Hollywood Sexual Harrasment/Assault Thread

[amybrickwallace]

 

In the famous words from Casablanca, I am shocked, SHOCKED to read this. 

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[Cat]

Lena Dunham is back, unfortunately. This weekend amid all the Golden Globes stuff, she showed up at a #TimesUp event and shoehorned herself into the photo of the activists and actresses. Then she posted the pic on her IG with this caption:

 

 

"Humbled to stand alongside these amazing women and say #TIMESUPon systemic oppression, underrepresentation, discrimination, abuse and violence in all industries. 🖤"

 

This chick is shameless! Piggybacking on other people's work and then swooping in at the end to take credit for it. She called Aurore Perrineau a liar when she went to the police about her rape! Has she apologized to her since? And yes, I know that Meryl Streep and Susan Sarandon are there too, and they are problematic also.

 

Anyway, Tessa Thompson, who has been involved with #TimesUp since it started, responded to questions on her social media about Lena's inclusion in the picture with this:

 

“Lena was not anywhere present in our group during the countless hours of work for the last two months. We hosted an open house for the actresses for red carpet messaging and Lena presence was a surprise to us all. This is a time of reckoning. And for many, a re-education. So many women also have real work to do. I’m afraid it’s too nuanced a conversation to have on this platform. But I hear you, and know that your thoughts and words are not lost on me. It’s been discussed.”

 

Ever one to jump on an opportunity to have the media talking about her, Lena issued this statement 0.03 seconds afterwards:

 

“I was honored to be invited to the meeting by a close friend and to observe the work that these amazing women have been doing the past few months. For highly personal reasons, I’ve been unable to join previous efforts but being asked to be a part of this celebratory moment was truly beautiful. I’ve worked with Tessa and respect her artistry and admire her consistent candor.”

 

So then Tessa was put in the position of posting this:

 

https://twitter.com/TessaThompson_x/status/950671186735742976

 

Will Lena ever stop promoting herself and acting like the world revolves around her ass? This snowflake outstayed her welcome ages ago!

 

 

Edited January 10, 2018 by Cat

[amybrickwallace]

That woman is, to put it mildly, a disgrace. 😠😠😠😠😠

[Khan]

WHY must every brush with Lena Dunham end with Black people looking like boogey men and women?  She and Taylor Swift LIVE for that [!@#$%^&*]; and I Just. Can't. anymore with those Beckies.

Edited January 10, 2018 by Khan

[Cat]

 

I WISH this idiot had some shame in her game. Creeping into that photo shoot, pretending like she's been hanging with these women for months talking women's issues. She's about to pounce on an unsuspecting Emma Stone and make a beeline for Reese Witherspoon. It's so obvious she doesn't give a F*** about anything involving sexual harrassment/abuse. She just wants an 'in' with the cool Hollywood squad again.

 

 

I assume it's because it used to be so easy  to make the black person look like the angry ranting unhinged one, and the white girl like the poor widdle victim. Nobody asked why someone might be angry in the first place.  I remember the drip-drip-drip of media attacks against Kanye West after TayGate, speculating that he was unhinged, bipolar etc. Wendy Williams still calls him the Mad Man. In actual fact, Kanye wasn't even angry at Taylor, he was probably somewhat drunk. And he picked the wrong moment. He interrupted Taylor Swift's victory lap and her fake modesty and her thanks to all her famous friends. How dare he?? Thanks to Yeezus, he saved us from yet another excruciating acceptance speech from Perky McFakePerson. He should be applauded. And I do applaud his wife for showing the receipts and exposing TayTay in 2016.

 

Back to Becky Lena, I'm especially mad that Lena's quickly-timed passive-aggressive boo-hoo poor-me press statement she issued was designed to force some kind of... if not apology from Tessa, then at least force her to backtrack on her statement. What Tessa said initially about Lena's presence being a surprise was totally appropriate and the truth. She shouldn't have to re-explain her words.

 

Also I assumed the "highly personal reasons" Lena cited for not initially participating in #TimesUp was the fact that everybody was shunning her ass. It turns out she also released a statement yesterday that she and her BF broke up. Boo hoo! Look at me! I'm the victim!

Edited January 10, 2018 by Cat

[Khan]

 

Tell me about it.  Whenever I was disciplined in school for my temper, it almost always involved a white girl.  There were exceptions, of course, but I would say 98 percent of the time, I would be punished for something another Becky had started.  (The other two percent, by the way, was with white boys.)  

 

And she wonders why her Black classmates in high school always called her "white girl."

 

Look, I'm not excusing Kanyeezus for his behavior that night, but most Black people knew better than to vilify him in order to make Taylor look like the assault victim she CLEARLY wanted to play later in the press.  It's only skinfolk like Wendy who thought the white people had a point.

Edited January 10, 2018 by Khan

[Cat]

 

I can't speak to black experience, and can only speak as someone who hated school and the disciplinarians who didn't care about fairness but just wanted to keep kids in line. When you said the word 'temper,' it really struck me how that word projects on black kids sometimes. Instead of treating a perfectly normal temper tantrum, you get the knee-jerk reaction of containment. Contain the threat. Take a time-out. Avoid confrontation at all costs! Nevermind that sometimes you need to address conflict directly -- rather than sweep it under the carpet or make a false equivalency out of it ("She says she's sorry, so you have to say you're sorry").

 

With black kids that fear of 'containing the anger' is pretty high among white parents and teachers etc and pretty instutionalized. And it's been that way a long time. I think we all know why it's that way. It's about black kids being dehumanised.  

 

As for Beckys and white girl pettiness, sigh. Yes, I can speak to that experience. Some of us are taught to be passive-aggressive early on. It's sneaky, throw-the-rock-but-hide-the-hand behaviour. Some of us grow out of it, but in the case of Taylor Swift, the need to always PUBLICLY be the good girl, to always take the opportunity to play the victim and milk that sympathy, is strong. Because that's what gets you results.

 

It was so easy to milk this, I'm sure TayTay didn't consciously think twice about it. It was a no-brainer who America would support. It's only now that we are shaken out of our apathy a bit and getting a tiny bit more aware (and also thanks to the nation's pettiest Valley girl, Kim Kardashian West, who sat on her revenge for months until it could be served deliciously cold -- I've got to admit my admiration for her methods and motives) that we are reminded of how psychologically attitudes are deliberately constructed and entrenched in our society.

 

Anyhoo I sound as annoyingly precious as Lena Dunham so I'm going to stop. As for Wendy Williams, she's always been off. The lack of food got to her brain.

Edited January 10, 2018 by Cat

[amybrickwallace]

I don't normally condone violence, but he truly deserved this!!!

 

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/harvey-weinstein-slapped-at-resort-scottsdale-1073585

[Khan]

IA.  And I'll buy whoever did it a drink just as soon as he sleeps off the 8 or 10 he must've had before slapping him.

[amybrickwallace]

Yes! It's just too bad the guy wasn't sober enough to aim lower!!

[DRW50]

Another Ronan piece.

 

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/ronan-farrow-hollywood-prince-who-torched-castle-1073405?utm_source=twitter

 

Lena is very well-protected. For all the hype from the media early on about how she was so real and true, she's from a wealthy family and has very influential backers, like that overrated hack Judd Apatow (given the views his work has of women I'm not surprised a number of his flunkies have been involved in sexual harassment or assault controversies). It's saddening to think about how many talented writers and producers and actors fall through the cracks, while she gets chance after chance after chance. This year has reminded me more than ever how out of touch the industry is.

 

This is also the reason I skipped the Golden Globes and will be skipping all awards shows from now on. I'm just tired of the hypocrisy and the gamesmanship and the narcissism. And social media just makes it worse. Things like "Time's Up" are such generic buzzwords that are more about making a subset feel better than about fomenting change. I saw people using that to go after Sam Rockwell and that Sarksgard brother on Big Little Lies for not using speeches to condemn violence or sexism even though they played violent/racist/sexist characters. Surely anyone watching these shows know that racism and sexism are wrong. 

 

People who can't stop their Twitter fingers from flying need to go help actual people with actual problems who don't care about Sam Rockwell playing a racist in a movie 5 people have seen. 

[Khan]

 

Amen.

[Cat]

 

Agreed. When Hollywood gets onto its high horse about something, it preaches condescendingly. A bit "I'm talking slowly so the people at home will be able to understand what I'm saying." It's also very much an easy advocacy of the  'I'll hastag something on my Twitter and raise awareness by my mere celebrity presence' kind which, as we all know, you can do while lying in bed. (One of the reasons why Lena Dunham's 'feminism' so irks me). It's like Hollywood is waiting for us peons to do the gruntwork. Obviously we have to if we want to see change across the board but... it feels very easy on their part. It's also hard to know who means it and who is just doing it to be seen.

 

Also I know this is sacrilege because Oprah's speech was so incredibly written and delivered (even though she failed to mention the men and boys who have been abused and spoken out! I found that omission noticeable)... but there was one point where I thought she was going to say "And YOU get a car! YOU get a car!" lol

Edited January 10, 2018 by Cat

[Vee]

I think there's good being done - starting with Ronan Farrow's hard, dangerous work - but I also think we're reaching a tipping point where every bandwagon becomes suspect. My fear (for awhile now, actually, going back to like 2015) is we're reaching a point of early-mid 2000s Limp Bizkit/Jackass The Movie-style right wing backlash in pop culture, a la Trump, because so much of the 'woke' stuff in media and online is just performative bullshit and parlor games for coastal blogger kids trying to police material and play high school cliqueism.

 

There are valid points made, but everything can't be viewed from the same gush/hate college freshman lens all the fücking time. And too much is. If everything is commoditized and hashtagged then it becomes a status symbol and performance vs. actionable change. And yeah, that includes the sexual harassment wave. When everything is seized upon and nothing is questioned or nuanced, my fear is this will ultimately lead to a lot of people throwing up their hands and just saying 'whatever' to sexual violence or any number of other issues. And yes, I include Rose McGowan's recent behavior in that furor. I think she's been through a lot and has every right to her voice, but I think people take everything she says as gospel at their peril.

 

(Three Billboards is a pretty good movie about very difficult, ugly people, though - the overnight backlash over it is so high school, I've got no time for it.)

Edited January 10, 2018 by Vee

[DRW50]

Good points (from everyone).

 

I don't know whether the Oprah stuff belongs here or in the politics thread, but some really are taking her seriously. I saw that Seal (of all people) went after her today about her ties to Weinstein. 

 

I'm more concerned about her ties to quacks. 

 

https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/1/9/16868216/oprah-winfrey-pseudoscience