Hollywood Scandal With Harvey Weinstein

Harvey Weinstein, a famous and powerful Hollywood producer, has been accused by 57 women of sexual misconduct or rape. Kevin Spacey, famous actor in movies like American Beauty and Netflix show House of Cards, has been accused of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy as well as many other men. Woody Allen, prestigious director, allegedly raped his step-daughter when she was just a young child. Roman Polanski, successful and critically acclaimed director and actor, raped a 13-year-old girl in 1977. Ed Westwick, famous for his role in the show Gossip Girl, has been accused by two women of rape.

Casey Affleck, brother to Ben Affleck and Oscar winner, has been accused by his employees and female colleagues of sexual misconduct. This is just a minuscule list of men in the Hollywood industry who have sexually assaulted, exploited and taken advantage of vulnerable women, men and children. Hollywood is, in a way, a contemporary cult run by corrupt media magnates that are only interested in the money, the power and above all the glory of their opulent and excessive lifestyles.

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Is this the kind of shady industry who we want to support? Do we want to give money to reprobates like Harvey Weinstein so that they can finance their cocaine and caviar fuelled parties and get-togethers? I know that I certainly do not want to support this industry and that is why I decided that we should all boycott Hollywood a couple of months ago, and I am going to write exactly why I think more and more people should start doing so.

By watching (some) Hollywood productions, you’re financing bunch of degenerates, and you are normalising their behaviour. The Harvey Weinstein case has opened the eyes of many commoners, but he isn’t the first or the last one to take advantage of vulnerable people. The case unbolted the floodgates to what is quickly turning into an industry-wide revolt against the “casting couch culture” in Hollywood, which is when film moguls use their power to abuse both aspiring and already famous actresses and actors. Dozens of women have shared their alleged stories of Harvey Weinstein, starting from sexual harassment to rape, while thousands have taken the opportunity to join the #MeToo movement - a social network insurgency in opposition to the "dirty men" in Hollywood. But while all this happens in plain sight, helped through its strength in numbers and the endorsement of several A-list celebrities, another trouble seems to have been swept under the red carpet; children are used continuously and therefore are the most vulnerable targets in this industry. Predators are protected and economically helped by the big Hollywood producers and actors. A famous example of a child predator whose case was covered up with Hollywood money is the Salva case. Victor Salva was determined guilty of molesting 12-yr-old Nathan Forrest Winters in 1988 while shooting the movie Clownhouse. Much less than a decade after his conviction, Salva directed a Disney movie known as Powder and, in 2001, he got Francis Ford Coppola to produce his horror film Jeepers Creepers. This shows that predators are protected for the sake of money and young children are not only subjugated through long hours of filming and challenging roles, but are also sometimes sexually exploited, and overall unprotected, with their human rights being constantly violated.

Hollywood also inseminates dangerously wrong ideas with regards to attracting the opposite sex and developing relationships with them. Take, for instance, the romantic movie cherished by women: The Notebook. There’s a ridiculous scene where Ryan Gosling stalks Rachel McAdam and asks her out through threatening her with suicide. What type of message is that sending to people, young and old? Why is Hollywood normalising toxic and abusive relationships? The Twilight Saga, another wholesome example where a lead character (Bella) decides to give up her entire life, even her own family, for her boyfriend. Plus, the fellow isn’t precisely dream boyfriend either. He’s manipulative, possessive, not to say a complete stalker and creep (he sneaks into her bedroom and watches her while she sleeps). None of those traits are healthy or romantic, and suggesting otherwise is a completely detrimental aspect of a series aimed at teenagers. Again, this is just another example of how problematic this industry is, but it’s not only romanticising unhealthy teenage relationships that makes Hollywood as corrupt and dodgy as it is.

Harvey Weinstein has, in the most accidental way possible, helped to uncover the corrupt reality of the blockbuster industry. The film business is all around hypocritical with regards to the conduct of others. It was appalled that Donald Trump discussed grabbing women “by the pussy”, but one of its people– praised as "God" by Meryl Streep in her Oscar acknowledgement speech – was utilising this as his usual way of doing things once a day, and nobody said anything up until October 2017. This is a male-dominated hegemony whose way of running is through money and power, and these are the circumstances which lead to corruption. Weinstein used the big Hollywood money to buy the silence of those he abused, and the power he had, protected him from exposure. Hollywood is corrupt, and writer Cari Ross explains this quite well. She says “I have been a publicist and part of Hollywood for over 20 years. I have always been proud of this community for standing up to injustice, but we really missed the mark on Harvey Weinstein. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t hear stories about Harvey and his behaviour as a sexual predator”.

This sums up in two sentences the big problem with Hollywood. Everyone knew about Weinstein and Westwick and Affleck, but they decided to keep quiet for the sake of their reputation and fortunes. They didn’t care that women were getting abused and exploited in exchange for successful careers, or just for the sexual predator’s own twisted benefit. Money buys silence and silence assures impunity; Hollywood is corrupt, and it has always been, and it will always be, this façade of liberal celebrities that act cool and progressive hides the ugly truth of immorality and abuse that goes on during the same parties where Gal Gadot and Jennifer Lawrence talk about banal nonsense, be it designer clothes or their new role in a Marvel movie. And this is why we should not give one more penny to Hollywood because it contributes to the unhappiness of people for three simple reasons; the money, the power and all the glory.