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| All the Harvey Weinsteins I’ve ever worked for – and why I kept quiet | All the Harvey Weinsteins I’ve ever worked for – and why I kept quiet |
| (12 days later) | |
| How did he get away with it? | How did he get away with it? |
| We have to make sure it doesn’t happen again. | We have to make sure it doesn’t happen again. |
| Why did everyone keep quiet for so long? | Why did everyone keep quiet for so long? |
| We all kind of knew, didn’t we? | We all kind of knew, didn’t we? |
| Remind me. Are we talking about Donald Trump? Jimmy Savile? Bill Cosby? Roger Ailes? This week it’s Harvey Weinstein. And people are saying that he’s a very powerful man – that’s why no one spoke up when he allegedly forced an aspiring actor (still at university) to give him a blowjob. He’s a rich and powerful man – that’s why that other young actor didn’t speak up when he allegedly raped her. He has the power to make or break a career – that’s why a journalist said nothing when he allegedly cornered her, pulled out his erect penis and jerked off into a potted plant. | Remind me. Are we talking about Donald Trump? Jimmy Savile? Bill Cosby? Roger Ailes? This week it’s Harvey Weinstein. And people are saying that he’s a very powerful man – that’s why no one spoke up when he allegedly forced an aspiring actor (still at university) to give him a blowjob. He’s a rich and powerful man – that’s why that other young actor didn’t speak up when he allegedly raped her. He has the power to make or break a career – that’s why a journalist said nothing when he allegedly cornered her, pulled out his erect penis and jerked off into a potted plant. |
| Because the Harvey Weinstein scandal, and the Savile, Trump and Cosby scandals are only tangentially about sex. They’re mainly about power. | Because the Harvey Weinstein scandal, and the Savile, Trump and Cosby scandals are only tangentially about sex. They’re mainly about power. |
| I posted the following update on my Facebook feed a couple of days ago: “During the 15 years I worked in advertising (mainly in London) I worked with a rapist, a managing director who was the subject of an injunction to stop him sexually harassing one of his employees, and an endless parade of gropers, perverts and abusers. I once complained and was slapped with an 18-page lawyer’s letter on my desk the following morning. None of the men was ever sacked, though many of the women were quietly paid off with non-disclosure agreements.” | I posted the following update on my Facebook feed a couple of days ago: “During the 15 years I worked in advertising (mainly in London) I worked with a rapist, a managing director who was the subject of an injunction to stop him sexually harassing one of his employees, and an endless parade of gropers, perverts and abusers. I once complained and was slapped with an 18-page lawyer’s letter on my desk the following morning. None of the men was ever sacked, though many of the women were quietly paid off with non-disclosure agreements.” |
| Within seconds, the stories began flooding in, from women who had worked in libraries, at the BBC, in journalism, for the MoD, in the civil service, in children’s publishing (children’s publishing!), in recruitment, in restaurants, at MIT, in the nuclear industry, at a law firm, in academia … the list went on and on. | Within seconds, the stories began flooding in, from women who had worked in libraries, at the BBC, in journalism, for the MoD, in the civil service, in children’s publishing (children’s publishing!), in recruitment, in restaurants, at MIT, in the nuclear industry, at a law firm, in academia … the list went on and on. |
| One of the comments, from a literary translator, summed up the general feeling: “Yes, every woman, of any age (and degree of attractiveness because it’s nothing to do with sex), has similar stories to tell.” | One of the comments, from a literary translator, summed up the general feeling: “Yes, every woman, of any age (and degree of attractiveness because it’s nothing to do with sex), has similar stories to tell.” |
| I once complained and was slapped with an 18-page lawyer’s letter on my desk the following morning | I once complained and was slapped with an 18-page lawyer’s letter on my desk the following morning |
| Many of these stories are historical – women referring to incidents in their employment past. But there isn’t a shred of evidence to suggest that the world has changed since many of us began working in the 1970s and 80s. If anything, the presence of Donald Trump in the White House – a man getting away with every possible version of exploitative behaviour short of murder – has given a whole new generation permission to behave like thugs. | Many of these stories are historical – women referring to incidents in their employment past. But there isn’t a shred of evidence to suggest that the world has changed since many of us began working in the 1970s and 80s. If anything, the presence of Donald Trump in the White House – a man getting away with every possible version of exploitative behaviour short of murder – has given a whole new generation permission to behave like thugs. |
| Let me tell you about some of the Harvey Weinsteins I worked with. | Let me tell you about some of the Harvey Weinsteins I worked with. |
| There was the creative director who regularly shoved his hand up his secretary’s crotch and down her bra. She was so outraged, she took him to a legal tribunal (which she lost). Most of the rest of us thought she was overreacting. After all, he was gay, so it wasn’t really sexual harassment, was it? For the record, he treated men as badly as he treated women. | There was the creative director who regularly shoved his hand up his secretary’s crotch and down her bra. She was so outraged, she took him to a legal tribunal (which she lost). Most of the rest of us thought she was overreacting. After all, he was gay, so it wasn’t really sexual harassment, was it? For the record, he treated men as badly as he treated women. |
| There was the account guy who strolled into my office after a presentation and said, of the middle-aged female client who’d just turned down some of our work, “Nothing wrong with her that a good shafting wouldn’t fix.” | There was the account guy who strolled into my office after a presentation and said, of the middle-aged female client who’d just turned down some of our work, “Nothing wrong with her that a good shafting wouldn’t fix.” |
| There were the two 40-something married CEOs who instructed pretty young account girls to wear very short skirts to work, then called them in to client meetings to hold presentation boards above their heads. | There were the two 40-something married CEOs who instructed pretty young account girls to wear very short skirts to work, then called them in to client meetings to hold presentation boards above their heads. |
| There was the art director who raped his secretary at an agency party. She reported it and was let go with a payoff of a few thousand pounds. He kept his job. | There was the art director who raped his secretary at an agency party. She reported it and was let go with a payoff of a few thousand pounds. He kept his job. |
| So why didn’t people complain? | So why didn’t people complain? |
| Some of us did. | Some of us did. |
| Late in my career, I registered an informal complaint against the creative director who had a habit of verbally abusing female creative teams – including a team I had hired. Was it sexual harassment? It didn’t matter. It was vile. | Late in my career, I registered an informal complaint against the creative director who had a habit of verbally abusing female creative teams – including a team I had hired. Was it sexual harassment? It didn’t matter. It was vile. |
| The next morning I found a threatening letter on my desk from the company’s lawyers. My desk was moved to an office with no windows. Terrified of being fired, I said nothing more. The agency waited a discreet few months before sacking me. | The next morning I found a threatening letter on my desk from the company’s lawyers. My desk was moved to an office with no windows. Terrified of being fired, I said nothing more. The agency waited a discreet few months before sacking me. |
| “You put your head above the parapet,” I was told. | “You put your head above the parapet,” I was told. |
| And now when anyone says I’ve had the last laugh because I got out of the business and made a good career writing novels, I tell them that I’m still not laughing. I wasn’t raped or sexually victimised. But I was threatened and intimidated and privy to far too many cavalier “boys will be boys” displays of casual sadism. And it wasn’t just women who suffered. It was men too – young men particularly – who were bullied and made complicit to the endless and endlessly inappropriate exercise of power. | And now when anyone says I’ve had the last laugh because I got out of the business and made a good career writing novels, I tell them that I’m still not laughing. I wasn’t raped or sexually victimised. But I was threatened and intimidated and privy to far too many cavalier “boys will be boys” displays of casual sadism. And it wasn’t just women who suffered. It was men too – young men particularly – who were bullied and made complicit to the endless and endlessly inappropriate exercise of power. |
| Why does no one say anything? Because of fear – the perfectly proper fear that you’ll lose your job, or be blacklisted, that the career you worked so hard to build will come tumbling down. And always, always, an obscure feeling that perhaps, somehow, it’s your fault. | Why does no one say anything? Because of fear – the perfectly proper fear that you’ll lose your job, or be blacklisted, that the career you worked so hard to build will come tumbling down. And always, always, an obscure feeling that perhaps, somehow, it’s your fault. |
| So now, for the zillionth time in history we find ourselves asking how men can behave this way, over decades, in public, and get away with it. | So now, for the zillionth time in history we find ourselves asking how men can behave this way, over decades, in public, and get away with it. |
| And the answer comes from on high. When you’re powerful, they let you do it. | And the answer comes from on high. When you’re powerful, they let you do it. |
| • Meg Rosoff is the author of How I Live Now and Just in Case | • Meg Rosoff is the author of How I Live Now and Just in Case |