Representation of #MeToo Movement in New York Times: Analytical Essay

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Introduction

The abuse of power has been a long discussed topic. Harvey Weinstein currently 66 years old, previous CEO of the Weinstein production company was accused of sexual assault and sexual harassment after decades of allegations. According to the BBC news and website, his actions were made public after an article was published by the New York Times “detailing decades of allegations of sexual harassment against Harvey Weinstein…Among the accusations are that he forced women to massage him and watch him naked. He also promised to help advance their careers in return for sexual favors”. This paper analyses the articles by the New York Times and the New Yorker detailing the accusations and its effects that it had on empowering women to come forward about their harassers mostly under the hashtag #MeToo. I will also discuss how the #MeToo movement was created in 2006 by Tarana Burke which helped give a voice to women who survived sexual violence, helped take down Harvey Weinstein and other men in power who use their position to harass female employees and coworkers. This paper will also focus on the allegations that Harvey Weinstein faces and his response, the creation of the Me-Too movement which empowered women to help fight sexual harassment and violence in the workplace, and non-disclosure agreement used by the likes of Harvey Weinstein to abuse their victims.

The New York Times published a story on October 5th 2017 detailing decades of allegations against Harvey Weinstein, two women came to the newspaper to share their stories. The first woman Ashley Judd claims that she was expecting to have a breakfast business meeting with Harvey but was instead sent to his room where he appeared in a bathrobe and asked if she could massage him or watch him shower. The other, Emily Nestor who was working for one day as a temporary employee, claims that Harvey invited her to the same hotel and offered to help boost her career in exchange of sexual advances. These aren’t the only women that have the same narrative against Harvey Weinstein, there is a consistency where plenty of other women who claim that they were invited to what they thought was a meeting or party at first, but were surprised to be sent to his room where he appeared in a bathrobe and asked for a massage, he would often ask women to watch him shower, masturbate in front of them, grab them and forced them to do sexual acts even if they don’t give consent. All the women that came forward say that they have said “no” many times but he would still force himself onto them, they claim that he is intimidating, big, fat, and most importantly have a lot of power over their careers. Some female employees that used to work at his company claim that they were removed from project, fired, or faced some damage in their careers after declining Harvey’s sexual favors. According to the New York times, Harvey Weinstein reached a settlement with at least eight women where he was accused of sexual harassment and unwanted physical contact. In 2015, According to the New Yorker, Harvey Weinstein met with Ambra Battilana Gutierrez who was 22 years old and was a finalist in Miss Italy modelling contest at a party where he complimented her and sent a letter to her agency the next day asking for a meeting with her. She gathered her portfolio and went to a private meeting with him, she claims that he was looking at her breast and made a comment asking if they were real, he then grabbed her breasts. She claims to have felt petrified and went to the New York Police Department’s Special Victims Division where they gave her a wire and asked her to meet with Harvey again in order to catch him on tape for harassment, because he had given her tickets to “Finding Neverland” which is a musical that he was producing. The next day, she went and met with Harvey at a bar while the police were giving her instructions, at the end he asked her to join him to his bedroom but she stood in the hallway and asked him why he grabbed her breasts the other day? To which he replies. “Oh, please, I’m sorry, just come on in,” Weinstein says. “I’m used to that. Come on. Please.” “You’re used to that?” Gutierrez asks, sounding incredulous. “Yes,” Weinstein says. He adds, “I won’t do it again.” The conversation is currently online and available to the public but still the D.A’s office didn’t prosecute him then. One of the reasons is that Harvey Weinstein has an impressive legal team according to Asia Argento, an actress who also claims to have been harassed by Harvey. She claims that they had a project together and was asked by one of the producers to come at a party, but she entered to a hotel room to only find Harvey Weinstein. Yet again, he had a bathrobe on and gave her lotion in order to massage him, after starting to massage him, he grabbed her skirt up and performed oral sex to her even if she repeatedly said “no”. She claims to have surrendered because he was terrifying and had a lot of clout over her. She later on became a movie director and released a movie called “Scarlet Diva” in 2000, one of the scenes contain a man luring her to a hotel and asking her to give him a massage. A lot of people made the connection and sympathized with her. There are still countless other allegations with almost the same narrative, Lisa bloom who is a lawyer advising for Harvey said in a statement that “he denies many of the accusations as patently false.” According to Mark Gill, former president of Miramax which is one of Weinstein’s company, claims that former and current employees whether assistant or executives knew about Harvey’s misconduct but only few ever confronted him.

According to the guardian news website, the stories that the New York Times and the New Yorker published prompted thousands of women to come forward with their accounts of sexual harassment and assault against a wide variety of perpetrators under the hashtag #MeToo. One of the reasons that the Harvey Weinstein case made headlines was that countless women published their stories under the hashtags and made national buzz. The movement had an impact on the industry where dozens of men were fired or resigned from their positions, it has inspired women to speak up against their harassers from all across the globe. It has created a community where women could share their sexual assault stories, it even started the conversation about sexual violence and raised attention on laws used by companies to hide these misbehaviors in non-disclosure agreements. Non-disclosure agreements are used by harassers like Harvey Weinstein to harass multiple victims. They are mostly used when transformed to a settlement where Harvey pays his victims for compensation and for their silence against claims of sexual assault.

According to the MeToo official website, the movement was first created back in 2006 by Tarana Burke, the purpose was to help black women and girls from low wealth communities. Their vision is to create facilities where survivors can find healing, also find brave women to speak up in the name of the movement to empower other girls who fear the society view.

The work of Tarana can be linked to hooks, where particularly black women were oppressed and faced issues with race, so both hooks and Tarana faced issues with race and gender from particularly white men. They used the help of first world feminism to help other who’s voice isn’t loud enough. According to Deborah Tannen, the male figure is unmarked and the female is marked, this is to show that most of the times women face sexual assault because they catch the attention of men, the male gaze. Also, according to Cirkensena and Cuklanz, Women are being perceived to be more body than mind and more as objects than subjects.

Shockingly, The New York Times says that many women praise Harvey in the workplace, they claim to have not experience any sort of harassment, he is respected by many claiming that he helped a lot of people and gave great advices with no sight of trouble. However, other employees in interviews raise one common question: how did Harvey Weinstein pail allegations during these last three decades? having multiple women come some at the same hotel and having a pattern of harassment which wasn’t raised until now.

The reason is that “It wasn’t a secret to the inner circle,” said Kathy DeClesis, Bob Weinstein’s assistant in the early 1990s. She witnessed a young woman coming out of Harvey’s company after having an encounter with him and later on receiving a settlement from him, according to several employees.

According to the BBC news, Weinstein issued an apology recognizing that he’s actions “has caused a lot of pain and I sincerely apologize for it”. Still, he disputes the allegations saying he harassed female employees over the three decades. According to the New Yorker, Weinstein had an interview with the New York Post saying “I’ve got to deal with my personality, I’ve got to work on my temper, I have got to dig deep. I know a lot of people would like me to go into a facility, and I may well just do that—I will go anywhere I can learn more about myself.” He also claims that he was giving compliments to people that mistook it as being sexual, he is working to channel his anger and claims that he won’t do it again.

It was too late for Harvey Weinstein, because of the allegations and the articles published by both the New York Times and New Yorker. The BBC says that after the allegations Harvey took a leave of absence from his company and later been sacked from the company’s board. After more allegations started pouring and Hollywood A-listers started claiming they were harassed by Weinstein, many important organizations removed ties with him. Like the Bafta, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences who are behind the Oscars along with other major organizations. Many companies that he had business with removed their deals, and according to the BBC, the Weinstein company had a deal for a possibility to sell that failed through.

It was clear that Harvey’s actions had severe consequences on both him and his company, Since the recording that was taken of him with Gutierrez, the miss Italy finalist, law enforcement agents could have accused Harvey of sexual abuse in the third degree which is punishable by law by a maximum of three months in jail. However, according to the New Yorker, Gutierrez past started to appear on the tabloids where she witnessed a bribe a got involved in a case that is still ongoing. Another case before it, she accused an Italian businessman of sexual assault but later denied to corporate with the authorities. Therefore, the police hesitated to prosecute Harvey even if they had enough evidence about him, because of Gutierrez statements in the past which complicated the case for the Manhattan District Attorney. Ultimately, they decided to not file charges.

Based on multiple sources, most women that are harassed by Harvey Weinstein, their ages range between 20 and 40, when their asked why haven’t you charged him in the past, most say that they were no witnesses and that Harvey’s presence alone terrified them, he also had the power to tarnish their careers.

2 years after this incident with Gutierrez, the articles from the New York Times and News and New Yorkers came out unveiling multiple allegations mentioned above, according to the Guardian, Harvey Weinstein is set to face trial in January 2020 after multiple allegations of rape and sexual assault to which he pleads not guilty. More than 80 Women have since alleged Harvey of sexual misconduct for a period of four decades.

Harvey Weinstein have caused a lot of pain for a lot of women, the allegations that he faced have caused him his career and his high status in Hollywood. This Weinstein case gained national attention, and created an effect where multiple men in Hollywood resigned or got fired because of sexual harassment allegations. This event empowered other women to share their stories of sexual assault with the hashtag #MeToo. It also caused national awareness about how the U.S deals with sexual misconduct in the workplace and the use of power, which Weinstein has in the film industry and his strong connections, to discourage his victims from pursuing legal charges and use non-disclosure on employees to not risk accusations. The New York Times and New Yorker are responsible for raising awareness about sexual abuse and empowering other women to stand up and face their harassers.

References:

Kantor, Jodi, and Megan Twohey. “Harvey Weinstein Paid Off Sexual Harassment Accusers for Decades.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 5 Oct. 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/05/us/harvey-weinstein-harassment-allegations.html.
Gupta, Alisha Haridasani. “Weinstein’s Accusers Near a $25 Million Settlement. He Pays the Victims Zero.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 13 Dec. 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/13/us/weinstein-sexual-misconduct-settlement.html.
Farrow, Ronan. “From Aggressive Overtures to Sexual Assault: Harvey Weinstein’s Accusers Tell Their Stories.” The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 22 Aug. 2019, https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/from-aggressive-overtures-to-sexual-assault-harvey-weinsteins-accusers-tell-their-stories.
“Harvey Weinstein Timeline: How the Scandal Unfolded.” BBC News, BBC, 12 Dec. 2019, https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-41594672.
Perraudin, Frances. “#MeToo Two Years on: Weinstein Allegations ‘Tip of Iceberg’, Say Accusers.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 14 Oct. 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/14/metoo-two-years-weinstein-allegations-tip-of-iceberg-accusers-zelda-perkins-rosanna-arquette.
Me Too Movement, https://metoomvmt.org/about/.

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Representation of #MeToo Movement in New York Times: Analytical Essay

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