Once you have a phenomenon like the “Weinstein Effect” named after you, it’s pretty obvious that the phenomenon itself is not about you. It’s about a pattern, in this case a social pattern exhibiting itself in the society of the rich and famous. Even Donald Trump is being accused of suffering from the Weinstein effect.
As described by Wikipedia: “The Weinstein effect is a global trend in which people come forward to accuse famous or powerful people, mostly men, of sexual misconduct. The term came into use to describe a worldwide wave of these allegations that began in the United States in October 2017, when media outlets reported on numerous sexual abuse allegations against film producer Harvey Weinstein. Described as a ‘tipping point’ or ‘watershed moment’, it precipitated a ‘national reckoning’ against sexual harassment. USA Today wrote that 2017 was the year in which ‘sexual harassment became a fireable offense’.”
What makes many of the sex scandal stories surfacing in the media suspicious are many of the other factors at play that get no air play.
Most significantly, since when are “sexual assault,” “inappropriate behavior,” “misconduct” and “rape” all considered equally serious? These are extraordinarily different acts, and the failure to distinguish clearly between has many negative consequences.
As warned by Ross Douthat in Dec 6/17’s National Post, “we’re on a path to criminalizing normal relations between the sexes. In the New Yorker, Masha Gessen warned about a ‘sex panic’ that might ‘criminalize bad sex and trivialize rape.’”
Absolutely so. Failing to create and maintain the necessary distinction between “inappropriate” behavior and criminal behavior (physical coercion that obviates consent) is an affront to both justice and to the victims of true criminal acts.
To add fuel to the fires of the Weinstein Effect, our public “sex educators” indoctrinate young students about gender issues, sex techniques (including masturbation) and other matters related to procreation and the sex act, while appropriate and innocent relationships between children of the opposite sex is forbidden.
Many schools have adopted “no hugging no touching” policies for children in elementary schools, going so far as to not permit the word “girlfriend” to be used by young boys in describing their own relationships with their friends of the opposite sex.
These and many other considerations go lacking in the daily media barrage of “sexual misconduct allegations.”
When all we ever know is one side in the Hollywood allegations, it’s refreshing to hear Danielle and Robert look and some of the other ins and outs of the Weinstein Effect in a way that creates a perspective closer to being Just Right.
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