Hollywood Sexual Harrasment/Assault Thread

[Juliajms]

I think that's the question. Did anyone really choose McGowan at all? I think she mostly chose herself  Add to that she was raped by HW who was at the center of Hollywood and she was out there on twitter bleeding publicly.  I don't blame her for her mental state because I think she got to that distraught place the way so many women have. By being victimized and then the gas-lighting starts.

[DRW50]

 

I feel like it just stuck with Argento and McGowan because they were two of the first voices through the Weinstein story, and they were both happy for the publicity. 

 

Even with Alyssa Milano, although she at least seemed more willing to give credit to the woman who started #MeToo, has taken on a presence that I find confusing - why was she at the Ford and Kavanaugh hearings, in a prime spot for camera time? Was this about her or about Christine Ford? 

 

I don't think #MeToo was a fad, now ruined by cold, hard reality - I think that it can survive with some changes, I don't think it has been mortally compromised  - but the Hollywood-focused elements need to be refocused or scaled back completely. 

[Faulkner]

Why has Ashley Judd receded so much? She seemed like a respectable face early on.

[DramatistDreamer]

 

Maybe she didn't like the vibe of where things were going.  Or maybe she didn't want to be just another Hollywood actress becoming the public face, rather than amplifying someone who has been doing the work for nearly a decade before.

 

Again, #MeToo was never conceived of being an activist vehicle for Hollywood actresses.  Judd likely knows this.

[DramatistDreamer]

Not Hollywood but Bollywood.

 

[Cat]

 

I think I read that Ashley lives either in Tennessee or Kentucky most of the time now. She was basically iced out of Hollywood because of rumors of her 'poor or difficult attitude.' I don't think she is a warm and fuzzy personality, but I think we all now know why her career, which was so promising in the early-to-mid-90s, disappeared without a trace.

 

As for the Me Too movement, because the Weinstein story blew WAY up and dominated the media space for many months,  Hollywood actresses became associated with the movement, and the media focused on their stories with a vengeance, leaving Tarana Burke (purposely?) drowned out.

 

Many actresses (and actors, let us not forget the boys and men also harassed and molested) have very authentic and viable claims against the powerful tormentors who made their lives a misery. However, I got uncomfortable when Hollywood A-listers started organising parties to 'raise awareness' and it was all highly mediatised and 'look at me!' Especially when that loud-mouth dingbat Lena Dunham showed up to be photographed and mingle with A-listers co-opt the credibility of the movement.

 

As far as Rose McGowan is concerned, it is now clear that she has major narcissism issues and loves the cult-like worship this movement initially offered her. She and Argento are more than happy to be the self-proclaimed faces of this movement, largely for the adulation. I don't think they will bring down MeToo because the movement always was and has moved beyond Hollywood. I just hope they go live quiet lives now because I am beyond tired of their intoning self-importantly about themselves.

Edited October 9, 2018 by Cat

[Khan]

I hope so, too, Cat.  I hope "regular" women and men are able to take the movement back from the celebs who tried to co-opt it.  I don't deny the fact that sexual abuse runs rampant throughout the film and TV industries.  However, the right and far-right is always so quick to dismiss anything that has anything at all to do with celebrities, and I'm worried their attempts to do the same w/ this movement will end with people turning against #MeToo for good.

[Vee]

Since day one, Rose has pivoted from her assault to talking about her amazing projects, deals, scripts etc. in development, often in the same breath. I never trusted that and never will. She seemed deeply damaged but also deeply egocentric. I absolutely believe she was assaulted and traumatized and deserves her pound of flesh from Harvey Weinstein, along with Asia Argento, whose family's work I grew up watching as a horror buff (often featuring her) and whose story was equally gut-wrenching and heartbreaking. But I also believe they're both capable of doing awful things or being shitty people.

 

I've seen predictions recently that Rose McGowan will end up pivoting from the movement to becoming a right wing or libertarian personality to service her ego. I wish I could say I find that implausible.

[Khan]

I could see Rose joining the other fembots on "Outnumbered."

[Cat]

 

With your bolded statement in mind, I would like to post an interview Tarana Burke has given to Jezebel.com. https://jezebel.com/tarana-burke-on-me-too-12-years-and-1-year-later-keep-1829587201

 

It seems as good a time as any to hear the founder of Me Too for once, instead of the  politicians, starlets, old white dudes attempt to co-opt, re-classify and mansplain what Me Too is all about. She is definitely mindful of some of the worries you have, I think, even if she refers to it as 'the media.'

 

I like how her focus is on the survivors and helping them get to a better place, instead of the media's fascination with the perpetrators, as if they were an entertaining and grotesque character study of 'flawed humanity.'

 

As far as the right and far-right (and maybe this belongs in the Politics Thread)

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Edited October 10, 2018 by Cat

[Vee]

He's back and on the run:

 

 

[DramatistDreamer]

[I Am A Swede]

I'm very pleased that they included Tarana Burke.  

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[DramatistDreamer]

Interview with Tarana Burke on the anniversary of the #MeToo going viral into the public's consciousness.

 

She Founded Me Too. Now She Wants to Move Past the Trauma.

[Faulkner]