Week 4 - Harvey Weinstein and sexual harassment in general.

This one could be interesting. Try and look at the problems from more than one angle - i.e. not just the offended's pov.

The Harvey Weinstein affair is an opportunity to remind that the first form the discrimination, and the establishment of a hierarchy among humankind take, is between women and men. Not matter what angle we take, religions, ethnical origins, nations, at the end women are always place under men. And due to that some people, such as Harvey Weinstein, consider that they can abuse women in total impunity.

And I don’t believe it come from the fact that Harvey Weinstein is a powerful cinema producer. I believe that his professional position gave him opportunities to satisfy his sexual perversions.

This kind of behavior does not only appear in the highest sphere of the society. Since this affair had been reveal, many women share their experiences through social media. Such as Twitter with hashtag “metoo”, in US, or with the hashtag “balancetonporc”, in France. Those two hashtags allow everybody to better evaluate the breadth of the phenomenon.

But I am pessimist. When the Dominique Strauss-Kahn case was reveal it creates a stir, and at this times many women shared their experiences though, exactly like today with the Weinstein affair. The old order still remains.

Harvey weinstein is clearly a pervert who don't respect women and took advantage of his position.
i congratulate those women who have had the courage to denonce him. this clearly encourage other women victim of sexual harassment or even domestic violence.
i hope it will encourage too women victim of rape specially in countries where women felt responsible for being raped and the men responsible are not punished. it show that sexual harassment is a problem we can see in all cultures. even in societies where most of people claims themselves in favor of egality between women and men.
it's crazy that women have to fight for being respected. it's a real society problem.

i think it's important that women stop being victims and put back in his place every men that disrecpect them, whoever he is and whatever

it's just unfortunate that so many women waited for so long before talking about what harvey weinstein have done. this is why he continued for so long and hurt as many women.
despite fear and pressure it is just unnaceptable to accept inappropriate words and gestures even for a career (wich clearly is the case for some person here)
among the women who denounce him, many tried to stop him by reasoning him. i think the right of accepting or not, of saying yes or no is more than legitimate and we should not have to justifiate it.

hi,
In my mind, the sexual harassment is a common phenomenon no matter in which country. Traditionally, we think the victims of the sexual assault are the females, but today there is no difference between the man and the women.
However, most of the victims have chosen to keep in silence because it was too embarrassed to mention it or there were some menaces from the offenders as there are many people who use their post rights to threaten and to offend others. For example, the film producer Harvey Weinstein recently.
But I’m happy to see that in this event many stars have appeared and accused Harvey Weinstein. It’s a good start who shows us that we are not afraid of this vicious power and who will encourage more and more people to against the sexual assault.

Hello, everyone.
This topic is very interesting because it produces a chain of reactions that reflect our fictive word. In fact, if we have any social experience, we should know about these unspoken rules in Hollywood. However, as a good friend of Harvey Weinstein, Meryl Streep and George Clooney claim that they don’t know at all about that and they’re really surprise about what Harvey did. I think none will trust what they said but on second thought, this is all what they can say. It’s impossible for them to say ’yes, I knew that for a long time, but I still try to be friend with him for gaining more money and being more famous’.
All this reflect that in our society, there’s a rule: we say something, mean something. Say something means that, we always advocate the excellent qualities. Nobody say yes to tradeoff of money and power. However, in the real life, this type of deal is very popular, and people usually join it and say that their success owe to hard-working and struggle.

Harvey Weinstein was not reported by people who he was working with because he was keeping them at party, at the Oscars, he produced their films…This man used is positioning to bully and sexually harass women. Today, more than 30 accuse him they finally dare defend themselves against the man who did breaking the Hollywood careers

I think our society is still affected by centuries of patriarchy. In the imagination of some people manhood still happening by having a lot of female conquests. Some men are trying to show their image of alpha male by seducing women that they see like trophies. They would mistake for hitting and aggression. Any denial by women cause comes their manliness. Injured, they insult women or allow himself improper conduct like unwanted touched. Take-over by aggressiveness prevents them of keeping face. But the goal of seduction is to make the woman look wonderful not to subject them.

Hi,
I think we should talk about the recurrent problem of sexual harassment in Hollywood. Indeed, Weinstein is unfortunately neither the first nor the last influent member of the U.S. film industry to commit such rapes. The first name to come to mind is Roman Polanski, who raped a child in 1977 and managed to serve less than 2 months in prison by fleeing to Europe. But Hollywood seems to be representative of the higher spheres of power, where influent people evolve often without any respect for the rule of law, like international politics on both sides of the Atlantic with the notorious Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Anthony Weiner cases. It seems that most of these people are having a total disdain for the laws and continue to enjoy protection by their peers. Many feminists are turning towards Twitter buzzwords like “#MeToo”, but unfortunately it often looks like they are trying to pin the accusations on all men while it seems to be more a matter of higher classes than patriarchy in my opinion.

Good afternoon
Nice one to discuss about. Harvey Weinstein is a man who abuses his position for his own desires. That's not good at all. But let's have different angle, different point of view. Why people start to do same things only when 30 years have passed? Is it normal? Why people can't stop it in the very beginning or in the middle of this "interesting way" of one Romeo? Okay, a reason is fear of being blamed, slandered or maybe attacked. But once you keeps silence, a rapist is getting used to it; even next victim is gonna happen. Why women don't tell about it? I'm not trying to justify Harvey, he's absolutely dumb, of course; just trying to show both sides of one coin. Nowadays and 20-30 doesn't matter how many years ago people know about the ways to become a superstar in show-business, in Hollywood. Everybody. But there's a big problem that everyone doesn't act before something has happened, bomb has exploded. I think people got to think over it. About sexual harassement in general what can i say. Hm. It's a disastah! Yeah, really; girls feel themselves like a paintings of Leonardo. I mean they think that every guy stares at them, every man wants them to be in their bed next morning. Come on, y'all got to have limits, girls. Don't be offended, big part of women are paranoids. Of course, men are also selfish, maybe even more selfish but they don't scream on you, don't attack you. They just like "yeah, i'm the sexiest, the best etc", can't you be the same? It's better than being nervous and paranoid. I understand both sides, i'm sure we have to find a compromise.

Nowaday, many people think that women abuse when they denounce sexual harassement and assault. This is the reason why women still stay mouth gap and still touched by this atrocity because they don't want to heart them mens.
Harvey's case is that he use his notoriety to use people, he is a real and incredible narcissistic perverse.
On my opinion, the solution to stop this shit is to encourage women to denounce this act in any moment.

KULBAEV ELDAR wrote:Good afternoon
Nice one to discuss about. Harvey Weinstein is a man who abuses his position for his own desires. That's not good at all. But let's have different angle, different point of view. Why people start to do same things only when 30 years have passed? Is it normal? Why people can't stop it in the very beginning or in the middle of this "interesting way" of one Romeo? Okay, a reason is fear of being blamed, slandered or maybe attacked. But once you keeps silence, a rapist is getting used to it; even next victim is gonna happen. Why women don't tell about it? I'm not trying to justify Harvey, he's absolutely dumb, of course; just trying to show both sides of one coin. Nowadays and 20-30 doesn't matter how many years ago people know about the ways to become a superstar in show-business, in Hollywood. Everybody. But there's a big problem that everyone doesn't act before something has happened, bomb has exploded. I think people got to think over it. About sexual harassement in general what can i say. Hm. It's a disastah! Yeah, really; girls feel themselves like a paintings of Leonardo. I mean they think that every guy stares at them, every man wants them to be in their bed next morning. Come on, y'all got to have limits, girls. Don't be offended, big part of women are paranoids. Of course, men are also selfish, maybe even more selfish but they don't scream on you, don't attack you. They just like "yeah, i'm the sexiest, the best etc", can't you be the same? It's better than being nervous and paranoid. I understand both sides, i'm sure we have to find a compromise.

I agree with you.

I heard that the story could have been revealed earlier. There were a lot of people and actors who knew about it, like Brad Pitt. No one wanted to reveal this very serious case first.
Also, at the political level, why the facts that were partly known in 2015 to the New York public prosecutor were not prosecuted?

So many people are amazed by the fact that everyone claims to have been aware, without interfering.

Also, the victims took a long time to reveal the facts. They were afraid of the consequences. However, it can be noted that today they are more easily confided without fear of being blamed. This is the improvement of feminism. The Secretary of State for equality between women and men, Marlene Schiappa, said that shame should no longer be on the side of the victims. Shame has to change sides.

Hello,

Harvey Weinstein was considered one of Hollywood's most powerful producers. He has produced pulp fiction or the lord of the rings. He has used this notoriety to grant sexual favors of some of these actresses promising them to promote their career or on the contrary to harm them if they refuse these advances. These actions took a long time to be revealed. Indeed, as soon as we have power over people we can ask them everything, make them do everything; people are scared and denounce it only rarely. This I think can happen often on other scales as soon as between people there is a relation of "dominant, dominated". In the world of work, within a company, there can sometimes be pressures with superior abusing their hierarchical power. These people often feel untouchable.

Jérémy Rogeon

Hello,

First, when i read some texts about sexual harassment and the topic "feminism" in the group B, I'm really surprised to see how many people there are, with such a close mind. It seems like we are back in the Middle-Age

Well, about the subject now. For me, the Harvey Weinstein case isn't simple, there are several aspects to take into account. First I think these women did not say anything for fear of losing their place and maybe because of threats of their superiors too. When we realize the career we like, we do not necessarily want to be ejected. But is it really normal for the artists (in this case) to be forced to do "sexual" things to their superior, to have a place in a good movie, a good role in the theater or something else, which could be a huge plus in their resume? Is it normal, in our current century, to climb ladders by distinguishing ourselves by sexual acts rather than our true knowledge and real work-related skills? NOOOO!!!  
Everyone focuses on women, who are apparently "paranoid", but there are also men in this case. Men to whom some producers ask for "small sexual sweets   ". If they accept they are caught in the role. It's easy to say: "why do not they talk about it sooner?" when you have never lived that. We are in a society where sex is something completely banal. I would even say that the media and reality TV are filling up people's heads with that.

So when a person says she is sexually assaulted, for others, it's because "she's looking for it" or it's because "she wanted to". Sex is so prevalent everywhere that people no longer know the notion of "consent" and "respect". Once again, is it normal to no longer be able to walk the streets without being honked or whistled? If we go back to the case of women, some would say "you should be better dressed, instead of putting on a provocative outfit". No kidding ? It is true that a boyfriend jeans and sneakers, as well as the big coat is provocative, damn it!
You have to really recognize that society has a problem. A compliment does not hurt of course. To tell a woman that she is well dressed or that she looks beautiful today is not really an aggression. No, what I see is all the further harassment. You only have to look at Poitiers already: on the campus, in the evenings inter facs, in the streets ... And god knows that these problems exist more than it should. A woman have to be the equal of the man. There is no difference to make. Both are to be respected.
I'm sorry if I offended some of you, but when i see some answers on this forum ( unfortunately mostly the answers of men) it makes me a little bit angry.
To more positive, i wish you a good end of day

Cécile RIMAUDIERE wrote:Hello,

First, when i read some texts about sexual harassment and the topic "feminism" in the group B, I'm really surprised to see how many people there are, with such a close mind. It seems like we are back in the Middle-Age

Well, about the subject now. For me, the Harvey Weinstein case isn't simple, there are several aspects to take into account. First I think these women did not say anything for fear of losing their place and maybe because of threats of their superiors too. When we realize the career we like, we do not necessarily want to be ejected. But is it really normal for the artists (in this case) to be forced to do "sexual" things to their superior, to have a place in a good movie, a good role in the theater or something else, which could be a huge plus in their resume? Is it normal, in our current century, to climb ladders by distinguishing ourselves by sexual acts rather than our true knowledge and real work-related skills? NOOOO!!!  
Everyone focuses on women, who are apparently "paranoid", but there are also men in this case. Men to whom some producers ask for "small sexual sweets   ". If they accept they are caught in the role. It's easy to say: "why do not they talk about it sooner?" when you have never lived that. We are in a society where sex is something completely banal. I would even say that the media and reality TV are filling up people's heads with that.

So when a person says she is sexually assaulted, for others, it's because "she's looking for it" or it's because "she wanted to". Sex is so prevalent everywhere that people no longer know the notion of "consent" and "respect". Once again, is it normal to no longer be able to walk the streets without being honked or whistled? If we go back to the case of women, some would say "you should be better dressed, instead of putting on a provocative outfit". No kidding ? It is true that a boyfriend jeans and sneakers, as well as the big coat is provocative, damn it!
You have to really recognize that society has a problem. A compliment does not hurt of course. To tell a woman that she is well dressed or that she looks beautiful today is not really an aggression. No, what I see is all the further harassment. You only have to look at Poitiers already: on the campus, in the evenings inter facs, in the streets ... And god knows that these problems exist more than it should. A woman have to be the equal of the man. There is no difference to make. Both are to be respected.

I totally agree with you !! Well done !! Woman shoudn't be taken as sexual objects. This isn't normal that men are still whistled at woman when we just walk on the street.

Hi,
Let’s face it : women are still judged on their appearance first and foremost in several fields (such as cinema).
It seems that Harvey Weinstein has opened the Pandora’s box of offences and grievances that are now circulating on the Web. Indeed the French hashtag balancetonporc has been used many times on Twitter. That shows the fact that a lot of women (more than I could have thought) have suffered from serious aggressions perpetrated by men and this is not only on the cinema's field.
The denouncement of Harvey Weinstein has forced every woman to question the men in their life and their behaviours, and to call out those that are undermining them.

Hello,

Since the weinstein affair, every day we have revelations of harassment, in many worlds like cinema, politics, sport...

Is assimilated to sexual harassment the fact, even if not repeated, to use any force of serious pressure, for the real or apparent purpose of obtaining an act of a sexual nature. But do not confuse sexual harassment with sexist act, the border is thin between the two, it is complicated to define because some words are considered as sexual harassment and not in another situation, it may depend on the context.
These problems are often related to education, from the earliest age we put in place stereotypes, boys and girls are assigned to sports, toys, future trades, clothing, everything is sexually distinguished, this is what fuels a persistent mentality to refer to an inequality of nature between women and men..

If weinstein, has never had any problems with these sexual harassment, it is thanks to his status, he took advantage of his power in the cinema world, the evidence with Tarantino who was aware of these acts but who never said anything for fear of losing everything in the cinema. In 2004 a journalist had already conducted an investigation against him but she was under great pressure so that the case does not come out, once again, he's taking advantage of his powerful status and his relationships.

Today sexual harassment is more and more common. The worst thing about all this is that some people do not realize that some of their actions are categorized as harassment. It must be known that sexual harassment is not necessarily a physical harassment, it is especially moral.

A woman can no longer walk the street without insistent glances, whistles, and when questioning men the answers can be shocking.
Some of them go so far as to say that women provoke men by their appearance, by their attitude. A woman can no longer dress as she wishes if she does not want to be harassed.

Even if we think that mentalities have evolved, today the viol is still taboo. 90% of raped women remain silent despite toll-free numbers or support associations. Even because today 3/4 of these women are harassed by someone around them and most often a father or a husband.

Its obvious that is difficult for victims to speak, and this kind of mediatic cases allow them to speak due to a group action.
And its important that is get on record to denounce these crimes.
Unfortunately, mainy victims dont have the power to speak in public and its an important problem in case of sexual harassment because theres a lack of evidences. Its therefore difficult to judge.
But in cases such as the Weinstein's one, these are serious crimes that should not exist. And this media coverage may get the courage of victimes up.

Hello,

Sexual assault is a horrible act, and disgusting that no woman should suffer. In the case of Harvey weinstein what he did to those women is unforgivable. Not only he sexually assaulted them but he also used his power and notoriety to do what he wanted.
Let’s see that from another angle. What I can not understand is why all these women waited so long to denounce him
i know that some of you are going to say that those women was afraid of him and they didn't have any choice. But still this doesn't explain why they all suddenly decide to speak out now.
Can you imagine, the number of women who would have been saved if important women in Hollywood such as Angelina jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow and others who have big platform where they can make their ideas heard, had tried to do something to denounce Weinstein before?

what exactly is sexual harassment? Sexual harassment can be defined as words orconduct of a sexual nature that create an embarrassing, hostile, humiliating or offensive situation for the victim.Psychological experts warn that sexual harassment might start as a one-off event, but the moment it becomes routine a victim’s life can descend into a nightmare.
But the most important thing for those affected by sexual harassment is to take action. The first step is to clearly communicate the problem. and you need to be assertive in what you say. Protest while there are other people around who can act as witnesses.If this still doesn’t stop the offender, it’s wise to keep a record of all incidents that have occurred.Write down the timing and exactly what happened, as well as the names of people who saw it happen. Save any texts, sound recordings or pictures you receive as evidence.

Hello everybody

To start it will be more relevant to define what is sexual harassment by our own point of view.
In fact my opinion is that when someone or even a group harass other one with sexual remarks and or acts in an unsuitable location.
For example somebody say everyday to her/his colleague that she/he got a nice lips and he/she would want to do lewd things with it. Awkward isn't it ?
This kind of things can only happen in hierarchy relationship and exist in all the institutions. It even more common and commoditized.

The harvey's Weinstein's case show us that with power everything is possible. But as uncle Ben always said us "a great power implies great responsibility". Any abuse won't stay unpunished and i hope that in the future our society will have more equity between men and women.

Hello,
The first time when I saw the scandal of Harvey Weinstein, I was shocked by the number of victims and the long time for his sexual harassment. After reading everyone’s opinion about this new, I couldn’t agree less with that he regards his high professional position in the area of film as a jetton to harass and threat those actress. Besides, those victims are usually afraid of being judged and scolded by the public, that’s why many of them refused to share their horrible experience.
However, some famous actresses’ reaction is a consolation to me. As for me, their brave behavior of fighting against the sexual harassment encourages others victims to stand up and protect their legal right. Moreover, some positive phenomenon has appeared for the past few years. For example, the society is now trying hard to protect the victims of sexual harassment by opening the class of self-defense, and the government pass a law for solve the event concerning the sexual harassment…
To sum up, it is really difficult to eliminate the sexual harassment, but we can reduce its probability and have a better reaction for protecting ourselves in case of the sexual harassment.

Hello,
I think that is very dificult to give a unique point of view on this topic. Obviously, sexual harassment must be denounced and judged by a law more severe. Women must pursue their denounciation to become aware of the current problem in society. Nevertheless, I think that the denounciation by social media isn't the best solution. I believe that speechs in twitter for example are too much ephemeral and anonymous.
Futhermore, we can observ that limit of the sexual harassment is confused. Some people consider that only a persistent look is a kind of sexual harassment and other people let a margin more important, seduction for instance. So, the judgment is difficult to establish.

For me it's clearly an abuse of power. He took advantage of his dominant position to make indecent proposals. An effervescence has been created around this because he is a great man in Hollywood. But today, in my opinion, this is not an isolated fact and a lot of important men benefit from their notoriety. Instead of making a polemic about it, we should let the competent authorities judge this case and not throw themselves on what the media say to increase their sales. Nevertheless many women benefit from this story to make known and create the buzz around her.

Hello,
Reality is always more histrionic than the film.
Why this unethical behavior has been hidden for 30 years? A fact that has to be admired is that this intolerable thing is a part of Hollywood.
We should know that even if Weinstein is down, the Hollywood ugly power network is only sightly loose the corner, in this dark environment, it is admirable to be able to stand out and speak.
The courage can be spreaded, when enough victims realize that this is wrong, stand out and point out who is wrong, power is not unbeatable.

Hi everyone,
At first i really want to say that i am disappointed because those recent stories about sexual harassement made that gilbert rozon has been fired frome france got talent! It means that we would’nt watch this tv show this year.. what a shame because it is one of my favourite.
More seriously, sexual harrassement and sexual abusing is a really bad thing but, just as john said last time, what is called « sexual harrassement » today was called flirt years ago. Not everything obviously but some things. 50 years ago no one could have imagined being punished for whisling to a woman in the street or saying to her that she is beautiful. Today it is the case, but we have to consider that it is very difficult especially for the women, to make the difference between a man that is seducing you or a man that is harrassing you. This is such a controversial topic and it complicated to talk about it without shocking anyone.