Quote:
Originally Posted by undercoverbrother
Yeah I am not sure that it is safe to assume the entertainment business is worse, as mention the #METOO movemenent highlight how wide spread it is.
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I do believe the entertainment business is among the worst simply because I believe these things have a lot to with not just culture but the surrounding conditions which either make things more likely or less likely to happen.
Some things that I think obviously attract predators / created predatory behavior:
- Extreme power imbalances. In most businesses there's few if any people who have the kind of power that a powerful producer like Weinstein had in his own field. These guys can and do literally make and destroy careers on a whim. There's no job protection in show business.
- Plenty of very young and even underage people trying constantly to find work. Many of whom are young girls trying to sexualize themselves because there's jobs in that.
- A very small ratio of people who succeed compared to people who try to make it. Reputations don't mean much when no matter how sleazy you are, there's always someone desperate enough to work for you, and you don't really have to worry about reputations if you can always replace the "troublemakers" and they know it. Again, no job protection in show biz. If a director, producer of an important actor says you need to go, you're gone, and everyone who isn't a star is easily replaced.
- A work culture where drug use and excess drinking is considered normal.
- A work culture where there's very little "normal". A lot of odd working hours, shots in hotel rooms or isolated locations etc. It's a job where taking off your clothes and pretending to make out with someone in full lighting with a ton of (mostly guys) watching is considered a relatively normal thing to do. At the very least if you're an actor you're probably going to kiss way more colleagues than most people.
- Tons of really extremely popular people (aka. stars) in positions of power and authority. If your boss is some nobody people are much more ready to accept your side of the story than if your boss is Bill Cosby. Who could ever believe a bad thing about Bill Cosby? Who says no if Bill Cosby or Kevin Spacey invites you to a party at their place?
People could probably come up with more, but I think I've made my point. Show business is not your average business. Even if we assume that the culture in itself isn't really that different (which I think is unlikely because circumstances create culture), there's just a lot of circumstances which create opportunies for predatory behavior.