I was “hit on” by married men and others. It made me unhappy and uncomfortable, but since they didn’t have power over me and my career I could escape. I did quit a job because the owner promised me I’d never be working alone and ended up working alone despite his empty promise. A guy who was stalking me showed up when I was working alone and creeped me out.
Good point about it being power to kill someone’s career afterwards.
I keep reading the news commentators complaining, “Why didn’t these women say something?”
As if there is some grand arbitrator of this kind of behavior, and all you have to do is, “Say something” and it will stop. With an extremely powerful person like this, whom are you going to say something to, and it will stop? A lawsuit might get you money, but complaining to anyone this guy is accountable to will get you jack, and potentially ruin your career. I can easily see how someone might just reject him, get out of the situation, and hope it won’t sink their career. Women often deal with these things the best they can, but the magic bullet of “saying something” seems ludicrous.
Thoughtful piece from Sarah Polley, a woman in the film industry, who says she rejected Weinstein’s advances. She says she didn’t say anything because she felt it was useless:
The whole article is well worth a read. Here she is talking about a film project she was considering and how it didn’t turn out the way she thought it would:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/14/opinion/sunday/harvey-weinstein-sarah-polley.html
Here is a story about Courtney Love warning people about Harvey Weinstein – on tape – back in 2005. She now says that she was banned and blacklisted by CAA for doing so. In case anyone is still wondering why people didn’t speak out.
https://www.avclub.com/heres-courtney-love-trying-to-warn-people-about-harvey-1819478836
Woody Allen now says he’s sad for Weinstein. As Katie Rich quipped on Twitter, “As the husband of a daughter…”
@donnaL. I read that too and wondered when the leadership at CAA would step forward and explain. How can these agents now explain their actions and will they be held accountable?
She did tell.
adding: I just don’t even know what to comment and just keep editing. She did tell.
Whether or not they are going to be able to prosecute this guy or not it is becoming clear that Americans want legal definitions around boorish behavior and assault, between flirting and harassment and what constitutes consent. I don’t know if as a society we are ready for the government to get that closely involved in our sex lives. I still think it helps if women go to the police if they feel they have been criminally assaulted or coerced…if that happens with regularity predators like this guy and others might not get to middle age unscathed.
HW was a big political donor. Of course he got a pass. Can’t stop the flow of cash.
Rose McGowan told too.
So did Corey Feldman ^^
““One 2003 study found that 75% of employees who spoke out against workplace mistreatment faced some form of retaliation,” the EEOC report found.”
https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/10/15/16438750/weinstein-sexual-harassment-facts
I’ve never been harrassed at work, but I was once stuck alone in a train carriage with a flasher. I didn’t report him to the conductor - just left the carriage and found one that was occupied by a bunch of people. My only excuse is I don’t think I had the vocabulary to describe what had happened since it was in Switzerland. But I kicked myself for not speaking up afterwards.
I also had a pretty terrifying experience hitchhiking in France. Thankfully, there were two of us and the driver ended up dropping us off and we took the train to where we were going.
Something that I noticed in most (not all) of the incidents were that they happened in Harvey’s hotel room. I find it eye opening that in the Hollywood culture, that women would feel like they have to show up in a man’s hotel room when directed. Alone. Talk about a danger signal right there, being directed to go to someone’s hotel room. In 34 years of a job that basically sends me to from hotel to hotel across the country with almost exclusively men, I have never gone to a man’s hotel room, as I would not want to even remotely send the wrong impression. If I have to communicate with someone, I call on the hotel phone or text.
It sounds like women must have felt they had no choice but to do as demanded. I wonder how many women there are out there that have done exactly what he requested, and have been too embarrassed to speak up. He wouldn’t have kept doing this for all these years if he hadn’t had some success.
I think that many of them were expecting business meetings in the hotel room and they didn’t necessarily know they were going to be alone in a hotel room.
I’m also not sure these were just hotel rooms vs suites. Or that the women knew that before they got there.
Hmm, business meetings in a hotel room (whether it’s a suite or single room)? This just sounds fishy. He must have really been a great con man to get them to show up. Or maybe just so powerful that people did whatever he said, without question. Especially since it sounds like he has a well known reputation in the industry for being a predator. I don’t think I would go to any “business meeting” in a hotel room without someone coming with me. It’s sad that these women would have to have a protector around at all times.
He was that powerful but I also don’t think business meetings in hotel suites were an anomaly, especially when they are in locations where the company doesn’t have an office.
I mean, it’s not a business I know at all, only from reading, so I could be wrong.
Many high end suites are set up like apartments with separate living rooms and dining rooms. I would expect that is the sort of arrangement he had when he was traveling. And many of the women who have told their stories said his assistant would walk them to the room and hang around for a few minutes and then disappear. I can see how they were duped into thinking it was a legitimate business meeting.
I am sure scheduling a meeting with HW was a huge deal in that industry for those starting out in the business. They were most likely thrilled with the opportunity and thinking what great luck. He played on their youth and naivete’.
It sounds like an awful business. I wonder how prevalent this kind of thing is, and if Harvey is just one of many predators.