Come to think of it, I don't even know why Weinstein got in trouble either. He is absolutely not the only person in Hollywood who traded sex for success. And Hollywood is also not the only place that happens. Did he commit crimes? maybe. But to be fair to him, it's hard to believe anyone going to his hotel room for an interview didn't actually know exactly what was going to happen. Honestly, it's borderline impossible for me to believe they didn't know. I was hearing rumors about this kind of thing, going on with new actresses all the way back to 1996. I'm not even kidding, this was a known thing for people who didn't even work in the industry, who simply lived in LA and had some connections.
Not sure what's more disgusting, that you have 2 spaces instead of 1 before each sentence, or that you are downplaying sexual assault and that you are doing victim-perpetrator role reversal.
I hate writing on the internet sometimes, because it is very hard to have a nuanced discussion about these things. But let me just say, first and foremost I am not claiming Weinstein is a victim at all.
I am saying that in the vast majority of the situations there may have been no victim. That is not at all the same thing, and perhaps warrants a much larger discussion.
Or let me put it a different way, because we may have a very different disagreement: Is prostitution, when both parties are freely, knowingly making the decisions, and both parties are adults, a victimless transaction?
It is my guess that often, with Weinstein, people knew exactly what they were doing, and what they were doing was getting paid for sex with fame and fortune.
And my weak-as-**** evidence for this, is that I was told everyone knew about this kind of thing in the 90s and that it was fairly ubiquitous, even with the men, btw... because that too was part of what I was told. Moreover, the way I was told about these things, was not "and this is bad" but rather that this is how people get the edge of other people to get the job they are all seeking.
Yes, all of this comes across as terrible, but don't shoot the messenger. Because I'm not saying ANY of this is okay.
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The kind of thing that troubles me:
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-41594672Second bullet:
"8 October 2017
It is announced that Harvey Weinstein has been sacked by the board of his company, with immediate effect. They say the decision was made "in light of new information about misconduct"."
"New information" is absolute weapons-grade ****. By this point, he had been doing that **** for 20+ years, and there is 0 chance that I was aware of this kind of behavior in 1996, and his board found out about it in 2017. 0 chance whatsoever. They would have had to be blind, and deaf on purpose to avoid knowing about something like that, when everyone else knew it was going on - the fact they didn't investigate him is very telling. This is not equivalent to sexual gatekeeping at a specific company, this was, from what I understand, gatekeeping for an entire industry.
The whole thing stinks to high heaven.
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So maybe the real point that I SHOULD be making is: if what Weinstein did rises to the level of termination, destruction of his reputation, etc... why on earth is he the only one? I suppose there's the corner case that it was unique to him, and ALL of the rumors were based off of his actions, but I find that very hard to believe - I was told ubiquitous, not sometimes... meaning 'everyone in Hollywood **** their way to fame, and this is known to everyone in Hollywood.' And I find it impossible to believe that his board didn't know. Which brings up another question: why weren't his handlers accused of being accomplices? If any of this was criminal, which according to the courts it was, then why wasn't all of it criminal?
I still have no idea if I'm communicating the point clearly enough with all of the above (and preferably without coming across as an apologist ****).