Harvey Weinstein Is My Monster Too

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/12/13/opinion/contributors/salma-hayek-harvey-weinstein.html?_r=0

by smacktoward • 9 years ago

174 37 9 years ago

nytimes.com

mfoy_• 9 years ago

So much damage done to so many people in so many ways... ugh.

abritinthebay4• 9 years ago

Wow. An incredibly frank and honest article from Salma.

It underscores that the problem in these situations for women isn’t just assault - it’s a sexualized power that has expectations.

It’s disgusting and Weinstein should be rightly vilified for what he has done; let’s not forget that he’s a symptom of a larger societal problem however.

vkou• 9 years ago

We do forget it. Half of Alabama voted for a Weinstein as a Senator the other day.

anon11082016• 9 years ago

So did half a country https://m.imgur.com/gallery/5kcWk

alexashka3• 9 years ago

What larger societal problem is that?

I think if you took 10 random people, they'd give you 10 different answers.

smacktoward2• 9 years ago

The societal problem that men with power feel that it's acceptable to use that power to pressure women to give them what they want sexually.

(And the related problem of bystanders witnessing this behavior and failing to push back hard against it.)

mkempe• 9 years ago

Weinstein's course of action is a personal choice and responsibility. It is absurd to infer or assert collective guilt, or to ascribe some sort of original/social sin to "society." What he did is his individual vice; it is simply not a "larger social problem." Any other man who raped or otherwise assaulted women is similarly responsible for his own actions, and should be punished accordingly.

Floegipoky• 9 years ago

His abuse was a personal decision, but it wasn't made in isolation. The behavior that Hayek described doesn't fit into the traditional model of sexual misconduct. He didn't physically force himself on her, instead he used his power to emotionally degrade and control her. And that's the point- the traditional model of abuse utterly fails to protect victims. There's a reason the word "complicit" is so popular right now; abusers rely on a support network to minimize and cover up their actions. This network begins with knowledgable persons who turn a blind eye (like Tarantino) but extends all the way out to those who victim-shame on social media. And the fact that so many women suffer sexual abuse and so few abusers are held accountable shows that it is absolutely a larger social problem. "Isolated incidents" that affect 1/6 of a population must be viewed systemically.

https://www.rainn.org/sites/default/files/Out_Of_1000_Rapes%... http://www.11thprincipleconsent.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/...

abritinthebay4• 9 years ago

Yes, absolutely Weinstein made that choice.

That he was comfortable making that choice, that it was seen as normal or just something that happened, that women felt their careers would be in jeopardy if they spoke up, that demanding additional sex scenes at the last minute wasn’t laughed off the lot...

... these are all symptoms of the broader social normalization of his abuse of power.

This year has been a turning point for pointing out it exists and some consequences for the individuals who do it... but it’s barely scratched the surface

ashwinpp• 9 years ago

Curious about why this article went missing from the first few pages in a few minutes it took me to read it. Is it by design or intervention and if intervention then the rationale for it.

I found the article to be underscoring in detail the modus operandi of sexual harassment in the film industry (and workspaces in general) and adds a fair amount of interesting thoughts to my mind about the functioning of society and inherent oppression within.

klenwell• 9 years ago

I noticed the same thing. Right now it's near the top of the second page. But at 90 upvotes in less than an hour, it appears it should be solidly on the front page.

My educated guess: lots of downvotes pushing it down, a fact (more cruel perhaps than ironic) consistent with the points Salma Hayek is making in her article.

dominotw• 9 years ago

My educated guess: lots of downvotes pushing it down, a fact (more cruel perhaps than ironic) consistent with the points Salma Hayek is making in her article.

You cannot downvote a submission, just comments.

Deimorz• 9 years ago

Anything "controversial" (even when something like this really shouldn't be thought of that way) gets flagged/pushed down the rankings extremely quickly, especially if it doesn't have a strong tech connection so it's reasonably justifiable to consider it "off topic".

HN is great for a narrow set of topics and types of articles, but anything outside that set usually either doesn't do well here in the first place, or gets forced down even if it does.

vmnieowan8736• 9 years ago

Anyone who thinks, "a little nudity in a movie is harmless" needs to read this.

dragonwriter4• 9 years ago

So, I read it, and it doesn't say anything to indicate that nudity (whether a little or a lot) in a movie is harmful, but that the particular nudity in this particular movie wasn't the product of the creators artistic vision but power plays by a funder, and that the harmful stemmed explocitly from the manipulative personal power dynamics, not the nudity.

vmnieowan8736• 9 years ago

Yes, this was probably a very isolated incident. Keep telling yourself that.

khedoros12• 9 years ago

A little nudity in a movie is harmless. A little nudity being forced into a movie as a sexual power play isn't. The problem isn't the nudity, it's why it's there. If people are naked due to an act of symbolic rape in the real world and not as a device to enhance the story, that's a problem. However, if no one forces anyone else to do something that they don't want to, I have difficulty seeing that as a problem.

The nudity isn't the harm. Being forced into it is.

vmnieowan8736• 9 years ago

So define "forced" here. She could have said no and not made the film. Does that mean this was OK?

JBlue42• 9 years ago

Guy seems to fit every characteristic of a psychopath. Glad he's finally been taken out of power and society.

agnivade• 9 years ago

What is the reason for this to be flagged ?

gspetr• 9 years ago

Since not everyone regularly submits to HN, I think reposting the link from the footer is relevant:

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

"Hacker News Guidelines

What to Submit

On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.

Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Ideological or political battle or talking points. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic."

This isn't anything groundbreaking as Harvey was already exposed, this is just another data point.

Harvey Weinstein Is My Monster Too

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