I have no idea why, but I avoided being harassed. Maybe I was just lucky with picking the places where I worked - I got a whiff at one place that the head was an egomaniac and declined their job offer.
Thank you for posting that link.
The Amazon dude has been suspended.
Just spoke to someone who worked in the industry in Hollywood about 10 years ago. He had heard rumors about HW, but he wasn’t the only person doing it. Not by a longshot. My friend was sexually harassed by gay men several times and just considered it part of the territory. He wasn’t an aspiring actor though.
He approached people at Miramax and asked about working there and they all warned him off, saying it was a terrible place to work.
I can’t believe this is still going on. 20 years ago or earlier, sure, we all knew it happened or experienced it in some form, but it’s dismaying to think that we haven’t improved or evolved much.
Oliver Stone’s turn.
http://www.imdb.com/news/ni61612840/
Terry Crews claims that he was groped by a gay Hollywood executive.
http://www.wnem.com/story/36575133/terry-crews-speaks-out-about-sexual-harassment-in-hollywood
When I was in grad school I was harassed by a professor in my department. I was one of his teaching assistants and one of only three women in the department. I went to the department chair and asked if I could work as a TA for someone else. He asked if Prof X was “bothering” me and I just nodded. He said–I get it and I was reassigned the next week; later I learned that
Prof X had a reputation for hitting on all the new female grad students–everyone knew but looked the other way. I learned from a friend who stayed in academia that Prof X eventually had women who made public accusations and that he was forced to retire. This happened to me in 1978–almost 40 years ago. There are HW’s in every field.
I can’t walk away from my newsfeed for an hour without other women coming forward with stories about HW. I hope this is indeed a turning point.
re: the link I posted in 358, I think the commenter nailed it (in response to those who had blamed women for not speaking up):
"It is disheartening to see so many comments already blaming women for not “speaking up.” Please count yourself lucky that you’ve never had your career on the line based on whether or not you sleep with your boss. It has nothing to do with fame and riches; this happens to women making minimum wage in retail as well as women who fought through it to become CEOs.
The psychology behind this kind of thing is not that complex, so please spare a moment to consider: Not only are these women made to feel humiliated and embarrassed, but in some cases if they had come forward, they not only would never work again, they also would be seen as whiners and “too sensitive.” Both Jolie and Paltrow fended him off. Imagine if they made a big stink about it. They would have been ripped apart in the media! “Oh for goodness’ sake, a dirty old man came on to you. You rejected him and moved on, why the fuss?”
But, of course, now we insist on blaming them for “perpetuating” Weinstein’s behavior. Please. The amount of cognitive dissonance it must take to blame women for their own persecution is astounding. Note that the comments have not centered around Brad Pitt’s not saying anything, though he knew about it with not one but TWO romantic partners.
It is not the women’s job to monitor men’s behavior. We are doing the best we can with what we have to survive in a world that depends on our subjugation."
My wife turned in the director of primary care clinics at one of her old jobs. Nothing came of it and she was laid off two months later. It turns out the director was a close personal friend of the CEO, She spoke to a lawyer and he told her she would likely never work in her field again if she pursued it.
The pig is still working, probably still up to his pig ways, in a town a few hours from here.
Take this for what it is: hearsay from the hair salon. Men who met with HW were told to stand far back from him when presenting the work they’d done on one of his films. Because if he didn’t like it, he’d explode and hit them. Fortunately this woman’s husband’s work was well received and he was not hit.
One thing that bothers me is that so many people ,women in particular who knew about it…experienced it and remained silent. I can’t imagine wanting a career or fame enough to sacrifice yourself and others to become victims.
Count me as someone who was sexually harassed on several different jobs as a young woman, and actually molested by my optometrist of all people when I was 19. He told me as I looked through the viewer “Let me know when the two dots are even.” I asked, “Even?” He answered, “Like THESE!” and poked my breasts.
What did I do? I continued with the eye exam, of course. The situation was so bizarre that I had no idea how to respond. I was young and naive, although I wanted so much not to be. And I just came to get contact lenses. I don’t remember what I was wearing, for those that think that’s pertinent.
And I never told anybody, nor did I complain about most of the work related incidents. Except one time, where the man was a co-worker with no power over me, but was just obnoxious. My female boss responded “He’s never done that to me…” and so I didn’t make a formal complaint because I figured it would label ME as a trouble maker.
There’s a 57 year old sleazeball in our local music scene who was brought up on statutory rape charges years ago for having sex with a 16 year old singer. For some reason, it’s an open secret (much like HW), and older people think it’s somehow an endearing character trait, like he’s a boy who never grew up.
He hit on every young woman who came out for his open mic show. He bragged about getting girls drunk when he was young in the 1970’s so he could score. He tried to get D drinking at a bar when she was underage. He made a young girl feel uncomfortable back stage at a show by putting his arm around her waist lower, and lower, and lower…
When she talked about it, an older woman who should know better scolded her, " You should have told him to stop!"
When I call people out for protecting this guy, they usually block me.
FWIW, He’s a super right wing religious guy, and the people allowing this to go by are mainly liberal Democrats. Blame for everyone!
In an extreme power disparity situation where only a tiny percentage of aspirants make it to the desired professional level, and the selection and advancement process is highly subjective and highly dependent on the individual opinion(s) of those who control the selection and advancement process, it should not be a surprise that some who have worked most of their lives toward such a goal are unwilling to throw away all of their past work in order to blow the whistle on sexual misconduct (or other misconduct) by those who have power over their career advancement.
Happened to me too but it only took two weeks.
ETA: Sometimes I wonder what kind of career I might have had if I had been a man, or if I hadn’t had to deal with all this horse doodoo.
Well, of course he would not do anything like that to your/his boss who could terminate his employment… did she do anything (even an off-the-record talking-to) that had any effect on his behavior going forward from then? Or did she implicitly take his side by not even doing that?
Re: the groping optometrist
I take it you did not go to that optometrist again.
Ya, I reported a college prof when I was in grad school. So much support from the heads, but I still had to,redo the whole project. Later, so many complaints about this man, that I realized I was one among 100’s. He should have been kicked out. I wish for so much more form younger generations.
@ucbalumnus , my boss just gave him a pass, because she felt sorry for him, and because she didn’t want to rock the boat. So she discouraged me from making a formal complaint. I continued to rise in the ranks and he didn’t, but not because he changed his ways. Haha, no I didn’t go back to groping optometrist! I told this story to my son yesterday his first thought was about being in the dark with your face stuck in that viewer, and how vulnerable you are. And how you might be so surprised that you wouldn’t know how to react.
NOTE: I’d worn glasses since age 11, so I knew that wasn’t part of the exam. :-S
OMG - You’re friends with James Van Der Beek? 
Oh, I see you said he’s not an actor.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/12/entertainment/james-van-der-beek-grabbed/index.html
Please, can we all agree that this happens across all professions as well as both sexes. Speak up, everybody.
In my lifetime, I have been sexually harassed a handful of times in the workplace. The first time was when I was 16 or 17. I worked for a small company that was family owned. The patriarch of the operation made inappropriate comments of a sexual nature towards me regarding my breasts. I dressed very conservatively , yet he still noticed that I was endowed and made remarks that made me very uncomfortable. My superior was his daughter in law and pretty feisty. She confronted him and told him to stay away from me…other young girls who worked there just quit because of his comments without telling anyone why…
There was a period of my life when I was seperated and in the process of divorce. I sold advertising and had to visit clients and potential clients at their businesses here were a couple of men that harassed me, that ranged from commenting on my wardrobe ( wear a tighter dress next time and I might buy an ad ) to a guy that didnt want to pay for his bill and telling my boss that I was dating his son, an alleged coke-head that said that he wouldn’t have to pay . Then there was a guy who cornered me in a closed fishing clubb that he had the keys to…I was terrified and intimidated , but got out unscathed. My observation was as a salesperson, if clients came to ME, there was respect…if I had to go to THEM , the game changed and not for the better 