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Tyler The Creator was right.
Fuck Bill O’Reilly. Fuck him and his infotainment bullshit. The Weinstein effect has been in full force the last few weeks, and it’s showing in the world of entertainment where big names are starting to drop like flies. However, the trend isn't limited to names everyone knows, and is spreading like wildfire. I say let the metaphorical gasoline get thrown on the metaphorical wildfire. The trend is exposing everyone — celebrities to news hosts, musicians to political identities. I want people to fry for what they’ve done, to be left with nothing after the public is done with them. This conversation is about news hosts, journalists, and others within the news media that have been accused in recent times of sexual misconduct. I'm going to start with a quick synopsis of each man and what they were accused of and then we’ll dig into just why this is as bad as what’s happening to those getting swept into the flames of the Weinstein effect in Hollywood. Mark Halperin was a reporter at ABC for years, and has accumulated a long list of accusers. He is accused of forced kissing, having erections at inappropriate times, and much like Louis C.K., he seems to like masturbating in front of unwilling women. Charlie Rose had a show on PBS and Bloomberg for years and years, at which he allegedly has done a fair amount bad stuff; from touching women’s thighs as a way to gauge their reactions, walking around naked after showers, and in one woman’s case, an ass grab. Eric Bolling was a rising star at Fox News and was exposed recently. He was let go from his position because he was sending unsolicited photos of (his?) genitalia to current and former female staff members at Fox. Bill O’Reilly has been accused of sexual harassment and verbal abuse of women that worked on or with his show The O’Reilly Factor, dating back all the way to 2004. He has been under heavy scrutiny for a long time, and there has been a sweeping trend of huge companies pulling their ads from his program. And finally, Matt Lauer, whose story has been breaking today. He's done some very horrible things in the last few years, including giving a sex toy to a coworker as a gift with a mention of wanting to use it on her, exposing himself, making people play 'fuck, marry, kill' with him in his office about co-workers, so on, and so forth. These are people that we as a nation look to for guidance in troubling times. TV news hosts and journalists provide the stories that we need to hear as a nation, even if our opinions on the story are different. By making workspaces unsafe, the profession is looking less and less professional every day. I know for a fact that if I was planning on pursuing a career in journalism, these stories would turn me off from it in a major way, even more so if I were a female. Providing news shouldn’t be a boys club, and treating women as equals should be something you do because it’s right to do, not because you had to be told to do so. Some media outlets are learning the hard way that if you choose to ignore the kind of toxicity that exists that you will lose out on not only being better people, but also loads of cash from ad revenue. Companies that won’t support shitty people, won’t support you. This was the case with Bill O’Reilly’s program, and the results were great. Events like this and Reddit backlash have inspired groups like Sleeping Giants to form and become prominent, encouraging people to stop racist and sexist media by stopping their ad revenue. Reports from everyday readers have drawn attention to ad placement, forcing companies to take a stand. This is good. We all need to take a stand.
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The first domino in 2017's parade of predators was Harvey Weinstein.
This guy had everything he could have ever wanted. He had the money, Miramax, and a career full of being a big fancy producer and film executive. He was literally pumping out hit films that everyone knew and loved. Clearly, none of that was enough. Once again, it was the New York Times who broke the story and created the Weinstein effect, a national backlash against sexual harassment and assault. The Weinstein Effect is the only good thing to come of all of these accusations — bringing down powerful men who use their positions in ways that are 1.) generally fucked up or 2.) demeaning to women and their place in society. The Weinstein Effect is described as a phenomenon where allegations of sexual harassment and assault against celebrities are publicized and trigger responses from companies and institutions. Personally, I think the trend of cutting all financial ties and business dealings with predators is one I could get used to. People like Harvey Weinstein who have no regard for anyone but themselves deserve the media blasts on how shitty they are. Just to give you some perspective, here’s a list of the accusers that have been brave enough to share their stories publicly. Alice Evans. Amber Anderson. Ambra Battilana Gutierrez. Angelina Jolie. Angie Everhart. Ashley Judd. Asia Argento. Carla Delevingne. Claire Forlani. Dawn Dunning. Emily Nestor. Emma de Caunes. Florence Darel. Gwyneth Paltrow. Jessica Barth. Judith Godreche. Heather Graham. Kate Beckinsale. Katherine Kendall. Katya Mtsitouridze. Laura Madden. Lauren Sivan. Lauren O’Conner. Lea Seydoux. Lena Headey. Liza Campbell. Louisette Geiss. Louise Godbold. Lucia Evans. Lupita Nyong’o. Lysette Anthony. Marisa Coughlan. Melissa Sagemiller. Mia Kirshner. Mimi Haleyi. Minka Kelly. Mira Sorvino. Romala Garia. Rose McGowan. Rosanna Arquette. Sarah Ann Masse. Sarah Smith. Sophie Dix. Tara Subkoff. Tomi-Ann Roberts. Trish Goff. Vu Thu Phuong. Zelda Perkins. Zoe Brock. Let that sink in. These are the named accusers of sexual misconduct involving this human pile of garbage. Estimates of how many people he has accusations from are in the 80s. That’s 80 lives that he has personally caused death of an expectation, a death of decency, and a death of dreams. I just don’t understand how people can cause wreckage in every path they choose and leave the victims to clean themselves up. There are more accusers that have chosen to remain anonymous, which is completely understandable. While I respect that some of it may be hard to relive, expose, or be made public knowledge could impact mental health (and believe me I’m the biggest supporter of making sure that choices you make are in line with your mental stability), I believe the time is now. The time to call out men on their bullshit and using positions of power to manipulate those below them is now. It is absolutely now. The window has opened for women to stand up and I think that now more than ever they absolutely need to. This is me calling on anyone who has faced sexual misconduct to stop being idle and to make men own up to their shit. The time to act is now, the power has been shifted to the rightful party for once in history and must be taken advantage of. Now, more than ever, society needs to accept of these victims, of all genders, socioeconomic backgrounds, ages, races; (remember, men experience these things as well) coming forward and telling their stories. We need to sympathize, rather than try and poke holes in their narrative. We need to empathize. We need to understand that what these people went through was more than a slap in the face, and impacted them for the rest of their lives. We need to get through this so that the future will be better, so that society can advance, so people can get the chance they deserve in the world without having to pay sexual favors, be seduced unwillingly, or fear that their careers will be crushed if they neglect to submit to the first two. This year has been killing me.
I’ve been sitting for the better part of it trying my best to keep a cool head about it, but I’m angry. A lot of people that I looked up to being called out for being shitty people, and it's been a whirlwind. If you asked me if this could happen a few years ago, I probably would have shrugged, but welcome to 2017. I am a firm believer that it is not hard to not be a shitty person, it basically comes down to 1.) being ethical and 2.) understanding that your body is yours and 2.5) everyone else’s body is not yours. f you don’t understand that, hit the back page button because I’m about to go on a rant about one of my ex-favorite comedians, Louis C.K. Louis, Louis, Louis.... My first question is what the fuck? and my second question is dude, seriously, what the fuck? Louis C.K. was one of my favorite comedians, up there with John Mulaney and Dave Chappelle -- they are all of the genre of ‘real comedians’ where they are a ‘comedian’s comedian’ rather than appealing to a broader audience. Louis C.K.’s humor style made light of situations that we can all find ourselves in and kind of can sympathize with his feelings in some of the scenarios he describes. He was always one to talk about masturbation in his routines as well. This seemed like all fun and games until we all found out that he actually really had some problems with masturbation, and was also prone to oversharing his tendencies to play with himself. To a shocking degree. There were 5 women, through the course of almost a decade, that he used his power over. The details were splashed across print, social media, push notifications, by The New York Times, detailing the accounts of Dana Min Goodman and Julia Wolov, Abby Schachner, and Rebecca Corry, all of whom had come into contact with Louis C.K. and had had incidents with him regarding masturbation. The first two, Dana and Julia, were at a Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado in 2002 that Louis also happened to be at. They were invited by Louis back to his room after their performance on what seemed like professional pretenses. That’s when Louis decided to ask them if he could masturbate in front of them, then got ass naked and started playing with himself. Abby Schachner recounts a similar experience during a phone call in 2003 where he was audibly masturbating while on the line with her. The experience of Rebecca Corry aligns with these stories as well, as Louis had asked if she could masturbate in front of her, which she respectfully declined. It’s one thing to be sexually damaged, it’s another to inflict it onto others. Clearly Louis C.K. has some confidence issues and knows exactly who he is and what he was doing to these people. There is no way to explain or joke your way out of something like this. I firmly believe it’s okay to self sabotage as long as you’re not hurting those around you. Louis C.K. knew what he was doing, then set out in a predatory fashion with intent to hurt people through actions he chose. No one just does things like this, and the fact that he had a platform of fame to use as a shield must have made him feel pretty damn invincible. 2017 has been a wild ride with many things changing, especially how we treat sexual misconduct and abuse, as well as how we view the perpetrators. It’s very quickly becoming my favorite year for exposing people’s bullshit, and calling people out for doing things that we all know are wrong, and are not any less wrong because you make people laugh. Though he clearly must have felt so inadequate that the only way to make himself feel less disgusting was to traumatize others and drag them down with him, but this is not, and never will be, an excuse. Normal people do not do these sort of things, and being a funny man doesn’t excuse it at all. I used to look up to this guy, I related to his comedy and appreciated his views on a lot of things in life that just suck. Wholeheartedly, it rattled me to my core to see this. Seeing heroes transform so quickly into trash has been This isn’t the last person that I’ll be talking about this week that I’ve grown to hate, that I used to look up to, but that’s how 2017 is going to be. Buckle up, because one by one these pricks with power will start to fall. I only hope it causes a chain reaction. |
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