I'm sorry, but a lot of this argument you are making sounds like it is steering into "Did you see how she was dressed...she was asking for it" territory. A budding actress, or even an experienced one, might be fully aware that the casting couch exists, but still might find themselves in an uncomfortable or dangerous situation due to chance. I forgot which one, but I believe it was one of Weinstein's victims or potential victims that scheduled a meeting with an agent at a hotel. The agent was ordered to leave at some point behind the scenes, essentially forcing a meeting between the actress and Weinstein in his room. Harvey was a powerful man in Hollywood, even when it came to the careers of established actresses. So, yeah, I can see even smart, intelligent people still getting stuck in a bad situation, and having a hard time just leaving said situation out of basic shock or fear. He had the power to completely blackball an actor, and he used it to get what he wanted. I feel like you are oversimplifying the removing of oneself from a bad situation. Sometimes that kind of thing is easier said than done. This isn't an action movie, after all.
A more accurate summation of my position instead of “did you see what she was wearing - she was asking for it” would be “why did she climb over the railing into the tiger’s pen? That tiger eating her was horrible, but entirely predictable.”
Yes, he had the ability to blackball an actor. Yes I bet everyone of his victims was aware of that. If the choice was between debasing oneself for an acting career or leaving, it was still a choice they made. Just because one is faced with two shitty options doesn’t mean they still didn’t make a choice between them.
In fact I’ll take it one step further and say that if someone trying to make it in Hollywood doesn’t have a plan in advance to deal with that moment when they face the couch, they’re an idiot. Walking out the door or securing yourself away to call the police aren’t action movie fantasies, they’re reasonable courses of action to have planned out in advance when faced with disgusting or possibly dangerous situations like these. We can all agree that it shouldn’t be like this and that hopefully the culture is changing. Still, not planning and acting in accordance to how the world really is instead of what you think it should be is not a recipe for success.
That’s one of the most important lessons I can teach my daughter to prepare her for the world. The world doesn’t care what you think it should be, you need to understand what it actually is and prepare accordingly.
I don’t see anyone taking the 100% blame vs the 100% blameless argument in here.
I also find your critique of the discussion lacks nuance contradictory to your stance that people are 100% responsible for the actions. That is a very simplistic view of humans and free will, whether we are evaluating a victims or perpetrators
That’s exactly the position being taken with regards to critique of the actions (or lack thereof) taken by the victims. “The men were powerful and the victims didn’t have any choice.” That’s frankly a load of bullshit. It removes any and all agency from the targets of these assholes.
You can call my position simplistic, but I don’t care. You, me, and every other non-mentally deficient adult are 100% morally responsible and liable for the consequences of our choices. I don’t care if you had a shitty childhood (I did). I don’t care if you were molested (I was). I don’t care if you had substance abuse issues (I did). I don’t care if you are broke and homeless (been there too). I don’t give a damn what is wrong with your life, you are 100% responsible for the choices you make and things you do. The sooner folks realize that, the better off their life will be.
The biggest thing we can do to fuck up kids and set them on the path to destruction is to tell them the lie that they are a victim of their circumstances. Folks who do that should not only not be allowed around children, they should be strung up like pedos because they’re no less harmful to them.
A universal and constant truth is that life is shitty, but how you deal with that fact is entirely up to you.
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