Editorial response to sexual harassment in Hollywood
The 2011 film Midnight in Paris won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and gained nominations in three other categories. Its stunning visuals, as well as its take on nostalgia and modernism in 1920s Paris was praised by critics and deemed Woody Allen’s best piece of work since Bullets Over Broadway. Film critic Roger Ebert wrote, “ I consider him a treasure of the cinema. Some people take him for granted, although Midnight in Paris reportedly charmed even the jaded veterans of the Cannes press screenings. ”
In that sense, these critics were right - it was beautiful without being too prideful, managing to highlight the marvels of the city while still acknowledging the flaws. But, unfortunate as it is, there was a colossal stain marring the movie that goes by the name of Woody Allen.
In the first of many faults, Allen started a relationship with the daughter of his long-term partner when she was just twenty-one, and he was fifty-six. This in itself is morally questionable, but Allen increased the concern when he described the relationship as working because “I was paternal. She responded to someone who was paternal.” This man believed that a relationship which was romantic in nature worked because of a father-daughter dynamic. Compounded by the fact that Allen’s daughter Dylan accused him of sexually abusing her, it is truly hard to understand why anyone in Hollywood would work with a man who has presented this startling pattern of sexual misbehaviors.
And yet this is all too common in Hollywood. The list seems endless: Casey Affleck, Bill Cosby, Mike Tyson, Marlon Brando - celebrities who continued their careers after the scandal passed. Harvey Weinstein may now be considered an outcast after the truth came to light, but A-listers such as Jane Fonda and Quentin Tarantino have both conceded that they knew of these atrocities years before they went public - nevertheless, they said nothing. Bill Cosby, who has been accused of sexual assault by upwards of fifty women, and Roman Polanski, who is wanted in the United States for the rape of a minor, are still members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
It is easier - simpler - to turn a blind eye when these problems arise, to avoid intervening to stay out of trouble. But when this attitude of indifference persists in a place like Hollywood, the only person who benefits is the perpetrator. Again and again, people are needlessly made victims because of a failure of others to speak up. Movies like Midnight in Paris may be beautiful, but they exist at the cost of ignoring blatant wrongdoings. If this pattern of abuse by those with power persists, we invite a culture that will do the same.
