They have the right to be heard, to be listened to, but not believed. They still have to prove their case.
I say this because I notice a floodgate opening up in the wake of the Weinstein sex allegations, and the subsequent calls to end this culture of sex crimes in Hollywood. Of course the real story in all of this is Hollywood as Elmer Gantry. An institution of endless hypocrisy, having no concern about the values it hoists on the viewing public. Wagging its fingers at us, turning its craft into nothing more than an advocacy industry, only to find out that it never really cared about those things. It was more than happy to throw women under the bus when convenient, and that includes those women who knew, but stayed silent in order to build up their own multi-million dollar power bases.
Rather than focus on this, since Hollywood and the Entertainment industry have become indispensable for advancing the progressive cause, we are now seeing that chiefest of all tactics when things go sour for the cause: deflection. Now it's not just Weinstein, or even Hollywood in general. It's men. Just men in general. It's everywhere. It's in all things.
I watched a segment on the news last night where it was a string of women saying that this is just par for the course. Everywhere they go, in every job, in every setting, this is what they endure. All the time, from cat calls to actual rape, this is the cross women bear, being in a world where they must endure men. It ends up being about all men, not just Weinstein, and most importantly, not Hollywood.
Sorry, but it reminds me of back in the late 90s, when we learned that not only had all presidents had affairs, but it turns out all men sleep around on their wives at least once or more. I remember back when Geraldo Rivera was on CNBC. He was talking about the Clinton scandal post-dress. At one point, he waved his arm vaguely at the camera and pronounced that 'all guys have done this once in their lives.'
Really? Each and every man ever has had an affair? Sorry, no.
One of the staples of the modern left is the notion that all people are always scum. The farther away you get from a protected demographic, the more scum they are. Men are always itching to rape women. Whites always want to lynch blacks. Straights always want to torture gays. Christians always want to persecute religious minorities. And on and on.
Likewise, whatever it is that the left is promoting, like sex or drugs or abortion or anything, it prefers to suggest people have always done it anyway. We're being decadent? Well, everyone has always been that way. We're living a life of no morals or principles, just hedonism and narcissism? Heck, everyone has always done that.
So whatever the issue, the Left can always rest on 'everyone has always done that.' In this case, it takes attention away from the clear hustle that was Hollywood's righteous indignation about such things as women's rights. Most thinking people should have recognized the glaring inconsistencies, but that didn't keep the Entertainment Industry from putting on a good show. It knew of this culture of sex crimes, all while getting up on stage and pointing its finger at your average American trying to get by, and saying how low they were, while Hollywood was the divinely appointed messenger of the good news.
No, Weinstein is about Hollywood's Elmer Gantry level shystering. We're not talking about an industry that tried hard to live up to its standards but failed. We're talking about one that flagrantly ignored, violated, or dismissed the same standards it used when convenient to beat down others, or advance political or ideological agendas. It's not about all men being rapist thugs, or Donald Trump, or White Conservative Christians. It's about Tinseltown. Anything else is just deflection.
Shea's post on this is darkly hilarious.
ReplyDeleteYeah, men have never listened to women about this...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottsboro_Boys
Nope. Never listened...
A parallel universe I have no desire to visit anymore. it's just to creepily weird and unreal.
DeleteYes, it IS almost all men and it certainly is at least one man in every job. Hollywood could disappear this afternoon and men would still think women exist as your entertainment. All of you, at least once, and most of you all the time.
ReplyDeleteNo, it's not almost all men, unless the bar is lowered such that a hello and a smile (which I seem to remember being said to be a form of harassment) can be seen as such.
DeleteWait, is it all men or at least 1 man in every job?
DeleteCongrats on making a statement that's so trivially true it's completely meaningless.
Of course all of this is even funnier after the Mike Pence bruhaha for those of us who remember.
ReplyDeleteI've heard that mentioned once.
DeleteIt certainly isn't all men, but it is pervasive enough that, so far as I can tell, all women have experienced sexual harassment of some sort. I did have one job (at a youth residential treatment center) where I did not experience any sexual harassment; there was one person who was clearly anti-women, but he hated nearly everyone, male and female, so it was annoying but felt less targeted. But high school, college, the vast majority of jobs I held? It's a big problem; it only takes one or two scummy people to make the environment as a whole very miserable.
ReplyDeleteI think the first thing that would help is to define sexual harassment. I mean that, BTW. Remember, earlier this year, as I said above, there was quite a big kerfuffle about some women saying that men asking a woman to smile was a form. Count me guilty of that one. That's not to say there isn't a problem with that, just like any problem with people we can imagine. My concern is that this not be used to deflect from the problem at hand. If this is something prevalent as some say, happening everywhere and suspecting any and all men of guilty, the we need some numbers and facts. But in the meantime, we have the fact that a very powerful man who spent much time attacking others was supported by others who either suspected, or experienced his own sins, while staying silent and simply attacking others. That, to me, is the big crime of the day.
DeleteLeah's column addressing overall vulgarity is a good start; it's hard to call someone on icky comments when so many people see it as just normal speech or when the harasser can hide behind insisting it's normal.
DeleteBut yes, it was harassment when a co-worker told me all about how he loves seeing girls sit indian-style; when a co-worker patted my breasts or behind whenever he walked by; when a customer (a regular from a near-by car dealership) said he could get me a car (that I was not old enough to drive) if I went out with him; when customers grabbed my hand instead of just handing over payment and refused to let go while making obscene tongue gestures; when I asked a customer if there was anything else and he started in about fish sandwiches. There was a clear difference between those (and other) incidents and guys (my age) who would just ask if I was seeing anyone and drop it if I wasn't interested. Seriously, this isn't hard.
It was not even close to every co-worker or customer doing it, but it was still icky to experience, very prevalent, and nearly impossible to get managers to intervene (and they were sometimes the ones making the comments).
I would take it in stride for a manager to tell me to smile (or wear my hair up or wear a certain color of shoes) as that's part of the deal working in service industries. But I would find it really weird for a random guy to tell me that at the grocery store or something; what makes me his business? I would never tell someone else, male or female, that.
I agree that the Weinstein thing is about more than just his behavior and has a lot to do with the overall culture (of both Hollywood and the US at large) and I think it's disingenuous for Hollywood to suddenly pretend they care when they sure didn't about Woody Allen or Roman Polanski or various others over the years. But I also get why it was so hard for his victims to speak out.
I have no doubt it can happen. My wife can attest to that. I don't know if it is worse nowadays or not. I know our outrage and indignation seems somewhat inconsistent. For instance, back during the Transgender bathroom issue, I heard several women express concern. Not that they cared about Transgenders in the bathroom, but that they were concerned this hadn't been thought out, and loopholes might allow predators or other unsavories into their bathrooms or locker rooms. Seemed like a sensible complaint, especially given what women are coming out and saying about he prevalence of the problem.
DeleteThe issue for me is that, almost to a person, those women who expressed concern were met with variations on 'shut up you homophobic b--ches.' Or when we heard dismissiveness about women who claimed to be victims in the late 90s. Or, for that matter, an entire industry that apparently knows all about this culture of sex assaults, but for reasons beyond me kept it quiet until now. It's almost as if we don't really have morals or principles, or care about victims here or there. We just get outraged when convenient. 'If all those things you mention help the cause, then by golly Anna, we need to take action! If they don't, or worse they hinder the cause, then you just need to sit down, shut up, and stop your whining.' And of course, not just men, but women as well took part in the malleable complacency.
I sometimes think that this here today, gone later today approach to ethics and principles, more than anything else - more than race, sexism, sexual assault, gun violence, or anything - is the great evil of our age. After all, it's tough to rally the population when, in another month or so, the same population will be told to stop their crying because their victim-hood is no longer beneficial to the important cause. That's just me at least.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteAnna, I'm so sorry, I accidentally removed your comment. There was absolutely nothing wrong with it! I was hitting reply when I hit remove by accident (they wisely have those two right next to each other). Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, there is no way to undo remove a comment. I got the gist of your comment when I was hitting reply though, and yes, my problem is the clear hypocrisy, and the feeling that this is only an issue because it is convenient to be an issue now. Sorry about that.
DeleteFreudian microaggression slip, I presume.
Delete(kidding, in case it isn't clear)
:)
Delete