"The Weinstein effect": how it changed the world

Assoсiate Professor

Chuvash State University named after I. N. Ulyanov

Russia, Cheboksary

Law faculty

Chuvash State University named after I. N. Ulyanov

Russia, Cheboksary

«ЭФФЕКТ ВАЙНШТЕЙНА»: КАК ОН ИЗМЕНИЛ МИР

Without doubt, the end of 2017 will be remembered as the time when famous actors, producers, politicians, comedians and musicians were accused in sexual harassments. The term «Weinstein effect» came into use to describe global trend in which people come forward to accuse famous or powerful men of sexual assault and harassment. Some people even say that this phenomenon is the tipping point and it has already had strong impact on current social relationships [3, 37]. Is it really a worldwide revolution or just a short-term yellow press scandal?

The wave of sexual allegations began in the United States in October 2017, when mass media reported on sexual allegations against famous film producer Harvey Weinstein. Since then, 150 have been accused of sexual misconduct, ranging from inappropriate texts to groping to rape [1, 578]. The list of the accused celebrities includes Kevin Spacey, Ben Affleck, Dustin Hoffman, Oliver Stone, Steven Seagal, James Franco, Woody Allen and many others.

Harvey Weinstein, the one who made this scandal so famous, was one of the most powerful producers of the Hollywood, who achieved international fame as an independent film producer and co-founder of Miramax Films and The Weinstein Company. In October 2017, The New York Times reported that more than a dozen women accused Weinstein of sexually harassing, assaulting, or raping them. Many other women in the film industry afterwards reported similar experiences with Weinstein. Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow, Lena Headey, Kate Beckinsale, Eva Green were among them. As a result of these accusations, Weinstein was fired from his production company, expelled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, resigned from the Directors Guild of America, his wife Georgina Chapman insisted on a divorce. The Police Department opened a criminal investigation.

But here is an interesting fact: Harvey’s sexual harassments were known among celebrities long before the scandal started. But why did the women keep silence for so long and started to speak with one voice only now? Because of the past decades Weinstein was one of the most powerful and influential persons in film industry. As a producer he was responsible for such masterpieces as «Pulp Fiction», «Reservoir Dogs», «Jane Eyre», «Good Will Hunting», «Shakespeare in Love», «The Lord of the Rings», «Gangs of New York», « The Aviator», « The King’s Speech» and many others. His movies brought more than 300 Oscar nominations. He was the one who introduced to the public one of the best modern directors – Quentin Tarantino. So, most actresses agreed to his sexual offers and didn’t tell anyone about them because they hoped that he would help them with their film career [6, 80].

But since 2015 he didn’t produce any successful movie and his company started to lose profits. And now, when he lost the power he had in film industry, sexual accusations immediately happen. It means that our society is ready to tolerate and suffer from powerful people, but once such people lose their power – everyone accuses them. The same effect was in the 60s, when people started to talk about Stalin’s sins and crimes only after his death. However, «The Weinstein effect» radically changes the situation. We can already talk about growing resistance to what was considered normal and almost socially approved in the relations between those who have power and those who depend on it: filmmakers and actors, employers and employees, husbands and wives.

The other famous person who was accused in sexual harassments is famous actor Kevin Spacey. Anthony Rapp said that Spacey, being drunk, made a sexual advance toward him in 1986, when Rapp was 14. Some similar accusations were made afterwards saying mostly about events that took place in the 80s. Kevin Spacey didn’t remember these events but he apologized for his possible inappropriate behavior. After that he was expelled from the cast of «House of Cards», web television series, where he played a leading role. Spacey was also removed from an upcoming Ridley Scott film, «All the Money in the World», which had already been shot and was replaced by Christopher Plummer. Now his career is totally ruined because film companies don’t want to deal with actors that are associated with scandals, especially sexual.

However, no one pays attention to the fact that his guilty was not even justified. It seems to us, the most important negative effect of this struggle against harassment is that we forget about the presumption of innocence. Thanks to mass media and wave effect we treat a person as guilty without even having enough information, proving his guilty. Such scandals have no future, except screaming headlines in newspapers [10, 104; 11, 303].

Sometimes struggle against harassment goes too far. For example, one mother has asked to remove the fairytale «Sleeping Beauty» from the classes of younger children at her son’s school as it has an inappropriate sexual message. She claims that the prince kissed the Sleeping Beauty without her permission, against her will. It’s a perfect example of how reasonable from the beginning campaign turns into something grotesque and even absurd [7, 154; 2, 30].

So, as you can see, sexual harassment is on of the most actual problems nowadays. Consequently, «The Weinstein effect» has strong impact on our life. Moreover, it has already changed standard relations between men and women. In our opinion, the future trends of this phenomenon are:

• 1)    the equal rights of men and women will be not only de jure, but also de facto;

• 2)    the relations between those, who have power, and those, who depend on them, will be regulated with special care by inventing law enactments and monitoring bodies;

• 3)    more famous actors, producers, directors, politicians will be accused with what they’ve done in the distant past;

• 4)    mass media, social flash mobs will become much more effective in shaping public opinion [4, 169];

• 5)    sexual harassment in the workplace will imply a higher degree of punishment;

• 6)    being the victim of sexual harassment will not be anymore socially condemned or something to be ashamed with.

To sum up, the world will be much more correct, official and formal, but less genuine place.

Our life is pretty much like a house of cards. Building it, we should be absolutely sure in every card we put because one fallen card ruins the whole house. And so is our life, where we should be very careful with every step and action we make, every word we say, because one minor mistake can ruin everything [8, 146; 9,252]. The consequences may take place immediately or in months, years, even decades.

The widespread silence of harassment by influential people through threats to destroy a career was considered normal for Hollywood. But only now celebrities begin to openly acknowledge the danger of such a blurred line of acceptable behavior. Public statements by actresses prompted colleagues to get rid of fear and also talk about the facts of harassment. The victims found a voice and strength to speak directly [5, 63]. The wave of support after such confessions has risen so high that it is already impossible to ignore the fact of a revolution within the industry.

Of course, the changes won’t be lightning fast. Sexism in Hollywood is still thriving, as is abuse of power: for example, accused of pedophilia Woody Allen still works in Hollywood. Now we are convinced that a high position cannot always protect from total public condemnation and total loss of reputation. What is more important, dozens of such not yet caught "Harvey" are convinced of this and remember Vietnamese proverb «The higher you get, the harder you fall».