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No, the women Harvey Weinstein victimized are not partly responsible.
Variations on a misogynist theme, and why they’re all wrong.
Here in 2017, most people seem to know better than to respond to rape or sexual assault accusations with “Well, look what she was wearing, she was asking for it.” But since the truth about Harvey Weinstein broke, I’ve heard more than one man — self-described Progressives, for the most part — argue that Weinstein’s victims, at least some of them, share the blame.
I’ve seen several variations on this argument.
The first is pretty old fashioned: “Women should know better than to take a private meeting in a producer’s hotel room.” A variation on the classic “What was she doing in that [alleyway/part of town/bedroom],” this one suggests that young female actors, invited to meet with the most powerful producer in Hollywood, should have dictated the terms of that meeting by insisting on meeting in a public space. In doing so, it completely ignores the power imbalance that is core to Weinstein’s whole strategy.
The second is related to the first, but more subtle: “These women took those meetings because they wanted to advance their careers.”
Well, yes. Why else would a young actor — or anyone else in Hollywood — take a meeting with a…
