Men like Les Moonves and Harvey Weinstein were cultural gatekeepers for decades. How do we undo their damage?
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
When Linda Bloodworth Thomason, one of the creative minds behind the acclaimed sitcom "Designing Women" and the equally darling "Evening Shade," promised that her essay about the reign of Les Moonves at CBS would be "petty," she wasn't kidding.
Moonves has been the recent subject of a wave of #MeToo stories alleging sexual harassment and assault. But Bloodworth Thomason's essay exposed a different kind of abuse, detailing how the now-former head honcho canceled her feminist-themed shows, slow-walked her overall production deal and eventually ousted her from the network without fulfilling her contract while replacing her programs with a slate of macho programming in which she says he cast women based on the stated philosophy, "Why would I wanna cast 'em if I don’t wanna f--- 'em?"
But as the #MeToo movement has increasingly exposed not just the misdeeds of the rich and powerful, but of the deeply influential, it's clear this is the wrong question to ask.
As Rebecca Traister suggested last year (when writing about the many male journalists who have faced similar allegations of repugnant behavior), the question we ought to be asking ourselves is just how much of our own broad understanding of sexual harassment, sexual assault, sexual misconduct and gender discrimination has been deeply and perhaps irrevocably shaped by men who apparently regularly engaged in those exact behaviors. Or, perhaps more pointedly, we ought to ask whether our common understanding of the amount of respect that men should show women has consistently been filtered though a cultural lens ground into focus by a group of men too myopic to be making anyone else's glasses.
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I am a bit confused about this statement being applied now. 60 years ago sure. I would buy this into the 80's, but I am having a hard time blaming this all on the men, now.
I don't know Perrie, I've been studying male behavior for some time and, I can tell you when women aren't in the conversation and, I mean within ear shot men talk about them in some disgusting ways, even today you can hear them discussing women in a fashion that makes you think they see them as objects and, not as people.
I don't think that statement infers that ONLY men are 'responsible'.
Sadly, women ARE enablers. Hell, just look at how many women voted for Trump. Look at the demographics of the Moore vote in Alabama. While not the majority, plenty of women voted against their own best interest.
All too often here, we see a discussion on sexual abuse and harassment devolve into 'what about false accusations' even though it's been stated ad nauseam that the percentage is minute. It's a desperate attempt at trying to negate the veracity of the other 98%.
Women are subject to and internalize the same misogynistic messages men do. One would hope it wouldn't work that way on other issues like race and sexual orientation but it seems to be a very common pattern.
I'm just glad that Americans in general, religious sects and businesses in particular are starting to treat this issue seriously and lend credence when victims make claims rather than demonizing the victim. However even though it's been 25 years since Clarence Thomas got on the court despite several very credible claims of sexual harassment I doubt that the Senate has evolved much since then - particularly the conservatives. So I'd be very surprised if the claim against Kavanaugh is treated with the sober consideration and caution which it deserves.
We pretend that Donald Trump's boasting about groping is not exactly the same thing.
We applaud when Les Moonves is fired... but remain silent about Trump.
Hey!
Both sides do it!
The Trumpanzees don't even care that their mascot is a Russian operative; why would they care about the groping? The mentally retarded pathological liar enjoys some weird kind of special status. The 5th avenue comment, remember?
Off topic, I know...shoot me!
Just wait for the right wing to demonize Kavanaugh's accuser if her identity is ever revealed.
Trump is an illegitimate president, which makes this guy is an illegitimate nominee. Makes Gosuck an illegitimate SCJ too.
I hope conservatives continue their habit of demonizing the victims of sexual assault in order to keep them quiet......the partisan gender gap will only get bigger than it already is. No wonder 57% of women want to see the pussy-grabber-in-chief impeached.
Sorry for being so off topic, Perrie, ok, the topic, the topic... All I know is that women my age are extremely aggressive. It ain't me doing the groping and assaulting!