Weinstein Confusion

There are so many things about the Harvey Weinstein scandal that I don't understand that it's beyond comprehension. You know the scandal, I'm sure. Harvey Weinstein is an American film producer and ex-studio executive. He was rich and paid big bucks to create Miramax, produce films, and support a variety of social issues such as AIDS, juvenile diabetes, and MS. He was a major supporter of campaigns for the Clintons (both of them for multiple presidential runs) and Obama and John Kerry. And then the other shoe dropped. A long list of women headed by many prominent names, among them folks like Ashley Judd, Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow, accused him of sexual assault. He was accused, essentially, of being the epitome of the "casting couch" image. The list continues to grow. In the wake of the devastation he has been fired from several jobs, released from several positions, and his wife left him. Politicians who enjoyed his support have distanced themselves, many returning the money he donated to their cause. The headline from the New York Times shouts, "Harvey Winstein's Fall Opens the Floodgates in Hollywood." Alyssa Milano started a campaign labeled "#MeToo" for women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted in some way to simply tweet "#MeToo" as a show of solidarity and support for all women who have experienced the same. It just goes on and on.

It's not like this is new. We've recently heard very similar accusations regarding names like Roger Ailes, Bill O'Reilly, and Bill Cosby. Just the other day the 2012 Olympics women's gymnastics gold medal winner, McKayla Maroney, accused her team doctor of repeatedly molesting her and others have popped up with the same story about him. This isn't new. It's as old as humans have been around. But it is bad. So what's the confusion?

I don't understand the furor over it. No, not that there should be furor; that there should be furor now. Why has this not been addressed loudly and forcefully when it happened? When it happened before? When it happened decades ago? When it was happening 50 years ago or more? Why now?

I don't understand why we as a society that knows about this make it so difficult for these women and girls to be able to come forward with their complaint rather than having to endure years of this kind of abuse. Why did they let that happen? Why did we let that happen? Quentin Tarantino said, "I knew enough to do more than I did." Why did he not do? The feminists with their "rape culture" that turns everything into rape, from the actual rape by the Weinsteins of the world to the consensual relations between a married couple aren't helping¹. Why have we so blurred the lines so that "Rape!" may or may not be?

I don't understand why we're surprised. The "casting couch" concept of women getting into movies by way of sex with those who can get them into movies has been around since movies began in the early 20th century. The "Who do I have to sleep with to get this job?" notion has lived for a long time. "Surprise!" -- not really. The idea is so ingrained in the Hollywood image that there has even been a monument near Hollywood and Highland in Hollywood called "The Road to Hollywood" with the subtitle, "How some of us got here" that is ... a couch. (Hollywood woke up and removed it this month.) This is Hollywood. Why are we surprised?

I don't understand why the single largest influence on American morality for the past century has been Hollywood. Oh, not Hollywood literally, but Hollywood as an idea -- movies, television, the entertainment industry. We know that Hollywood is morally bankrupt. We know that they have always pushed the limits of morality. And studies have shown that the entertainment industry from Hollywood movies and popular television to everyday Internet porn have absolutely changed the American moral mind by simply making immoral acceptable. "Show it to them enough and make it seem normal and they'll accept it." It's Hitlerian: "If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed." And we do. We believe it in droves, like mindless sheep. "Oh, oh, I know! Let's take the source known for its sexual abuse of its own people and its loose morality as our trailblazer for our national moral views! Yeah, that's a great idea!" I don't understand that at all.

The things that Weinstein is accused of are horrible. The things that so many names in America are accused of are horrible. The things that far too many unaccused have done are horrible. There ought to be better laws. There ought to be harsher punishments. More ought to be done. That is all true. I'm just afraid that, by making Hollywood our moral compass, we've undercut our societal ability to really address the problem by both being rightly outraged at it and considering it normal and expected. You know, like sinners do (Jer 17:9; 2 Cor 4:4; Eph 2:1-3; Rom 1:32).
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¹ I recently saw a drawing that showed a glass half-filled with liquid and half-filled with air. It gave three perspectives: 1) The optimist: "The glass is half-full." 2) The pessimist: "The glass is half empty." 3) The feminist: "The glass is being raped." It would be funny if it weren't so close to the reality of the problem. You can't call everything rape and then expect people to understand rape.