Recently, allegations accusing Harvey Weinstein of grim sexual assault and harassment have surfaced from a multitude of female celebrities. Some of the people on this list are well known household names such as Angelina Jolie, Heidi Klum and Cara Delevigne, who have bravely come forward and told the media how Weinstein tried to, or even succeeded in, exploiting them.
Rose McGowan, a popular actress on the show “Charmed” has stepped forward and said that Weinstein tried to rape her. This became such a big deal as she took to twitter to explain how she had, in fact, told multiple people that “HW” had indeed raped her, yet they didn’t do anything because she didn’t have any “proof” – to which she responded that she was the proof. This then led to Twitter suspending her account, which cause international outrage on the social media platform to the point Chrissy Teigen, supermodel, suggested that she was going to boycott twitter and that we should all do the same.
Other actresses such as Blake Lively and Emma Thompson came forward to say they too had been harassed and violated in a number of despicable ways by Weinstein. In the last eight days, the number of allegations against Harvey Weinstein has increased immensely, with numerous celebrities sharing their stories. So why hadn’t they come forward before?
Well, it’s all down to so-called rape culture. In simple terms this has came to mean the victim is blamed more than the actual criminal is. Rape culture is very real and still very much alive; according to statistics, out of every 100 assaults only one rapist is actually sentenced. (1)
These women didn’t come forward as they believed that next to nothing would be done about it. They believed that they would be harassed for having the courage to speak up and that they were also scared for themselves, as up until recently Weinstein had been a very powerful man in Hollywood.
In unusual fashion of Hollywood, where abusers more often than not get away with their grisly crimes, Weinstein has been fired from his and his brother’s production company.
On Sunday, Harvey Weinstein was discharged due to the several sexual assault claims that are now leading investigations in both the USA and the UK. His brother said that he and the rest of his company are keen to detach themselves from Harvey. Weinstein’s wife, Georgina Chapman, has also left the accused producer.
Undoubtedly there is much more to this scandal, and it is anticipated that within the next few days we will see justice for a number of Weinstein’s victims.
