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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsReese Witherspoon, Jennifer Lawrence Share Sexual Assault, Harassment Stories
Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Lawrence are adding their voices to the growing list of major Hollywood stars who are coming forward with their stories of sexual harassment and sexual assault within the industry.
On Monday, both Witherspoon and Lawrence got candid about their respective experiences as young acting hopefuls at the Elle Women in Hollywood event, noting that they were encouraged at the time to keep quiet about their encounters.
"When I was much younger and starting out, I was told by the producers of a film to lose 15 pounds in two weeks," Lawrence said at the podium, where she was accepting the magazine's cover honor. "One girl before me had already been fired for not losing enough weight fast enough, and during this time a female producer had me do a nude lineup with about five women who were much, much thinner than me. And we all stood side by side with only paste-ons covering our privates."
-snip-
Fellow Oscar winner Witherspoon, for her part, revealed that she had been sexually assaulted by a director when she was just 16 years old and that the recent headlines surrounding Harvey Weinsteins inappropriate behavior had brought those memories back.
"I have my own experiences that have come back to me very vividly and I find it really hard to sleep, hard to think, hard to communicate a lot of the feelings that Ive been having about anxiety, honest, the guilt for not speaking up earlier," she said. "[I feel] true disgust at the director who assaulted me when I was 16 years old and anger at the agents and the producers who made me feel that silence was a condition of my employment. And I wish that I could tell you that was an isolated incident in my career, but sadly it wasn't. I've had multiple experiences of harassment and sexual assault and I don't speak about them very often."
http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/reese-witherspoon-jennifer-lawrence-on-assault-harassment-w509275
True Dough
(17,305 posts)It's sickening that it ever existed, let alone persisted for so long.
niyad
(113,336 posts)silence.
MFM008
(19,816 posts)Even I do.
I bet YOU do to.
Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(108,033 posts)I'm a guy but yes I agree such behavior occurs more than many people realize or care to admit.
MFM008
(19,816 posts)just speaking in general..................
Eliot Rosewater
(31,112 posts)pretty easy to figure out who did this.
I wont say it here but real easy, one of two actually.
Men in general but especially rightwing thinking men, simply dont like women. They worship them as in mom or pedestals or they fear and dislike them or BOTH. For the most part, that is. Some men are better at this than others but most are pretty messed up about it and since men so often have physical and financial superiority to women it makes the problem REAL bad.
By superiority I mean men are often in a position to force women into doing things for a job and are more often than not physically able to force them. Not always, of course.
If I was wrong about it being most, we wouldnt have
https://www.rainn.org/statistics/victims-sexual-violence
Most is 51%, if it isnt most it sure as hell is many MANY. It isnt just those who would rape but those who fell superior and use their positions to keep women down at work and so on.
B2G
(9,766 posts)What you are doing is making excuses.Hollywood is a cesspool, and it is overwhelmingly liberal.
This isn't about politics. It's about power. The sooner that is acknowledged, the better.
LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)Politics were not assigned, and were at best, merely mentioned in passing.
You're confusing social forces and cultural norms with politics.
B2G
(9,766 posts)I've seen several posts stating that Weinstein wasn't a true liberal, so just stop defending that shit.
ProfessorGAC
(65,076 posts)The term "casting couch" has been in common parlance since i was a kid, and i'm 61 years old. This type of dreadful behavior has been going on for decades.
Nobody in their right mind would be surprised by this and only a troglodyte would cast doubt or aspersions on the women coming foward.
Joe941
(2,848 posts)I expect much more of this type of behavior from the tRump era. This is on Trump.