that envelopes the film industry and many other industries. This is an industry that is run by men and for men. The movies we see have mostly male leads. The women depicted are mostly young, scantily-clad, and have little agency — all too often they are glorified props.
This is an endemic problem and everyone knows it. Women across the industry are fighting for opportunities for their work to be seen, their visions trusted, and to be respected on sets. It’s time for all of us — everyone — to speak out.
This culture of complicity can be combated with regular people saying something when they see something. We must learn from the brave women who shared their stories. In offices across the industry we must say something when we see inappropriate behavior. Men and women. We must pierce their veil of silence.
This is what we owe the women like Ashley Judd and Rose McGowan (the latter of whom just had her Twitter account suspended under mysterious circumstances after calling out Ben Affleck). They did their part. Now it’s on all of us. The question is: will people do this? Will we actually rise up and say “no more”?
Can this industry be changed? Can the marginalized voices of women and people of color be brought into the center and validated and empowered and counted? We may be talking about sexual harassment and assault right now, but this is also an opportunity to push for substantive culture shift. I challenge people to step up and play their part in effecting the change we so desperately need.
The contents of this post were originally published as tweets. You can find me on Twitter @melsil.
