Reel Talk: Harvey Weinstein, Andy Signore and Men in Power

Over the past couple of days the movie world has been rocked by two bombshell reports. The first and most prominent is the New York Times report about Weinstein studio head Harvey Weinstein, alleging years of sexual harassment and abuse. The second is a series of similar accusations against Honest Trailers creator Andy Signore by two female employees. If I had to categorize my reaction to both of these stories it would have to be depressingly unsurprised. Men in power take advantage of women, and the more powerful they are, be it through position or wealth, will continue to do it until their darkest deeds come to light. It appears that both organizations involved are looking at outside investigations and I hope that they are as thorough and scathing as possible. In the meantime, here are some things to bear in mind.

The Power Balance is Often Worse in Creative Fields

Simply being alone in a room with a man who holds power over your career is always is a dicey proposition, especially if the man is looking to take advantage of that dynamic. In creative fields this can be way worse. Not because it's an inherent element of art, but because the be it movies, or jokes about movies, the number of people with the ability to make or break your career or control your livelihood is much smaller.

If you're an accountant and your boss is a sexist jerk, this is awful, but at least everyone needs an accountant. But the market for acting jobs, or comedy writing gigs with established companies is much smaller and that makes the power dynamic even more lop-sided.

Losing a small job on a film can make or break your entire career, and if you know you hold that power and decide to abuse it, the pressure on your victim is amplified.

This is a Company Problem Too

Any company that allows this to happen or ignores women coming forward has a culture problem from the top down. I don't care if the man's name is on the company, no organization should be this afraid of exposure or require a startling news story to investigate and make changes.

This always seems to be a means of protecting the bottom line, but here's the dirty secret. It's actual worse for your bottom line when accusations accumulate over time and come to light like this. Your employees will feel betrayed and unsafe, no one will want to work with you, and anyone on the fence about watching your movies or supporting your work has been pushed into the opposite camp.

Every accusation, no matter how big or small, should receive the utmost scrutiny, not only for the sake of our society, but for your company as a whoe. 

It Doesn't Matter How Long it Took or Where it Came From, Take This Seriously

Two of the hangups for people trying to process accusations of this nature are the time between the act and coming forward and the source. There's no timeline for sexual harassment accusations. Some women will come forward right away and others will wait for years due to fear or trauma. The time-lapse does not mean the accusations are false. 

Likewise, I can already smell some folks about to say that this is a hatchet job by Weinstein's brother, who apparently brought many of these accusations to light. As far as I'm concerned, the only thing suspicious about this is that it took the word of a man who either witnessed it or knew about it for years, to come forward for this story to gain traction.

The actions that Weinstein and Signore are accused of are criminal, and they need to be treated as such. 

Believe the Women Who Came Forward

There's an ongoing false narrative in our country that a large number of women who report sexual abuse, lie or have some dark exterior motive for making accusations. Breezing past the fact that false claims are the exception, a woman has a staggering number of reasons to stay silent. Here's a few.

• She will receive immediate attacks on her character and truthfulness
• Her job and future employment could be put in jeopardy
• She will receive threats, including rape threats from strangers
• Police and authorities are often hestitant or resistant to pressing charges
• Some people will say that whatever they experienced was harmless
• Her mental competency, aka her ability to view events objectively will be questioned
• Abusers will threaten or pay women into silence
• The experience itself is so traumatic that speaking about it is mentally and physically unbearable

Now I can already hear the legal minds bringing in the "innocent until proven guilty" approach to developing an opionion. And legally, yes there is a burden of proof on the state in terms of convictions, but publicly and personally we the media injesting public do not do this and it would hypocritical to apply this logic solely to men accused of rape. 

It's an old point but if we need everyone to have their day in court before our minds are made up would you feel comfortable letting any woman you know go to dinner with Bill Cosby unsupervised?

Sexual harassment and abuse is not something women bring up for fun. They do it because they want the truth to be known and they want to keep the same thing from happening to someone else.