usmbguest5318
Gold Member
The Weinstein affair is just the latest manifestation of the litany of social ills that beset the U.S. We've got racial injustice which we hear about daily from all over the country. Weinstein's behavior is yet another example of sexual injustice which, though of late it's been rearing its head from within the media and entertainment industry, I suspect is no less abundant in other sectors. Both are ridiculously pervasive, and neither should be.
From the New Yorker article. "From Aggressive Overtures to Sexual Assault: Harvey Weinstein’s Accusers Tell Their Stories":
Wow. So Ms. Argento determined that her not being "crushed" was more important than other women not having to endure that man's unwanted advances and prurient overtures. So much for doing the right thing. And yet, now, finally, some woman said "f*ck the BS, I'm not going to sit idly by and in silence let this keep happening."
Argento was obviously not alone in here compliance, but that doesn't excuse her, or any other individuals -- men or women -- from looking askance at that crap and letting it persist for two damn decades or more. Everyone damn one of them knew better.
Human civilization is supposed to have evolved beyond the troglodyte state, yet were one to judge by what we hear of abuse and harassment visited upon aspiring women by men, one is hard pressed to confirm that we have. It's not just the Weinstein matter, it's O'Reilly, Trump, Cosby, and others, and there's no sense to their doing so. Those men and others like them are wealthy enough and powerful enough that nary a one of them had to force themselves on a woman; there were surely plenty of women who would have "put out" willingly.
Plenty of men who are nowhere near as rich and influential as those guys know that to be so. Rich and powerful dudes aren't the only ones who have extramarital affairs and recreational dalliances with consenting women who are only barely known to them. It takes two to "tango," and women -- women of every color, creed, and nationality and all around the world -- like to "dance" just as much as men do.
Quite simply, these sorts of social ills, abuse and wrongdoing are not going to stop until people unfailingly refuse to tolerate it. Does that mean each of us may be called to risk personal financial gain as a result of decrying injustices? Yes, it might; however, yours, my and no other individual's net worth is not a greater end than is the ethical solvency of our society.
And let me be clear. I'm not talking about behaviors and mindset of which one normatively may disapprove. I'm talking about talking about malfeasant action(s) taken against one or more other individuals. One can think whatever one wants about women, men, minorities, gays, whites, adherents to a faith-based belief system, children, etc., but in the U.S. one does not have the imprimatur to abuse, assault, neglect, physically impose oneself on, harass or intimidate them.
From the New Yorker article. "From Aggressive Overtures to Sexual Assault: Harvey Weinstein’s Accusers Tell Their Stories":
Asia Argento, an Italian film actress and director, told me that she did not speak out until now—Weinstein, she told me, forcibly performed oral sex on her—because she feared that Weinstein would “crush” her. “I know he has crushed a lot of people before,” Argento said. “That’s why this story—in my case, it’s twenty years old; some of them are older—has never come out.”
employees described what was, in essence, a culture of complicity at Weinstein’s places of business, with numerous people throughout the companies fully aware of his behavior but either abetting it or looking the other way. Some employees said that they were enlisted in subterfuge to make the victims feel safe. A female executive with the company described how Weinstein assistants and others served as a “honeypot”—they would initially join a meeting, but then Weinstein would dismiss them, leaving him alone with the woman.
Human civilization is supposed to have evolved beyond the troglodyte state, yet were one to judge by what we hear of abuse and harassment visited upon aspiring women by men, one is hard pressed to confirm that we have. It's not just the Weinstein matter, it's O'Reilly, Trump, Cosby, and others, and there's no sense to their doing so. Those men and others like them are wealthy enough and powerful enough that nary a one of them had to force themselves on a woman; there were surely plenty of women who would have "put out" willingly.
Plenty of men who are nowhere near as rich and influential as those guys know that to be so. Rich and powerful dudes aren't the only ones who have extramarital affairs and recreational dalliances with consenting women who are only barely known to them. It takes two to "tango," and women -- women of every color, creed, and nationality and all around the world -- like to "dance" just as much as men do.
Quite simply, these sorts of social ills, abuse and wrongdoing are not going to stop until people unfailingly refuse to tolerate it. Does that mean each of us may be called to risk personal financial gain as a result of decrying injustices? Yes, it might; however, yours, my and no other individual's net worth is not a greater end than is the ethical solvency of our society.
And let me be clear. I'm not talking about behaviors and mindset of which one normatively may disapprove. I'm talking about talking about malfeasant action(s) taken against one or more other individuals. One can think whatever one wants about women, men, minorities, gays, whites, adherents to a faith-based belief system, children, etc., but in the U.S. one does not have the imprimatur to abuse, assault, neglect, physically impose oneself on, harass or intimidate them.