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.
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.
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Another major issue is technology and social media. In 1985 when a poor intern accuses the boss of harassment, she goes to the police station, they say prove it, she moves on. Now, for better or worse, everyone has a voice and things happen in real time. 2015 boss grabs his intern, she sends a mass email or rants on Twitter, and everyone knows.
Put me in the camp that Hollywood is not the exception but the norm. We see and think it might be worse than what women experience in day to day life, but I think that is because Hollywood has the spotlight of the media always shining on it. It would be a similar example to why we see most politicians as being greasy and dishonest, because being in the spotlight means their past and present actions are always being examined and reported on.
I believe that this behaviour of sexual abuse, rape, and harassment was and still is endemic in our society and only now starting to become less acceptable. I use acceptable, even though it is a horrid word in regards to this subject, as in a lot of cases people still look at these men as victims because they are getting accused. Look at the case of Tom Humphries in Ireland, a famous sportswriter, who until the full details of his case were revealed was thought of as being treated unfairly by everybody. It took the act of revealing that this man sent ~16000 text messages to a 14 year old girl, grooming her over many years so he could assault her.
As well, yesterday one of the head editors at NPR resigned due to sexual harassment, where he used the power of his position as a senior editor to try and take advantage of women looking to advance professionally.
So yes, I believe this is a start but its going to take a long time for women to feel comfortable enough to come forward about this stuff when its by men in power professionally, let alone in day to day interactions. Listening to some of the women in my life talk about what they went through in trying speak out after being raped or assaulted, the futility and cards stacked against them in reporting and staying safe after these events, the psychological effects of having to deal with past traumas, is heartbreaking. So it is going to take everybody realizing that almost any women you know has been at minimum, a victim of sexual harassment. It is going to take people stopping to listen and refrain from shaming the victims when these stories come out because the majority are going to be true. Its going to take time and understanding, and I hope for everybody and especially women, that this happens sooner than later.
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Yeah there's absolutely been a culture of acceptance towards people using their power to take advantage of others.
When I say I expect the entertainment industry is likely among the worst, I don't mean that there isn't huge problems elsewhere too. It's just that some places are likely to be the worst.
Dustin Hoffmann as well. I mean it's awful awful stuff and you never want to excuse this, but some people need to understand that ass slapping and talking dirty crap to women (especially below you) was probably prevalent nearly everywhere in society in 1985.
Danny Masterson has been accused before, but nothing came of it, and apparently Scientology somehow intervened in one of the cases. So add him to the list
Was it? I recall seeing guys slap women on the ass a lot in the 80's and don't recall the repercussions of today. I knew a guy that would go around the bar every night grabbing women's asses.
Yeah there's absolutely been a culture of acceptance towards people using their power to take advantage of others.
When I say I expect the entertainment industry is likely among the worst, I don't mean that there isn't huge problems elsewhere too. It's just that some places are likely to be the worst.
I recall seeing pictures of a 70+ year old Jerry Jones groping young women. It's not just a Hollywood thing as it happens everywhere people have a lot of money and power. Now the Hollywood thing has been going on for a very long time and the media has chosen to look the other way (likely because anyone trying to make a big story about it would have their career buried) as the whispers have been around forever and victims have feared being blackballed. The Mel Gibson tapes should be a good indicator of how these people in power behave. It's great to see people final coming out as we are definitely heading in the right direction. I wouldn't call it an epidemic and more of an accepted culture over the decades and we are seeing the positive signs of that culture no longer being accepted.
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Pretty sure those Jerry pictures were with prostitutes, which I'm not sure if that makes it better or worse. But yeah it's not some new or Hollywood only thing, wealth and power has brought sexual misconduct for probably as long as humanity has existed.
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Pretty sure those Jerry pictures were with prostitutes, which I'm not sure if that makes it better or worse. But yeah it's not some new or Hollywood only thing, wealth and power has brought sexual misconduct for probably as long as humanity has existed.
I think advertisers and investors are much more conscientious about who they attach their dollars to. Mel Gibson was a power player in Hollywood and he's been relegated to small films for the most part since those tapes were released. I would hope that these people in power realize that everything they have can be taken away by abusing their power. I don't think this stuff will ever be eliminated due to human nature but I feel we are heading in the direction where it will not be tolerated or swept under the rug as it has been for decades.
It's not just a Hollywood epidemic when it comes to women. It's a societal epidemic. I quite literally do not know a woman my age (mid-40s) who hasn't been sexually harassed and/or assaulted.
The pedophilia thing well that might just be different. There is too much smoke around it that it is hard not to believe it is true.
This popped up on my feed today, no idea if it's old news, new news, fake news, or what. But That 70's show star Danny Masterson is in the middle of rape allegations.