Though society faces an ever-growing rise of impacts through advanced technology, and the use of social media, an even bigger existential impact arises through this-, The Harvey Weinstein scandal. This type of crisis in modern masculinity, never escaped the headlines, producing damaging cliches, and merely reflected the extent in which showed how powerful men feel they can exploit women (Arrigo, 2022). How and why did the Weinstein scandal produce systematic sexism and exploitation towards women? What could be done to prevent this?
Various Newspapers turned to printing, over this watershed moment that exposed the persuasive culture of toxic masculinity in the entertainment industry, only known as The Weinstein scandal.
Weinstein was an influential, powerful, and abusive male Hollywood producer, who was accused and prosecuted for the sexual harassment and assault towards numerous women (Today, 2018). This not only highlighted the extent of abuse, but also shed light into the broader systematic issues of sexism, exploitation and how the abuse of power can be represented by the media.
Media portrayals
This scandal highlighted the prevalence of sexual objectification and exploitation of women in the entertainment industry mainly produced by media coverages. Sensationalized headlines and salacious details drew widespread attention to the scandal, sparking a flurry of media coverage and public fascination.
“Today both The Sun and The Daily Star ran the story of decades-long alleged mass sexual abuse adjacent to semi-pornographic imagery on their front pages” (Towers, 2018). Although this type of exploitation is slowing demolishing, the denouncement of Weinstein’s actions, it still highlighted the institutionalized sexism, and power of male force, from these very same media streams, allowing the exploitation of women on the next page!
This is the type of attitude is which encourages this type of abuse of women to proliferate, perpetrating harmful stereotypes without the blink of an eye- All the more worrying.
On the other hand, Sensalisalism is another common themes in coverage, when regarding sexual violence against women. Nikolova, (2021) described this as “functions to magnify the crime while taking the focus away from addressing the actual issue” To which many news articles like the BBC, or The Sun would do so, focusing mainly on lurid details of Weinstein’s misconduct, such as ‘how the scandal unfolded’ or ‘how long will he be jailed for?’ (Reporter, 2021), blatantly taking the focus away from the broader systematic issues of sexism and misogyny that the scandal originally brought to light.
The truth about the entertainment industry..
Power dynamics in the entertainment industry hold a significant role in shaping the experiences of those within it. From highlighting the major favour towards men like Weinstein, to the unrepresented gender gap, and also the power it had when silencing victims. These three factors accentuate the systematic truth about the entertainment industry, and the types of people it has in power.
Weinstein was a pinnacle example of the major favour men have in the entertainment industry. Producers and executives hold this shadowing, yet over bearing imbalance of power to those deemed less of this. This power imbalance can create opportunities for exploitation and abuse. Keltner (2017), book on the ‘Power Paradox’ shined light upon executive leadership, giving a psychological response to the abuse of power:
‘A feeling of power can transform people’s behaviour, making them more impulsive and less empathetic to others’ needs’. It “turns up the volume on your pre-existing tendencies,” (Keltner, 2017)-indicating this pattern of ‘entitlement’ and favour in which Weinstein felt he is owed due to the power he felt he ‘held’
When unravelling Keltner’s idea that power can transform people’s behaviour, the ongoing systematic issues within Weinstein, and the scandal he produced, his power to silence multiple women remains the factor in which not only held his scandal together but also shattered it.
Lauren O’Connor, a former Weinstein Co. employee whose company memo played a crucial role in Harvey Weinstein’s downfall. O’Connor’s experience prevailed not only the original silencing in which she was paid to hide for years, but also how toxic the entertainment environment was, especially for the women involved (Kantor, 2012).
O’Connor’s memo provided a glimpse into the persuasive culture of harassment t and exploitation within the entertainment industry. Although her courage in speaking out helped catalyse a broader conversation relating to sexual misconduct, sexism, and abuse of power in the entertainment industry and beyond.
Along with journalists, and the bravery of further survivors came forward, marking the beginning of a trend the #METOO movement. This empowered thousands of individual to come forward, revealing an earthquake for the media and entertainment industry, as thousands of agendas quoted to ‘achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls” (Gotadoro M, 2021).
Although the Weinstein scandal has benefitted, and unravelled many sexist, and abuse involved in the entertainment industry, highlighting the extreme levels of hierarchy between women and men and the trends of gender gap is still very much relevant in today’s society.
This type of power, and control continues to this day when delving into the disparities in opportunities, and the overall representation women have in the industry. Deborah Williams, CEO, Creative Diversity Network found that the gender gap for female directors and writers has actually increased over the past six years, meaning women are not being given the same opportunities to actually make shows, at the bigger-budget, peak time end of the scale (Creamer, 2023).
With just 25.3% of women making up director statistics and the declining 32.4% of female writers in the entertainment industry (Creamer, 2023), should be enough to comprehend the truth in the raging power dynamics, and the continued sexism the entertainment industry holds, even after the Weinstein scandal and the METOO movement unravelled.
How can we change the culture?
The most challenging but ultimately the step in which will change and abolish systematic abuse from those in powerful positions was to change the sexual harassment law. Since the scandal has prevailed, the National Women’s Law Centre published a report noting that since 2017, 15 states have passed new laws protecting employees from sexual harassment and gender discrimination (Faughnder, 2020).
Since these laws, and the METO movement, 25% of women reported being sexually coerced, had declined to 16% 2 years after. Although this is a healthy decrease in victims, 16% is still a number in which needs to be addressed. Human resource departments need to maintain this as a priority, by offering bystander intervention training, having clear zero-tolerance policies on sexual harassment, and responding dutifully to complaints (Johnson, 2021). – Its that simple..
Secondly, from what we’ve seen from the METOO movement, the culture of abuse still exists even with laws to protect us from abuse, but by collectively and consistently placing value on what and how abuse, and sexism is relevant in today society, particularly the entertainment industry, will help in raising awareness, and place responsibility on those in power for a change.
It’s time to hold employers responsible, enough is Enough..
References:
Arrigo, Y. (2022) 'Masculinity in crisis: why brands must do more to challenge stereotypes,' Creative Review, 4 April. https://www.creativereview.co.uk/masculinity-in-crisis-why-brands-must-do-more-to-challenge-stereotypes/.
Creamer, J. (2023) Report: gender gap for women writers, directors widens. https://www.televisual.com/news/report-gender-gap-for-women-writers-directors-widens/.
Faughnder, R. and Perman, S. (2020) 'Weinstein was convicted, but has much changed in Hollywood? - Los Angeles Times,' Los Angeles Times, 25 February. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2020-02-24/five-things-that-have-changed-in-hollywood-since-the-weinstein-case-broke#:~:text=Last%20year%2C%20the%20National%20Women's,statute%20of%20limitations%20for%20victims.
Gotadoro, L.M., 2021. Social movements’ impact on the media and entertainment industry: an analysis through non-financial reporting.
Johnson, S.K. (2021) Has sexual harassment at work decreased since
#MeToo? https://hbr.org/2019/07/has-sexual-harassment-at-work-decreased-since-metoo#:~:text=In%202016%2C%2025%25%20of%20women,2016%20to%2092%25%20in%202018
Kantor, J. and Twohey, M. (2021) 'Harvey Weinstein paid off sexual harassment accusers for decades,' The New York Times, 30 April. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/05/us/harvey-weinstein-harassment-allegations.html.
Keltner, D., 2016. The power paradox: How we gain and lose influence. Penguin.
Nikolova, E., 2021, September. “The balance of power is me: 0, Harvey Weinstein: 10”: A Critical Discourse Analysis of the press representation of Hollywood’s biggest sexual harassment scandal. In Women's studies international forum.
Reporter, S. (2021) 'Harvey Weinstein: What’s next for the disgraced film mogul and how long could he be jailed for?...,' The Sun, 1 January. https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/4668357/harvey-weinstein-prison-verdict-third-degree-rape/.
Towers, A. (2017) 'Media reporting on Harvey Weinstein tells you a lot about why men get away with sexual violence | The Independent,' The Independent, 16 October. https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/harvey-weinstein-allegations-sexual-assault-hidden-so-long-media-reporting-a8003546.html.
Today, S.M.M. and C.K.U. (2018) 'Harvey Weinstein scandal: A complete list of the 87 accusers,' USA TODAY, 1 June. https://eu.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2017/10/27/weinstein-scandal-complete-list-accusers/804663001/.
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