It’s not the job of “Hollywood women” to ‘fix’ sexual harassment
BLAMING ‘Hollywood women’ who didn’t speak up about harassment, or Australian TV women for that matter, is shameless buck passing, writes Wendy Tuohy.
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AS all hell breaks loose in Tinseltown now the sexual harassment Bandaid has finally been ripped off, one thing you could not have picked is that a big target for abuse would be the victims.
Yet there it is, a torrent of “Why didn’t the women of Hollywood speak up” attacks targeting decades worth of sexual harassment and abuse victims for not risking even more harm by outing their abusers.
As a Melbourne academic pointed out on radio yesterday, when even innocent murder victims such as Jill Meagher are posthumously criticised for “putting themselves in harm’s way” (or wearing a short skirt, or heels... daring to be female in public) blaming women for men’s abuse is not new.
But the bitterness directed at women who have lived in fear of losing not just their livelihoods but their reputations — destroyed by the most powerful men in the world in their industry — for not going public sooner has been shameless.
In part, it’s been about left-right political point scoring: right wingers jumping at scoring a point against leftie-Hollywood for covering up the revolting behaviour of their own power players.
In this gleeful new front in the culture wars, women victims must be viewed as just collateral damage.
The timeless question needs asking again: why is it considered women’s responsibility to “fix” sexual harassment, abuse and rape?
The answer is still: it’s not. It’s men’s job not to sexually harass, abuse and rape. Simple as that.
Women who have been victims of it have already been harmed and traumatised.
To not only expect them to take responsibility for seeing justice done, but punish them if they deem themselves incapable of facing more trauma only further disempowers them.
The focus in the Weinstein scandal should be Weinstein and the powerful men around him who allegedly helped hush up women journalists and victims (including some men now being accused of “lying” about not knowing).
No matter the profile of the female victim, or the talent or potential or popularity, if the people in control of this glamorous but exploitative industry want you gone, you’re gone.
If they want to destroy you, they absolutely can. Everyone knows it.
And this kind of thing, including the fear instilled in women by their more powerful abusers that keeps them silent, happens in other industries where it is considered freakishly lucky to get a break and the implied “price” can be being expected to put up with harassment.
After Channel 7 cadet reporter Amy Taeuber blew the whistle last month on being dismissed after making a sexual harassment complaint about an older male colleague, workplace harassment of Australian female TV reporters was all the buzz in women’s media circles.
It was easy to find horror stories that invariably ended in the young female victim being shoved aside to protect the senior staffer/perpetrator, but getting three or four to go on record to illustrate the widespread issue and its impact was impossible.
Professional women with solid reputations you would think would be bulletproof enough to withstand speaking out about harassment are still too intimidated by the thought of losing current jobs or future opportunities to want to risk it.
They are blameless, just like the “Hollywood women”, presumably including victims such as Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow who have now spoken up, being hammered for not going public about their abuse at the time.
Until the finger of blame is pointed immediately at perpetrators, and they are made to take full responsibility — as are men who shielded them — nothing will change.
In the meantime, please, how about we stop blaming women.
Read more: Harvey Weinstein allegations explained
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