Five years ago, hundreds of women began making public what had been an open secret for decades in the entertainment industry and other social or business fields: the culture of bullying. Far from closure, movement #Me too gain strength now with a new wave of causes which include the spoiled Harvey Weinstein.
The film producer, sentenced in 2020 by a New York court to 23 years in prison in the movement’s best-known case, has been in the throes of Monday a retrial in Los Angeles (USA) accused of eleven counts of rape and sexual abuse of five victims.
His return to court, just when it will be done five years of complaints that led to its downfall as one of the most important men in Hollywood, proves that the #MeToo label (Me too) it is much more than a slogan momentary, says Aya Gruber, professor of law at the University of Colorado (USA).
“The most important achievement of #MeToo has been to raise awareness of how the powerful use their tools to sexually abuse women and have created a public concept that instead of embarrassing the victims, it embarrasses the abusers “, explains the author of the book “The Feminist War on Crime” (The feminist war on crime).
More on the bench
In the coming weeks, the plaintiffs will also pass through the US courts. Danny Masterson, Kevin Spacey and director Paul Haggis. All accused of alleged sexual harassment and abuse offenses following the same pattern of intimidation and dynamics of power abuse.
One day after the start of Weinstein’s trial, in the same building, the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Center in Los Angeles, the oral hearing of the case of Masterson, the protagonist of the series “That ’70s’ Show” arrested in 2020 for three alleged rape offenses at his Hollywood Hills home.
The actor, who lost a million dollar contract with Netflix when the accusations came to light, he always denied his guilt and claims that everything is due to a campaign organized by Church of Scientology after his sudden departure.
But if something has reached #MeToo it is accelerate the fall times Among all those that are reported: Kevin Spacey has left the cast of the series in which he starred, “House of Cards”, as soon as the first complaints against him have emerged and, in addition, he must pay the producer 31 million dollars for violation of the contract.
“It has created an environment in which many women they broke down their barriers and spoke of the abuses they have suffered. The consequence was that many people began to realize that there was a reality that was there that they didn’t want to face, “says Jennifer Becker, senior attorney and chief legal officer of Legal Momentum, the oldest legal advocacy group for women in the United States United States.
Beyond the show
Two Oscar-winning Spacey will testify this month in a New York court over a lawsuit filed by an actor in the United States other than the trial which is also open in the UK. His case shows that #MeToo It also hit the LGTBQ collective Y It went beyond the show.
Due to the virality of the internet and stories involving famous people not only in the US, but around the world, #MeToo has been a movement “truly international” Aya thinks. “In every country, we have seen women talk openly about the abuse and harassment they have had to keep secret for fear of being blamed,” she adds.
The fall of the politicians
The fall of politicians like Andrew Cuomo, governor of New York, and Frank Jensen, mayor of Copenhagen; and entrepreneurs like Laurent Potdevin, CEO of Lululemon, and Brian Krzanich, CEO of Intel, and even sports stars like US gym coach Larry Nassar, are just a few examples of the chips that have fallen into this domino.
As complaints continue to pile up in the courts, gender experts agree that the next step for #MeToo is enter the legislative chambers. For the time being, the United States Congress has already passed a law regulating the protocol by which companies respond to cases of harassment.
“If women continue to be underrepresented and without reaching positions of power, the dynamics of vulnerability will continue to be favored where situations of abuse or harassment are more frequent and it will not be possible to move towards equality “, says Becker.
Javier Romualdo and Guillermo Azábal, EFE
ap
Source: Clarin
