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Sexual Assault and Harassment in Hollywood


John from Cincinnati

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On 10/16/2017 at 9:00 AM, Ryan said:

Not to be blunt, but the other person did the right thing in that situation, what if it had been what they thought it was? Do nothing? That doesn't cut it.

I actually agree with you. They did the right thing. 

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And, now that I've responded twice more, lemme apologize for my part in sidetracking this conversation. What Weinstein did was beyond awful and that should be the focus of the thread not my overheard interaction with a friend. 

Lemme reiterate - women need to encourage to come forward and guys like Harvey need to be forever removed from having any influence on anything. 

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10 hours ago, Casey said:

Roy Price, an associate of Harvey Weinstein's who ran Amazon Studios, has resigned amidst allegations of sexual harassment.

It is a systemic epidemic.

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15 hours ago, Tabe said:

Who said it frames my entire opinion? You said that, I didn't. 

I merely said "yep, it's easy to get accidentally accused and here's an example". Nothing more. 

What does it have to do with being accused of securely harassment accidentally? All you gotta do is change a couple words in the conversation that was overheard,that's what. 

 

Edit: never mind :rolleyes:

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On ‎10‎/‎17‎/‎2017 at 12:25 AM, _MJ_ said:

For the people that asked why no one reported it.

Powerful Hollywood types are fucking scary apologists.

I'd love to be able to punch people I didn't like in the face and when those people ask other people why I did it, they can say, "Oh, that's just JT."

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She was my daughter's age when that shit happened to her the first time.

If McKayla was my kid, I'd probably be into my fifth or sixth year of my 25 year sentence for Murder One right about now.

I know it's not justice, but I'm not sure if I could allow Dr. Pedo to live long enough to stand trial.  I know it's stupid and I wouldn't be able to help my kid heal and move on with her life if I was incarcerated for the rest of my life, but it's hard not to be protective in really dumb ways when it comes to your children.

Hell, I went apeshit in the office of the principal of my daughter's middle school last year when he tried to suspend her for three days for fighting after she rugby punted the school bully in the balls.

Just like I taught her to..

If something like that ever happened to my daughter, I'd fucking set an all time new standard for crazy homicidal fathers.  I'd be a case study in a psychology book.  Maybe even be the subject of a YouTube video..

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This is something that happened at my job yesterday.  We had to do a sexual harassment course online, and about 3 minutes after I finished one of my coworkers decided to give a graphic demonstration on how a mammogram machine works.  This woman stood in the kitchen squeezing her boob over and over again as I was thinking, this is exactly the type of behavior that they just warned us about.

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We are a nation of mixed messages, brah.

On the one hand, you don't want women to feel ashamed of their bodies and you really do want them to take those sorts of precautions like self examination for the sake of their health.

On the other hand, there are some things you really should do in the privacy of your home or somewhere out of sight.  Do I really have to see you check your breasts for lumps right there in the break room?

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29 minutes ago, J.T. said:

We are a nation of mixed messages, brah.

On the one hand, you don't want women to feel ashamed of their bodies and you really do want them to take those sorts of precautions like self examination for the sake of their health.

On the other hand, there are some things you really should do in the privacy of your home or somewhere out of sight.  Do I really have to see you check your breasts for lumps right there in the break room?

It all started with her husband having dental work done, and how much dental work sucks.  Then it went to how much MRIs suck.  Then she looked at us and said, "You know what really sucks? A mammogram."  Then she went on and on simulating how the machine smashes a breast with her hands, and me and my coworker walked funnily back to our desks wondering how that just happened.

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I was told at a job at a university, where I was the only male staff, that I had "a problem with having a female for a supervisor."  This was some ongoing narrative that the supervisor hung onto despite no evidence to the contrary.

One day, I was given an HR complaint that I do not socialize with the other staff.  I stated this was untrue, as I got along great with two other colleagues and spoke w ith them almost daily.  The issue was around lunch, how I "never took lunches in the break room with other staff".  I take working lunches, always had.  But I agreed to "do better."

The first day I did this, the entire hour's topics among my supervisor and three other female student health dept staff was gynecological exams and male students they thought were "delicious" (the supervisor's input).  I skipped the next day's lunch.

HR and the supervisor called me in for another meeting, where the supervisor said that I did sit in on lunch, but I didn't engage in team building.  (It was like the "bare minimum of flare" scene in "Office Space".)  I said something to the effect of how listening to graphic discussions on pap smears and hot boy students that looked "delicious" should warrant more than a participation trophy from her.  I heavily implied that I would be filing a harassment complaint the next time that happened.  Unfortunately, I was only 2 months into a 6 month probation, in a right-to-work state.  I was shit-canned at the end of shift on the very day that my probation was up.

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1 hour ago, nate said:

One day, I was given an HR complaint that I do not socialize with the other staff.  I stated this was untrue.

Even if that were true, one does go to one's place of business with the intent of making friends.  One goes to one's place of business in order to earn a living.

That environment was the very definition of a hostile workplace.  You had grounds to file an EEO complaint.

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I didn't know that at the time, but then, some of what happened (like the above scenario) I wasn't even sure what I was facing.  I just knew I felt alternately disgusted, disheartened, belittled ... all kinds of negative things, everyday.  But I never processed it as being "abused".  I figured it was just the growing pains of learning my way around a new job.

2 hours ago, J.T. said:

Even if that were true, one does go to one's place of business with the intent of making friends.  One goes to one's place of business in order to earn a living.

That environment was the very definition of a hostile workplace.  You had grounds to file an EEO complaint.

 

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1 hour ago, nate said:

I didn't know that at the time, but then, some of what happened (like the above scenario) I wasn't even sure what I was facing.  I just knew I felt alternately disgusted, disheartened, belittled ... all kinds of negative things, everyday.  But I never processed it as being "abused".  I figured it was just the growing pains of learning my way around a new job.

I'm sorry you had to endure that, man.

As I alluded to in another post, there are some institutions where this sort of culture is embedded to the point that even the structures within an institution designed to protect workers ultimately fail.

You refused to be groomed by the organization and did not absorb the culture or accept their behavior as status quo, so you were tagged as having a lack of esprit du corps.  Your pleas to HR fell on deaf ears because they were part and parcel of the culture that you did not want to be a part of.

The folks at the HR were giving you the "Oh, that's just Harvey being Harvey" bit from that disturbing testimonial from that Angie Everheart YouTube clip.

It is difficult to combat this sort of thing in a Right To Work state, but Right To Work does not equate to Right To Harass and third party sexual harassment is still very fucking illegal.  If I tell a sexually offensive joke to someone who is receptive to the joke and someone else overhears me and gets offended, I am still liable.

Just because you weren't the subject of the ladies' locker room talk doesn't mean that you weren't a victim of harassment.

If it were me and this wasn't a long time ago, I'd still chat with the EEO and see if you can still file a grievance.

 

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10 minutes ago, nate said:

I appreciate your feedback, J.T.  Thanks, man.

Here is a link to the EEOC's website starting off with the official federal law definition of sexual harassment..

Arm yourself with some knowledge. 

If Its not too late to file a grievance, please contact them as soon as you can.

One of the biggest fallacies that most people buy into is that men cannot be sexually harassed and that is not true. 

That supervisor acts the way she does because she controls the climate of the office and she is emboldened to the point that she does not fear reprisal.

That is a power issue; not a gender issue.  It is all about control, not role reversal or female empowerment or whatever fucking reason she's using to justify her behavior.

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Holy shit.  She's not there any more, and I've moved on, but there used to be a secretary in the medical department at a jail I used to work at that made anti-male jokes/complaints at work, to me, around me, irrespective of "mixed company" to the point I was VERY often uncomfortable.  I wish I'd had this then.

Damn.  I'm seriously woke, as the kids say these days.  Double damn.

Time has escaped from me being able to use this for that university job, but I'm keeping this in mind going forward.

Seriously, this has helped.  I was afraid of putting all that out there (derailing the thread, making shit all about me, getting a "your situation was nothing like this" feedback from some or "don't be a p*ssy" from others), but if nothing else happens today, this was a really good day.  It may seem extreme, for the small info I've put out there, but I feel like I've gotten a sense of (for lack of a better term) closure (maybe "resolve?") about that shitty time.

I feel good.  I can't say it enough.  I feel good.

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10 minutes ago, nate said:

 "don't be a p*ssy" from others).

One of the first things you learn in EEO training is that the people that say this are only out to indoctrinate you. 

Their mission is either to get you to either endorse or ignore bad behavior. 

You don't have to do either.  You have the right to work in a professional place of business where the only things you have to worry about are doing your job and earning a respectable wage in exchange for your labor.

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3 hours ago, nate said:

One day, I was given an HR complaint that I do not socialize with the other staff.  I stated this was untrue, as I got along great with two other colleagues and spoke w ith them almost daily.  The issue was around lunch, how I "never took lunches in the break room with other staff".  I take working lunches, always had.  But I agreed to "do better."

This is an insane company and you should have just left at that point.  HR getting involved in who is or is not making friends is way over the line.

A PSA to anyone: HR is not your friend.  They are there to:

1) Make employees think someone is on their side, keeping them docile and serving as an early warning system to the company, letting them keep tabs on employees who may be thinking of leaving or making trouble.

2) Cover a company's ass, from a legal perspective

So if something is going bad at your company for you, and it's not actionable (i.e. you're not in a protected class and being harassed), your best bet is to get your resume ready and get moving, because HR is not there to help you.  HR will only help you IF you have an issue that you can sue over.

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Well, I wouldn't say that HR is not ever your friend, but you do have to remember that they are a part of the institution you are squaring off against so your relationship with them could be adversarial in the matter of resolving grievance..

It's like in The Matrix where Morpheus says that if you're tied to the system, you're either an Agent or you are a potential Agent.

However, even they have to come to the realization that they cannot defend behavior that is illegal prima facea and actionable.

So yeah, they will help you if you have an issue that you can sue over and you'd hope that would be because they do not want to turn a blind eye to illegality.

In reality, I agree that in most cases there is a lot of CYA and risk mitigation going on.  I think you can count on HR to do the right thing if only to prevent you from bankrupting the company with a lawsuit or avoid dealing with the negative backlash of having one of their establishment figures disgraced or dragged away in handcuffs.

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