The bad stories that bring shame, we usually keep to ourselves.
It’s a sign of a real change in our culture that every day it seems we hear of a victim coming forward. They’re telling tales of the sexual kind that display how we as humans treat each other badly. And they’re setting off a chain reaction of emboldened people coming out of nowhere, who feel no shame in saying “me too.”
From the front page news involving Kevin Spacey to Harvey Weinstein to Louis C.K., from gay to straight, we’re all hearing their victims’ stories of power and abuse. Spacey and Louis C.K. have admitted and apologized for some abusive behavior; Weinstein’s attorney has said he had no non-consensual sex.
And it’s not all about a perverse form of White privilege. It’s pretty diverse on all sides.
African American actor Terry Crews has made a claim that he was groped by a high-level Hollywood exec at a red carpet event. Los Angeles Police are investigating.
This past weekend, the Hollywood Reporter broke a story of a man who claims he was harassed in the 1980s by George Takei, the “Star Trek” star and Asian American civil rights activist. Takei firmly denied the story’s allegations.
Hollywood’s headlines these days show it’s no different from the Catholic Church. Or higher ed.
